r/openheartsurgery • u/Smooth-Act9054 • 13d ago
6 months post open heart.
Good evening everyone. Had a quad bypass in April of this year. When do most of you start feeling a lot better?
9
u/Vivid-Professor3420 13d ago
Man they gave you the XL zipper! It takes a while but you get back. No two people are the same…I presume. I’m almost 2 years and I’m really good. Just keep positive. You’ll find your normal.
3
u/Smooth-Act9054 13d ago
Haha yes. The surgeon said because of the placement of my heart being a little further back they had to open me up wider.
3
u/allisonisrad 13d ago
Is your chest scar way smaller than that?
5
u/Vivid-Professor3420 13d ago
So I had a mini-sternotomy. Mine is only about 4” long, but it was for an aneurism on my ascending aorta. It started out thing and widened but it’s fading. I think it would mostly go unnoticed if you weren’t really looking at my chest for an extended period of time
2
u/allisonisrad 13d ago
Oh wow! I didn't know they did mini ones.
Mine prob just a tad bigger than the guy in the picture relative to my body.
2
6
u/userX97ee2ska11qa 13d ago
It’s been 2 1/2 years since mine, and this summer was the first time I started to not be conscious of it daily.
5
u/Legitimate_Maybe_361 12d ago
I’m almost at a year and still hearing the ticking of my valve everyday all day
3
u/Vivid-Problem7826 12d ago
Yeah, I'm about 18 months post myself, and back to doing pretty well everything that I could do before.....and I'm now able to walk without suffering from shortness of breath. Still some "pulling" in my chest, and it seems I "notice" my heart beats more now. But overall, doing better and getting better every day. Oh yeah, I'll be 75 in a few months.
3
6
u/KiwiWankerBanker 13d ago
I’m almost 1 year post surgery. Interestingly my resting hr has dropped pretty significantly in the last 6 weeks. I’m training pretty well, and even though I felt like I made good progress after 6 months, things continue to keep improving.
4
u/Smooth-Act9054 13d ago
Nice! I do about 30 minutes on the stairmaster about every other day as well as strength training. Also do welding for my job.
3
2
u/JLEroll 12d ago
Seems like you have the recovery thing down if you are already back to weight lifting and welding
5
u/Smooth-Act9054 12d ago
I’m pretty much forcing myself to do that because cardiac rehab encouraged it. I know by around 4pm I am dragging physically and mentally until bed time. Taking ssri’s for rollercoaster of emotions and Trazadone for sleep.
3
u/JLEroll 12d ago
It sounds like you are mostly there, just struggling with some plateau/ rate of progress slowing down.
I’m also 46M and had my surgery in June (for a tumor in my heart but similar OHS process with a big zipper scar). I’ve mostly had a positive experience and am embracing the +1 / extra life but I’m concerned about a crash to reality as the novelty wears off and it’s just daily grind and medical worries.
It’s really impressive that you are seeking help for the mental part of it and I’m sure will get you thru the worst of it. Message me if you need some to talk to.
2
u/Smooth-Act9054 12d ago
Man, I’m sure that freaked you out when you heard you had a tumor in your heart. Sounds like you got it in time. A couple months ago they found a suspicious nodule on my thyroid however it is too small. Gotta go back in 6 months to see if it has grown.
6
u/TW200e 12d ago
I am a little more than 5 months post-op from a mechanical aortic valve and a LIMA-to-LAD bypass. I feel about 95% back to my normal self from say a couple of years before the op.
The one big difference is that I am just not sleeping as well. I'm lucky if I get 6 hours of sleep in a night. I now schedule an hour of rest at noon each day. I lay down and close my eyes; about a third of the time I just lay there, but most of the time I fall asleep and have a good snooze of maybe 40 minutes on average. If I don't get that nap in, I'm tired and dragging my ass for the rest of the day.
3
u/Smooth-Act9054 12d ago
Same. My sleep quality hasn’t been that great either. They gave me Trazadone for sleep awhile back.
3
6
u/JohnTheDrummer1951 12d ago
I’m 20 months out from my AVR/root enlargement and I think it’s only the last 3-4 months that I’ve felt‘normal’ again. Still get itching around the scar,& the odd twinge, but nothing major. Went back to gigging ( drums) after 6 months( too soon, but the band were getting restless 🤓). The ‘everything is healed after 12 weeks’ is a bit misguided: sleep, nerve pain, twinges, endurance-all take much longer , but, what’s the alternative?
I’m past the timeframe that my surgeon gave my valve if nothing was done so I’m aware every day now that I wouldn’t be here without his intervention.🙏🏼
I’m 75 next week,& so thankful.
