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Friday, February 10, 2012

Exercise and PVC's

It has been almost 14 months after my open heart surgery (quintuple by-pass) and I have not discussed my PVC issues lately!  I have done that on purpose!  After my cardiologist checkup in January, things seemed to be good.  My meds were fine, my energy level was fine, my chest has healed, and the PVC's were stabilizing.  So, the doctor said, see you next January!

Today I wore my heart rate monitor on my 50 minute walk, and here are the results:

Beginning heart rate - 78
Heart rate on flat ground & downhill - 86-95
Heart rate up uphill - 95-105
And NO PVC's!

For new viewers of my blog, here is a quick history:

Open Heart surgery - quintuple by-pass on Dec 13th, 2010
Started my cardiac rehab January 2011
Kicked out of cardiac rehab after a run of 4 PVC's
Doctor said - let heart heal, do not change meds - go back to rehab
Continued rehab & kept heart rate at 95-100
February I decided to test the heart in rehab & had another run of PVC's at - 110
Kicked out of rehab for the send time
Had another heart cath & stress test
Wore a halter monitor for 24 hours
All looked good for the by-passes & had a run of PVC's on the stress test at 120
Changed meds - Metoprolol went from 50 mg - 100 mg per day
Back to rehab & finished rehab
Back to work
Still had PVC's at around 90-95 heart rate
Talked doctor to take Metoprolol down top 50 mg per day in June 2011
Still had PVC's at around 100-105
Had another stress test & had run of PVC's at heart rate of 129
Another doctor visit in September - October
Wore a halter monitor for 24 hours
Lowered Metoprolol to 25 mg daily

So, I still have PVC's, but I seem to be having fewer!  And the Metoprolol (a beta blocker) seemed to just lower the heart rate that I had them!  So today was nice - NO PVC's.  I will continue to experiment with heart rate & monitor the PVC's at least once a week for the next few months.  The PVC's seem to be exercise induced!

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