Road to Recovery - 7 Weeks Post Operation

In this video I talk about my visit to LifeLabs where I had to get my weekly INR bloodwork done to check out my blood clotting numbers (was a tad high). I also had to get an ECG done along with a Holter device put on so they can monitor my heart for a 20 hour period and see what's going on. All this is for my doctor at Saint Paul's Hospital as I have an appointment next week to go over how I am doing now. Hopefully we can make some medication adjustments as I feel I am taking a bit too much which is slowing down my heart and lowering my blood pressure a bit too much.

The medication doses I am on where set when I left the hospital and I was in AFIB with a very elevated heart rate. I have been out of AFIB and in Sinus heart rhythm now for at least a month and I can feel the low blood pressure especially when I get up from sitting down, I need to watch it or I could pass out! I get that the doctors want my heart to be resting and healing as much as possible but the lower heart rate (resting in the 50's) and low blood pressure (sometimes as low as 100 over 60) makes life a bit more challenging.

Every day I see progress and less pain in my chest (my sternum), but I still need to be careful not to overdo it in the gym or I could injure my sternum and set myself back a few weeks. Even this week I feel a lot more confident weight training and even added in some really light flies using cables for my chest. I look forward to being able to train harder as I do feel a lot less gassed out now and really the only thing holding me back is my ribs (sternum) healing fully and of course my week muscles :)

Road to Recovery - Back to the Gym

Today was a long awaited day for me, I was not sure exactly when it was going to happen as it was really based on how I was feeling and healing after my Open Heart Valve Surgery. In terms of my Sternum being healed it is mostly healed now but not completely and it does still feel a bit tender so I was very careful today when doing my workout. I kept things light and stayed away from doing any chest exercises as they will tend to open up the chest which I need to avoid right now.

That said, I was able to do mostly everything else and hit legs, shoulders, back, arms and abs today. Again I kept things light and focuses on high volume so lots of reps mainly just trying to get a pump and burn. I am sure after almost 2 month off from the gym, I will feel it and be sore tomorrow. If I am not super sore, I will hit the gym again and do another full body workout tomorrow but I have a feeling I may need to take a day off...

I can say in terms of cardio and feeling short or out of breath, I felt amazing! I did not gas out at all and was surpriesed at what it felt like to actually have my muscels tire out before I gassed out, this has not happened to me for a while and it made me feel almost super human!

Life is slowly getting back to some kind of normal which is awesome, I still need to be careful not to overdo things as I tend to push myself a bit hard at times, that is my biggest challenge right now, holding back!

Get Fit Over 40 Update Video - Battle Scars

My latest update showing off my Open Heart Valve Surgery battle scars, after all this is who I am now. I talk about how I am feeling, what I am able to do now about 5 weeks post operation and what my expectations are moving forward in terms of activity and fitness expectations.

This is for sure not the end of my fitness journey but perhaps just the beginning and maybe even most important challenge of my life. I am not sure what to expect but I do know I will give it my all and there will be no excuses along the way.

Road to Recovery - One Week Home

I have been home now for about a week and for the most part it has all been good, slowly walking a bit longer and a bit faster, generally over 10,000 steps per day and walking as far as 2 miles in one go. Today I walked to A&W and back home which is a 3+ mile round trip. My walking pace is getting close to 3 miles per hour so this too is an improvement.

I still really need to watch my diet as over the weekend (super Bowl) I was not on my best eating behavior and as a result on Monday slipped back into AFIB for a bout 6 hours but thankfully I came out and back to Sinus Rhythm pretty quickly. Being in AFIB I do not feel very energetic and when I went for my walk while in AFIB I did feel a bit light headed at one point. When in Sinus Rhythm I feel really good and do not get short of breath or light headed at all even on longer faster walks.

My chest is still a bit sore being that the sternum was cut right down the middle for my open heart surgery, it will take at least 2 months for it to heal and right now I am exactly 4 weeks post surgery. This journey back to what will be my new normal heart function will take several months but I can say I feel a ton better than I did pre surgery so I am very optimistic I will be able to do most of what I was doing before I was having the heart trouble, just maybe a bit more conservative and not pushing myself too extreme. After all you only have one heart...

Where Have I Been Update?

This video is primarily for my viewers over on the Replica Airguns channels as I have not posted anything about what's been going on with me the last month and a bit. My Airgun channel does not have very much personal content like my GetFitOver40 channel does, so I wanted to fill them in on where I have been and what's been going on.

In this video I talk about being in the hospital for a month because I was experiencing shortness of breath and a feeling of pressure in my diaphragm area which was later found out to be a heart problem.

Unknown to me I had been born with a Congenital Heart Defect where my Aortic Valve was defective which over time had cause the Aortic Root area to double in size (3cm normal to 6cm).

This defect caused my heart to work a lot harder than normal making it enlarge over time which is not good and reduces it's pumping ability. Before my operation my heart function was below 20%, a normal healthy heart is around 60%.

While in the hospital I had open heart surgery on my Aortic valve replacing it along with a section above it. I also had a Pacemaker/Defibrillator put in. There where a lot of concerns because my heart was also enlarged and not functioning that well, the doctor even said they may not be able to get me off of bypass which would then require an emergency heart transplant. The good news is the operation went well and no need for a new heart at least for now...

I was in the hospital for longer than normal because of my enlarged heart and because of all the stress to it. I was in and out of what's called Atrial Fibrillation. This is when the heart beats very irregularly and faster than normal. It can be short term or longer term and can sort itself out or require intervention to help get back to a Sinus Rhythm. At the time of this post I believe it has gone back to the normal Sinus Rhythm, so fingers crossed it stays this way.

As you can imagine, this has been a life changing event and means my lifestyle will be changing a bit. I will not be doing anything to overstress my heart but that does not mean no more fitness for me, just a different fitness approach. Perhaps a more scaled back approach but I am always up for a challenge and this is no different in terms of how I would approach any challenge in my life.

So if you are a Replica Airguns follower and want to follow my "Road to Recovery" you can do that over on my GetFitOver40 channels. Other than that I will be making regular Airgun Videos moving forward now that I am at home.