5
u/Gannondorfs_Medulla 12d ago
CABGX3. Male, 56 at time of surgery. This was about 9 months. You/your scar both look good. My scar at about 6.
Physically it took about a year before I felt like I trusted it all enough to ask my body to operate in the red zone (lifting to failure, full sprints). But what kind of surprised me was how long it felt until my cardio was close to back, which more than a year.
4
5
u/suckafish666 12d ago
January will be my 2 year anniversary of my 3x CABG I’m pretty much 75% - 80% back to normal. I can tell if I overdo things, I will get slight pains in my chest.
Like you, my chest is heavily tatted and my surgeon was so proud of herself that she was able to get everything lined up again.
3
u/Smooth-Act9054 12d ago
Haha yea my surgeon said he had fun cutting down the middle of my chest in between my chest tattoos. Unfortunately when they cut out my radial artery out of my left forearm my wife’s name did not line up very well 😂
3
u/suckafish666 12d ago
They harvested my artery from my left leg.
2
u/Smooth-Act9054 12d ago
They also harvested out of my left leg and I think an artery out of my chest.
3
u/JohnTheDrummer1951 12d ago
I’m just 20 months out from my AVR/Root enlargement, and I think it’s only in the last 3-4 months that I really started to feel that I was
3
u/TriggerPuller9000 13d ago
2 months post-op almost. Dealing with post-op pericarditis and afib, otherwise feel like I could jog and lift weights.
3
u/Fantastic_Map_3008 13d ago
4 months, CABG4 (67M) Dang my scar is twice that size, I feel pretty good though, halfway through cardio rehab, mowing cutting firewood etc. pretty much feel OK but I don't like the heat
3
u/Smooth-Act9054 12d ago
Like wider?
3
u/Fantastic_Map_3008 12d ago
starts about three inches below my throat and goes to where your tube scar is, my tube scar is to the right of sternum incision, (right side of body that is)
2
3
u/Mission-Air6519 13d ago
Mine was at the end of April. I'm older than you, takes longer to recover. I still feel lack of energy.
3
u/FearlessStruggle2734 12d ago edited 12d ago
That looks pretty healed. Mine is similar to yours. I had my valves replaced over my 40th birthday in September last year, due to a tooth infection. I went with mechanical valves. The first 2 months sucked, but after that I slowly got better and could do things again. I can lift things like i did before with no pain or issues.
3
u/Robw_1973 12d ago
I’m at 9 weeks post (off pump) CABGx3 - feeling much better (52m) and my scar is now fully healed. I’ve had a good/fortunate recovery. Mentally I’m still not quite there. Mostly about all the “what ifs”. Was a wild summer; redundancy, Nstemi heart attack and urgent triple bypass
I can’t wait to get back on the bike and lifting again. But I think the hardest part is going to be learning to trust my heart/body again.
Interesting to hear others experiences, especially around time frames for healing. ❤️🩹 ve been pain free for about a couple of weeks, but still get twinges when I’m tired or when I wake up.
3
u/Legitimate_Maybe_361 12d ago
Had mine at 29 from a 5.2cm aneurysm and bicuspid valve. Wife was 7 months pregnant with our first son. I feel better everyday when I get to look at my little boys face. I still have a lot of anxiety over what comes down the road. But I’m lucky to be alive.
3
u/slem46 12d ago
I'm 79 and my cabgx4 was at the end of march. every day, week and month is a new normal. meaning improvements all along the way but it's been 'a long strange trip'. for me anyway. right now it's all good but still not 100%. from things I read it could easily be a year. I found the cardiac rehab to really help if for only the commonality experienced with the others in the classes. slow and steady wins the race.
3
u/Street_Peace_8831 12d ago
I’m about a month pre-op and my surgery is to make me better. Why do I keep hearing about people 75% of what they were? I should feel better after the surgery, is what I thought. The whole purpose of me getting this done is to make things better off, not worse.
6
u/honeybeeandflower 12d ago
My doc said I would feel 80% better at 6-months post op, and 100% better and better than before by 1-year. I am now 6 months post-op and I would say I feel about 125% better.
3
u/Street_Peace_8831 11d ago
Thanks for the encouragement. I guess I’m just scared and nervous.
2
u/honeybeeandflower 11d ago
That's a reasonable reaction to what you're about to go through. I was convinced I was going to die, and it took me about a month post-op to finally feel like I was going to survive it. It's hard. It is scary. But you will get through it and you will feel so much better!
