Open heart surgery

[Jessiebrown]

I had a replacement aorta,aorta valve and repair mitral valve in December 2018, my breathing is still not good and Still have difficulty doing daily tasks,my main problem is when I went home I started to get terrible sweats which I have never had before,and put it down to part of recovery,but after nearly 2years I am still getting them worse than ever,none of the docs/specialists know what is causing them,they happen on and off all day and night,I can’t sleep and am so tired,I have had so many tests/blood tests but nothing shows up,I just wondered if it could be a reaction to the sternum wires,I do have reaction to strange things and this is the only thing I can come up with,I’m wondering has anyone had any thing similar or an help me , I am 74 and always been fit and active but this has really knocked me for six

[Ianc2]

Hi Jessie

Did you get the chance to do rehab after the operation?

[Jessiebrown in reply to Ianc2]

Hi, yes I started but I took a long time to recover the exercises had to do caused my heart rate to go too high,I have a bad back and couldn’t keep walking round the exercises they wanted me to do made me feel really bad, it’s stupid really as I still ride my old horse and don’t have a problem breathing it’s just seems to be walking especially up hill.

[080311]

Hi Jessiebrown

I had my Aortic valve replaced and bypass 4 years ago, I say they did something to my thermostat while I was on bypass I don’t feel the cold, ( I live in Scotland) 😂 mine isn’t sweating as much as not feeling cold. At night I tend to sleep on top of the duvet rather than under it!

My husband is the one saying the heating needs to go on not me anymore 😊 Breathing I carried on with my breathing exercises for quite a while after coming out of hospital there the exercises they gave me in hospital I called them huffing and puffing. Hope your medics can get a handle on what is going on.

Best wishes Pauline

[Jessiebrown in reply to 080311]

Thank you for replying, and hope you are well now.I still feel the cold but the sweats are real dripping sweats, hopefully soon someone will find the problem soon

Jessie

[Ianc2 in reply to Jessiebrown]

It took a good while for me to pick up my stamina. I eventually found a few flat paths (old railway lines concerted into paths) and I started off doing a daily mile , about 10 minutes out, 10 minutes back. When that becomes easy, I extended it to 15 minutes out, 15 minutes back, and so on. The hard part is doing it every day so you will need some good wet weather gear and waterproof footwear.

If you can keep at it , your distance will increase, your breathing will improve and start to feel fitter. It is not a quick and easy fix, more of a marathon, and the hard part is getting started. Give it a good go a a year or so for about and you might even find the hills are starting to become a bit less challenging and your weight starts to drop slightly .

[Tubbylardo in reply to 080311]

I wish I didn't feel cold .... since my AVR I am cold all the time. Properly uncomfortable cold.

[080311 in reply to Tubbylardo]

Oh that’s awful, there’s me complaining about being to hot and your too cold. Isn’t it odd, that we were both on bypass and our thermostat got altered😩I use to be the one wanting to put the heating on and now it’s my husband. I couldn’t decide wether it’s the medication or the op that did it😉

Pauline

[Cliff_G]

Hi Jessie. I had an aortic dissection Xmas 2017 with valve, ascending, arch replacement plus FET, and ever since have suffered boiling legs at night. I have to sleep with a 4 TOG quilt with open windows, and this is Scotland ! My docs never really react to this when I tell them.

I suspect with me it's just the body slowly resetting itself after what was a huge operation, but I have wondered about thyroid; that's the classic suspicion when temperature control isn't working, but all my thyroid test figures are fine.

Not sure about the sternum wires, I think there are plenty of serious candidates for what you describe before that's considered. Such an operation IS a big thing to get over.

What drugs are you on, did you have an arch replacement (or just ascending) and did you have any lung/pneumonia problems in or after hospital.

For me, I couldn't tolerate the beta blockers or statins and have much better exercise tolerance since I stopped. At one point, every broken paving slab was like a hill. My cardiac rehab took 5 months for an 8 week course!

I found Mirtazapine in a very low dose helped with my sleep.

[2islandboy in reply to Cliff_G]

I was on Mirtazapine for 18 months, low dose, for sleep. Worked great, BUT I craved carbs and grew a belly. Now with a 5cm aortic aneurysm discovered two weeks ago and surgery planned for April, if Covid subsides, my doc switched sleep med to trazodone and I have lost 10 lbs in two weeks. Lots of web info on Mirtazapine and weight gain. Just saying...

[Cliff_G]

Thanks, that's really interesting, I shall investigate. I've not put on a lot of weight, just a pound or two, but it's not reverting quite so easily when I curb the snacks.