I had open heart surgery in Dec 1018 I n Papworth. I had replacement aorta valve and repair on mitral valve, unfortunately they found what they called a huge bulge and had to do ascending replacement aorta , before my opp I was have it trouble breathing and doing simple tasks and dreadfully tired, my cardiologist said after my opp I would be able to breath better straight away, I did feel better in myself and not soo tired but I am still having trouble breathing and getting about,when I went back for the 6 week checkup I told my consultant I was still having problems he said they will get better but they have got worse,my heart thumps and and seems noisy,just getting into bed at night I lay there listening to it thumping, I am on bisoperlol ,I started on 2.5then3.7 and now on 5mg it improved it and I felt better for a couple of weeks but the thumping has started again,I have AF but thought the open heart surgery was going to fix it as I was going to have a maze but the opp had taken too long to be able to do it, I feel I’m going backwards,my legs are swollen all the time even with 4 water tablets and I really don’t feel well, I thought I was going to be sorted after the surgery but that is not the case. My local cardiologist is phoning me this week but she just alters my meds,I would like to go back to the surgeon who did the opp for his opinion so we will see what happens this week.
You all keep well love to you all xx
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Jessiebrown
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I also had my calcified bicuspid aortic valve replaced on November 3rd and have been less than thrilled with the results. At first I wasn't even going to do it but the doctors said I would have much more stamina, blah blah blah, so I did it. I'd say I feel about the same as I did before and it's been 6 months already. I have felt somewhat better since I started walking 2.1 miles downtown a couple of times a week, however. I've quite bicycling for now tho. Anyhow, just comparing notes I guess...
Sorry to hear of your difficulties. With your operation you have avoided anything worse happening to your aorta, so that's a plus.
Regarding your difficulties, such an operation takes a fair toll on the body and AF won't help your recovery. I have history of AF and though I had had an ablation which had fixed that, it came back post-operatively following my aortic dissection repair (big op!). I was put on Amiodarone, which I wasn't keen on, but it put me back into sinus rhythm and so far (3 years) I have not had any problems with it, and my recovery has come on a lot.
My feeling is that your recovery is being limited by your AF, especially since having both mitral and aortic valves done should indeed give you more energy straight away, and you have persistent leg swelling in spite of meds. which suggests poor circulation.
One other point, do you have asthma? Or any bouts of asthma-like symptoms in your past? Beta blockers such as Bisoprolol are contra-indicated in people with asthma, as they make asthma worse. I had to come off my bb's, with asthma as one reason. If you were marginally asthmatic before (i.e. apparently no asthma, but it was waiting in the wings) then beta blockers can uncover and reveal asthma. Worth bringing this up with your Doc and having a peak flow meter to check with, especially at night. Perhaps they could let you have a blue inhaler to help diagnose the problem.
If you are permanently in AF, beta blockers should ease the heavy beats you are experiencing, but they should not be allowed to do so at the expense of your quality of life. There are other options for both blood pressure and rate control, which the Cardiologist should tell you about. I had to come off Bisoprolol for this reason too, and have been a lot better since, and moved to Losartan.
Regarding your valve being noisy, did you have an artificial valve? These can be noisy but one gets used to it.
Thank you cliff for your excellent and informative reply, I will answer your reply when I can read it properly and digest ,I will let you know my medications and perhaps you might be able to answer some questions which I can’t seem to get answers for,I have asked my doc if I can change meds but he says they are doing their job,that may be but as you say at the expense of my quality of life which is pretty hard at the moment.keep well yourself I will be in touch x
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