I had my 5 month follow up yesterday, surgeon asked me to do a single heel-lift just as he did 6 weeks ago, I said “I haven’t been doing these so its probably not going to happen” I was wrong, to my amazement I was doing single leg heel lifts, sure they weren’t really high but I was suprised just the same. My surgeon declared me healed and said he didn’t need to see me again.
While that is an accomplishment the biggest thing on my mind is that my wife just had heart valve replacement surgery (been looking for Norm’s blog site for this) And while its only been a week for her I’m amazed at how the body recovers with a little help from the doctors. I’ve seen my achilles repair and how I have recovered and I know many heart surgery recipients that recover and resume their activities.
I have another couple of PT sessions to attend but I’m basically at the point where I’ll be finishing the recovery on my own. As the weather warms up and I get back outside I’ll be looking to increase the jogging (now I only jog the last few minutes of a walk). I’m looking forward to rehabbing with my wife as we both bounce back, can’t wait until we run our first race again.
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All the best to both of you! She’ll likely be walking a LOT before she does any running. I recommend Cardiac Rehab starting in a few weeks. My other blog is at valvereplacement.org . It’s organized more on short “threads” than “blogs”, but I kept replying to my own thread to make a long narrative. Same handle as here, and the long one is called something like “Norm’s Story So Far. . .”.
Aortic valve? Tissue valve or mechanical? Will she be (or has she been) blogging there?
Norm
She has been on the heart valve surgery . com page and has a journal there. She has not posted an update since surgery, maybe this weekend she will do that, had a “little” allergic reaction that delayed it a few days so it was a bit of a long week! She had an aortic replacement and went with a tissue valve. I’ll have to look at the valvereplacement site to see if she has been on there. I’ll have hear read your story, she’ll be glad to hear the activity level that you have gotten back to, I know she is looking forward to getting back to “normal”. I have been looking into cardiac rehab facilities for her. I’ll be glad to go on the many walks with her, she was a marathoner so I havent been able to keep up with her in the past!!
http://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/journals/mystory/wendyray
Thanks for the link. I was aware of Adam’s book and his online marketing of it, but not the forum-type site. And my addiction to online heart-surgery is somehow much weaker than my addiction to this place, not sure why.
On the first anniversary of my heart-valve replacement, I played indoor beach volleyball, including a game or two of 2-on-2 with some excellent players! By doing that, I broke the only promise I made to my cardiac-rehab nurse who had been preparing me to return to competitive volleyball. I’d promised her I would NOT play 2-on-2, but I was there on a slow Sunday afternoon, and the choice was to hit the showers after a few games of 4-on-4, or shoehorn my way into a 2-on-2 game with the 3 hotshots who were hanging around. . . And it was WONDERFUL! (At first, I was disappointed that the guy and I lost an overtime cliff-hanger to the two gals, but I felt better after he told me that he’s NEVER beaten them!
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I’m sure you’ll be able to keep up with Wendy for the first few days or maybe weeks of walking, but don’t count on it after that! Before I got transfered to a stationary bike for my rehab — I really dislike walking, and jogging/running has never appealed either, but I love cycling — I got enough practice walking timed miles on the track (and around time) that I finally got to be a faster walker than MY Wendy!!
Wow I’m impressed by both of you. Seems like a rough time but you’re making it happen. Good luck.
Good to hear that your recovery is going so well and I wish you and yours the best with your healing. Good luck.
Hi soccergotme,
I’m 37 years old and from Dumfries, Scotland (UK) and I’m currently 4 weeks nwb from a Tibia and Fibula leg break from playing soccer (football!). I got a plate and 14 screws inside my leg at the moment, I have no cast or boot just a set of crutches that I can use to get about. I’ve got two more weeks nwb bearing before I find out if I can start pwb. Boredom has set in as getting out of the house is not possible at the moment. Looking forward to being allowed to cycle and swim before hopefully being allowed to once again start running and playing soccer!
Anyway, found your blog by accident and just wanted to say that it has been an enjoyable read and it’s good to read that you are very close to achieving a full recovery!
Chris
Good recovery sir
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