Cardiac surgery recovery

No personal experience, but a swim colleague of mine had a valve op a few years back. He took a few weeks to get back into the full training sessions, but did a meet within maybe 3 weeks of return - not long at all, and our coach was panicking, but he went on to swim a season's best in his 100m fly. We all then decided that we should get new heart valves as it might help our times. Even those of us 20-30 years his junior.

USMS Treasurer Ralph Davis underwent a heart transplant and is still swimming. He has been featured on this web site a couple of times, here: forums.usms.org/.../t-7568.html www.usms.org/features.php

:angel:Good luck with your recovery.....listen to your body. When you need to rest - REST. Keep in mind healthy nutrition too. All the Best:applaud:

wj, i had an atrial-septal defect repaired jan 6 2009. i was out of the water for 2 weeks.... mainly to allow the femoral entry point to heal. good luck with your recovery.

Ronald Gainsford had a heart transplant in 1994 www.pittsburghpanthers.com/.../061809aab.html He still swims. Here is a little research I've done on the topic in summary: Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Diseases and Hypertension Cardiac conditions may be congenital or acquired and may be structural or functional. If a congenital heart problem exists, height, weight and motor development may be impaired. Cardiac conditions may include atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis in which the walls of the arteries become thick and lose elasticity. Hypertension is an increase of systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure. Physical Activity Longer warm up and cool down, follow intensity guidelines from the physician, increase duration before increasing intensity. Participants are responsible for the maximal allowable heart rate and target heart zone. Coaches should be aware of relaxation and breathing techniques to remind participants should they need to lower their heart rate. Heart Transplants The heart is healthy but lacks a nervous connection to the brain, which controls hear rate. Reinnervation may occur years after the operation. Participants will be unable to reach normal peak heart rates with exercise. The resting heart rate is higher than normal ranging 90 bpm – 130 bpm. With exercise, heart rate rises more slowly, due to the dependency on increased catecholamines in the blood. Decreased oxygen uptake delivers less oxygen to muscles that are exercising, causing a decreased exercise tolerance and lower anaerobic threshold yielding increased lactic acid. The participant breathes harder, but less oxygen is delivered to the bloodstream. Coaches should remember that warm-up and cool-downs are even more necessary than usual. Participants should avoid extreme changes in temperatures. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I just got my hands on an interesting new study "Water Exercise in Patients With and Without Cardiovascular Disease: Benefits, Rationale, Safety, and Prescriptive Guidelines". The study was conducted at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak Michigan. I haven't had a chance to read and digest it yet. There are a number of studies on the benefits and healing properties of aquatic exercise (lap swimming/Masters swimming is a form of aquatic exercise). Good luck on your recovery!

Wyane, I am scheduled for a mitral repair next month. Could you share more information about the procedure you had (i.e. was it robotic, where did you have it done), and about your recovery? Did you have any symptoms prior to the repair? Have you noticed any cardiac changes since the repair? I would also mention that a repair is different than a replacement. With a repair you are not on blood thinners or any other medication after the surgery.

Wyane, I am scheduled for a mitral repair next month. Could you share more information about the procedure you had (i.e. was it robotic, where did you have it done), and about your recovery? Did you have any symptoms prior to the repair? Have you noticed any cardiac changes since the repair? I would also mention that a repair is different than a replacement. With a repair you are not on blood thinners or any other medication after the surgery. Steve, Sorry to hear you're having some health issues. I'm not sure of the difference between repair and replacement but Jeff Farrell had his valve replaced with a bovine valve about 4 or 5 years ago (open chest) and came back swimming better than ever (24.1 50 free as a 71 yar old). Cav Cavanaugh just had this operation (orthoscopic) a couple of months ago and is back in the water. PM me if you need contact info for either of these gentlemen and they could give you more details. I cite them as resources because they both take competing very seriously as I know you do. Rich

Steve, I'm sorry to hear that you'll be facing surgery. Although it's major surgery, it's a pretty common one that most people come through very well. It just takes time (patients need patience). Per your request, here's more information about my particular situation. I hope that there is some useful information here.... The first sign of my mitral valve problem was noted as a heart murmur about 5 years ago. I eventually saw a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic Rochester (I live in Rochester), who diagnosed this as mitral valve prolapse and regurgitation from the results of an echocardiogram. Although not considered serious at that time, it was decided to repeat the test approximately yearly to monitor the situation. Last April, the situation was observed to have worsened significantly, despite the fact that there were no outward symptoms (e.g., still swimming laps, speed-walking and doing chores regularly, with no noticeable added effort). It was recommended that I see a surgeon at Mayo, who recommended that I have the surgery within the next 6 months while I was still otherwise fit and healthy (it was predicted that having the operation within this window of time would greatly improve my recovery rate). The chances of significant heart-related problems were predicted to increase if surgery wasn't pursued in a timely fashion. I opted to get it over with ASAP. I had regular through-the-sternum open-heart surgery on July 7. Fortunately, the Mayo surgeon was able to repair the valve rather than having to replace it. An angiogram prior to surgery revealed no need for a by-pass. The operation went very well. I was up and (slowly) walking the day after surgery, going faster and/or farther on subsequent days. Because so many of the upper body muscles connect to the sternum, I lost considerable upper body muscle tone over the six weeks in which I was subjected to a weight-lifting limit (to protect the sternum). Now that the limits have expired, I'm seeing my muscle tone improve, but more work is required. I've received good guidance on exercises from various sources (e.g., Mayo's cardiac rehab, cardiologist and physical therapist friends). Being fit before the surgery and being very motivated have helped. Unfortunately, I was one of the rare patients who ends up contracting an infection that was noted 2-3 days after surgery. This was serious enough that I spent an extra 11 days in the hospital. As part of the cure, the surface layer of part of my incision was reopened. I must still wait for the last scabbed area to heal before I can return to swimming -- boy, has it been hard waiting. There has been at least one string of posts at this discussion board about resting heart rate -- so I'll add something about my status. Prior to surgery, my resting heart rate was in the upper 40s. Now it's around 80. I've been told that one should expect some increase due to the heart having gone through some significant trauma; this increase should dissipate with time. But I don't think that that explains all of the big increase. Hopefully, my family doctor is right --- lap swimming will eventually bring my resting pulse back down again. Please let me know if you'd like more information.

I'd be extremely interested to read the experiences of swimmers who climbed back into swimming after undergoing cardiac surgery. I'm currently 50 years old. June 2009, I went to the hospital while having a heart attack. My heart stopped pumping, they brought me back, I was given angioplasty and a few stents. I went through cardiac rehab phase II, finished the program last November. I then went on with 5 times a week aerobic exercise. In December 2009 I began lap swimming for the majority of my one hour per day of cardio exercise. I'm currently swimming about 6-7 miles per week, in addition to stationary bike, elliptical and stairmaster, rowing. I also do strength conditioning with free weights and machines and lots and lots of mobility/stretching everyday. So it's been a year now, and I've dropped over 40 lbs, my BMI is currently a 28. I'm in better shape than I was at 35. I chose swimming for the majority of my cardio workouts because back when I was a kid I swam competitively and doing laps came easy as an adult, whereas running/jogging is tougher on my knees. Oh yeah...I also cut out eating processed foods about a year ago too. I keep my sodium intake under 2500mg/day for the most part.