Don's Journal

Six months after surgery I feel as good as before, I'm back to everything I was doing before surgery. I have been riding my bicycle not as much as before my surgery but I average about 50 to 70 miles per week. On my 6 month anniversary I rode a metric century or 66 mile fund raiser. I feel great its hard not to think about the surgery, but you can't let one thing ruin all the good things there are in life, stay active

Had my aortic valve replaced 4/02/2018 spent 3 days in the hospital released 4/05/2018. Started a walking the day after surgery, walked a mile on day three. I was very fortunate I had my surgery in the best time of year when the weather is very mild. I averaged 2 miles a day for the first two weeks after surgery. On 4/16/2018 I had a afib bout spent night in hospital. The next day the electrically put me back in rhythm. Since that date I have had no issues increased walking to 8-10miles per day. I felt good but mentally I was afraid, had my last appointment with my cardiologist, and he released me to drive 5/23/2018 and also to not worry about getting the heart rate up, in my walking I kept my heart rate below 105bpm. So Ive started my bicycle riding a little over 10 miles a day and walking about 5 miles a day. I Can say I have days now that I feel as good or better then before my surgery.