Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Open Heart Surgery

Good luck.

They have made strides doing these operations.

My father had open heart back in the years when doing bypasses gave you maybe 5 or so years.

He lived over 25 years after.

Remember your pillow is your best friend.

Here is to a speedy recovery.

I had open heart surgery April 2023

Upper Thoracic dacron graft replacement along with a mchanical aortic heart valve.

I'm nearly 55 and my new St Jude aortic valve is said to out last me.

Warfarin once a day to keep my INR at 2.3/2.5

Once a month blood test is easy

I will warn and not sugar coat that the first day post op is tough but you will gain leaps and bounds daily after that.

Remember.......you have decisions to make regarding your valve replacement.

If you are 58/60 years old insist on the Insperus Reselia Bovine
If you are under 57 go OnX or St Jude full mchanical

Find a heart surgeon that is a valve specialist

Hey, chicks dig scars!

No experience, but good luck, and don't let it get you down.

I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve. Tends to fail about 20 years before normal tricuspid.
Had major open heart, with cow pericardial valve installed...
They got this surgery down. 4 weeks after, I backpacked that seasons buck out on my 69th.
No problems in the 9 years since...

A good friend had indigestion Thursday night and got up and took a few Thumbs. Then he sat in his chair so he wouldn't keep his wife up, she found him sitting there dead at 5.
Best of luck to you.

Good luck hope all goes well.

Prayers for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.

My prayers are with you Angus!

While I've been in the heart attack and repair box, it wasn't the same extent as you are having.

Cardiology has made leaps and bounds, and I trust you'll have a better life after it's done.

If you’re in a right relationship with Eashoa, you’re ok .
90% of the time the things we worry about never happen. The other 10% we couldn’t change anyways .

You got this brother!, best of Luck!

May the force be with u amigo,its a good time to be alive if your needing this kind of procedure.Have several friends go thru this process,a couple of yrs later they r rocking.Gods speed,and good luck.

Two years ago, had open heart surgury at the UAB Heart Center, top rated in the world. Had a bit of complication, 4 valves and 11 heart stints going in. The result we're great, took 6 hours and a team of eight surgeons, removed my heart and put it on the table next to me in a glass platter, removed all the heart arteries, replaced them with veins from my legs, selected pig valves, told the surgeon I had a good vegetarian. :-) They kicked my butt out at 8:00 AM on the 3rd day. 2nd day told them to stop the IV pain meds and give me two Tylenol, you are kidding, nope. Went down the road with my red pillow. You will get the red pillow joke.

Fetyndal is odd stuff, not cool at all, for anything near fun, causes crazy dreams. Had three in IC recovery that had, had strokes, so is very serious stuff.
Brest bone repairs or heals, scar remains as does the stainless steel wire under the skin. They play hell with the pectorial muscles in the chest. Do the rehab, walk, walk, walk, drink liquids and eat, even if not hungry, eat. I had no appetite and my glucose went to 32, got to meet the county EMTs, so eat and check your glucose regularly. Soft recoil for shooting for a year or more.

Follow all of the Dr's instructions judiciously. Said at 78, I now have a heart of a 30 year old. Best of luck to you.

Wife had a valve repaired. Yes, you'll have pain managed for a number of days and you'll be terrified to cough. But her worst/most nagging pain was her ribs along her spine. Your ribcage was ever intended to opened like a suitcase.

Men, y’all are incredible, the info on this thread is better than I’ve seen on any topic, I’ve been reading on here a long time, amazing how many have had some problems, this is what the Fire is all about, great info, Rapier- never dreamed about heavy kicking guns. I guess my greatest fear at almost 69 is how strong is your chest after, the day to day push and pull, especially Ranching, Huntsman is tough as a boot, doesn’t look like it slowed him down at all , again thanks for your support and prayers.

Sorry about the sudden loss of your good friend, and condolences to his wife. Obviously he was a considerate husband, and the lady might just as well have slept in until a bit later.

Cracking my chest open was a concern for me. At my first follow-up appointment after the open heart surgery I asked my cardiologist when could I return to my weight lifting workouts. I don't do crazy weights, just circuit training with aprox 90lbs for upper body stuff. He told me to take it easy for awhile. If I got stupid with it I'd crack my chest open and he'd be the one who had to fix it. I also asked how soon could I shoot again. He said that he had no idea, it would be up to me to figure that out. I shot a F-Class match four months after the surgery, .308win with heavy bullets at warp speed. 😁 Fatigue was a minor issue, no problems with my chest. Having said that a good friend of mine's brother cracked his chest open twice after open heart surgery. Arnold Schwarzenegger also did once...

Prayer dent for healing, comforting, and strength.

I had emergency surgery on Aortic aneurysm and dissection coming up on ten years ago. Recovery was the most painful and difficult thing I had ever experienced but was not as bad as I had imagined was going to be. In my case the aortic dissection went from the carotid arteries to the femoral arteries and they only replaced the aortic arch with a gortex vein, and reattached the aortic root and valve. Because of the dissection and now bulging aorta I am heavily medicated with blood pressure meds and can’t lift or strain physically, or risk popping it, hell I was even on even on laxatives because Dr was afraid of me pushing hard on a turd. I can walk but can’t run or hike uphill without almost passing out due to the meds arresting my heart rate, one flight of stairs is ok if I can rest a little bit at the top two flights and I am light headed for about ten minutes while the heart catches up. I run the family construction company and had a very physical job and that all changed, management only now, not just being able to grab tool and do it myself or load some equipment quickly by had myself has been hard to accept.
Managing meds has been a challenge and I finally found a good cardiologist who takes all the advice and prescriptions written buy the several cardiac specialist drs and surgeons I am seeing and looks at everything and sorts out what is redundant and what would work against each other and he manages all my prescriptions now.
Good luck, It’s going to kick your ass but you can do it!

Quite a thread with regard to what some guys have encountered and dealt with - not easy to contemplate. Very difficult challenges in many cases.

Now fairly old, I am grateful to be here enjoying family, friends and rewarding activities after such issues suddenly became huge at about 75, and a couple of medical mistakes complicated things. Attitude, perseverance with the program and a strong sense of hope can make big differences. Wishing all good outcomes for you.

I had a triple @ 42, 67 now. Keep the pillow close by, to hug when you feel a cough or sneeze coming. Pay special attention to not using your arms for anything like getting up from a chair or toilet, get help if needed, you don’t want to damage the sternum while it’s trying to heal. I was on the shooting bench about 2 months after, shooting a .338 win mag. It’s no fun, but you can do it.