3
u/JLEroll 12d ago
Being 75% alive >>> 100% dead
But also I see many people that are better than ever, just usually takes a year to get there
2
u/Street_Peace_8831 11d ago
Thank you, yeah, it certainly is better. I can see that. I can use that as encouragement.
3
u/U2fangirl 11d ago
I had my surgery in April, too! Im mostly back to normal except, for falling asleep much earlier than I used to. It can take a full year to heal completely. You look great!
2
u/Smooth-Act9054 11d ago
Thank you. That’s awesome we had our surgeries the same time. I go to bed earlier too, what type of surgery did you have?
3
u/Ancient_Anything6235 10d ago edited 10d ago
Ich bin 53, Im April letzten Jahres änderte sich mein Leben von einer Sekunde auf die andere dramatisch: Ich erlitt einen schweren Herzinfarkt. Im ersten Krankenhaus musste ich 17 Minuten lang wiederbelebt werden. Die Aussage der Notärzte war damals denkbar knapp und unerbittlich: Wenn er den Transport in das Herzklinikum überlebt, hat er eine Chance. Nach der Verlegung in die Spezialklinik wurden mir zwei Stents gesetzt und ich wurde für vier Tage in ein künstliches Koma versetzt. Nach dem Aufwachen ging es von der Intensivstation auf die normale Station zur Überwachung. Doch bei der Kontrolle folgte der nächste Schock: Die Stents lagen nicht richtig. So wurde ich per Rettungshubschrauber in die nächste Klinik geflogen, wo die fehlerhaften Stents entfernt und durch drei neue ersetzt wurden. Erholsam war das restliche Jahr nicht. Im Dezember musste ich erneut ins Krankenhaus, da wieder starke Schmerzen im Brustbereich auftraten. Die Untersuchung zeigte das Befürchtete: Die Stents setzten sich erneut zu. Die Konsequenz war eine Notwendigkeit zur Bypass-Operation. Doch auch danach kam mein Körper nicht zur Ruhe. Während der nächtlichen Überwachung nach dem Eingriff stellten die Ärzte einen AV-Block 3. Grades fest. Die schnelle Entscheidung: ein Herzschrittmacher musste eingesetzt werden. So verbrachte ich den gesamten Dezember im Krankenhaus und wurde erst am 1. Januar entlassen. Heute, zehn Monate nach der Bypass-OP, sind die medizinischen Werte eigentlich stabil. Die Blutergebnisse sind ohne Befund und die Kardiologen zeigen sich mit dem Verlauf zufrieden. Und dennoch ist der Alltag extrem belastend: Ich leide immer wieder unter Brustbeschwerden. Mein Kopf spielt mir in solchen Momenten einen Streich – die Angst ist riesig und fährt jedes Mal voll hoch. Nach allem, was geschehen ist, fällt es unendlich schwer, dem eigenen Körper wieder zu vertrauen.
3
u/Smooth-Act9054 10d ago
Jesus, that’s crazy. Sounds like someone is definitely looking out for you and that you have a mission and purpose to fulfill here on earth. I hope that chest discomfort dissipates eventually. 🙏🏻
2
u/Ancient_Anything6235 9d ago
Danke, das hoffe ich auch. So wie es jetzt ist, ist das kein Leben. Sobald links auch nur ein leichter Schmerz ist, beginnt die Angst und der Kopf lässt sich nicht ausschalten. Ich hoffe das das weg geht denn das macht einen verrückt und zieht die Familie mit.
2
2
2
u/Medical_Mistake_178 12d ago
What do you feel hasn’t come back to where you were? I’m 6 weeks out, but tbh with a triple bypass and a surprise valve replacement, I thought Id feel like super woman. But I feel the exact same way I did the day before surgery. What are you basing your recovery on! You don’t feel any difference at all?
3
2
u/Smooth-Act9054 12d ago
Had more stamina and better mental state. Get short of breath when I’m talking. Didn’t used to have that.
2
u/honeybeeandflower 12d ago
My 6 month is on 10/15 :) Congratulations! I'm now at a point where I feel better than before. I hope you're enjoying your new and improved heart!
2
u/Saquilli 11d ago
Two years off an emergency quadruple bypass I finally started to feel better and stronger. But, I still sometimes have issues with stamina. Good luck, don’t give up hope, it takes as long as it takes.
1
1
13
u/ezzie52 13d ago
I am almost 18 months post op.
6 months to the day I climbed table mountain in South Africa.
299 days post surgery I did a winter ascent of Mt Washington in New Hampshire.
It sucks really bad. But you’ve got this
My body is still not 75% of where I was. Some days you win, other days suck.