It’s Christmas week, so let me wish you all a safe and happy holiday.
And let me also thank you for stopping by the blog. I’ve appreciated the many comments and suggestions along the way these past few months.
Much of what I’ve written about has been motivated by questions I’ve gotten from friends and readers. And that works well because it keeps things relevant. I’m still working gathering information about the topics listed to the right.
But this is your chance….
Please let me know what you’d like to read and learn about in the weeks ahead. Just submit a comment here or email me at the address to the right.
Again, Happy Holidays! Back in the New Year….
As a recent aortic valve (porcine) replacement patient (49 years old), I’m very interested in the rehab phase and exercise in particular. Any info in this area and how the body responds after heart surgery and healing would be great.
Z,
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll be sure to collect some thoughts about rehab after heart surgery and share them here at the blog.
A quick rely here, though…. Most people your age who have aortic valve replacement are able to exercise vigorously after operation. It can take a couple months to get back to feeling like you’d like to resume exercise. Your surgeon will want your sternum (breast bone) to get healed up before you do anything that puts stress on the chest and shoulders.
If you had your operation because of aortic stenosis (narrowing of the aortic valve), you may well be able to notice a BIG difference in your exercise tolerance even very early after operation.
Good luck!
1st…. love this Blog.. I’m an age group triathlete at the top of my class in most events. The information you provide helps me take much more into consideration as I train, eat and generally try to live a healthier lifestyle. I know one thing that haunts many age grouper triathletes is the sudden deaths of these otherwise extremely healthy individuals. Not due to the athletes heart condition but due to (i know this isn’t spelled right but hopefully you’ll know what I mean) Hyponetriosis(sp?) Something about to much hydration, together with an imbalance in electrolytes, put together with the common anxiety of a competitor.. almost like a perfect storm of bad events that trip healthy individuals into cardiac arrest. Hopefully your able to weed through all that! Thanks again for all the great information you continue to post.
oh.. one more thing… keep on tweeting!
Boat_mon,
Thanks for your kind comments.
You’re probably refering to “hyponatremia,” the situation where the blood level of sodium is low.
Another of the Endurance Corner’s crew of physician-athletes wrote a niece piece about hyponatremia at xtri.com:
http://www.xtri.com/coaches_display.aspx?riIDReport=6059&CAT=48&xref=xx
It’s a nice review of the subject.
I’ll keep using Twitter, but I’m still a relative novice at all things digital. You can help me build my readership by Re-Tweeting. It’s a work in progress!