DAYS 160 - 166 Recovery

These are the reasons I never ever wanted to take Amiodarone, however, I've been taking it for 13 days and so far have experienced none of the following:                                     

Check with your doctor if any of these most common side effects persist or become bothersome when using Amiodarone:

Abnormal taste or smell; constipation; decreased sexual interest; dizziness; dry eves; flushing of the face; general body discomfort; headache; loss of appetite; nausea; tiredness; trouble sleeping; vomiting.

Seek medical attention right away if any of these severe side effects occur when using Amiodarone:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing or swallowing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, throat, or tongue; unusual hoarseness); blue-gray discoloring of the skin (especially of the hands or feet); burning, numbness, or tingling; chest, jaw, or arm pain; confusion; cough; coughing up blood; decreased coordination; decreased urination; eye discomfort; fainting; fast or slow heartbeat; fever, chills, or persistent sore throat; involuntary muscle movements; joint pain; muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness (especially with fever or unusual tiredness); nervousness; new or worsening irregular heartbeat; red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin; severe or persistent dizziness; shortness of breath; skin reaction similar to serious sunburn; sluggishness; sudden, severe nausea or vomiting; swelling of the hands, ankles, legs, or feet; symptoms of liver problems (eg, dark urine, loss of appetite, pale stools, persistent loss of appetite, stomach pain, yellowing of the eyes or skin); symptoms of thyroid problems (eg, feeling of being unusually hot or cold, increased sweating, mental or mood changes, numbness or tingling of the hands or feet, menstrual changes, swelling of your neck); trouble walking; uncontrolled shaking or tremor; unusual bruising or bleeding; unusual tiredness or weakness; unusual weight changes; vision changes (eg, seeing halos, blurred vision, loss of vision); wheezing.

This is not a complete list of all side effects that may occur.

Meds:   Coumadin, Amiodarone, Cardizem, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne, Garlic, B-12, L-Arginine, DHEA, Resveratrol  

DAY 159 - Recovery

Fourth day on Cardizem and so far no side effects and IT'S WORKING!!!  My heart rate has been below 100 all day (quite an achievement with my always racing heart) and the best news of all, the beat is in rhythm - no fibrillation!  Now the next thing to conquer is the high blood pressure. 

Meds:   Coumadin, Amiodarone, Cardizem, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne, Garlic, B-12, L-Arginine, DHEA, Resveratrol  

DAYS 148-158 Recovery

First the good news.  Last Friday after working my butt off since mid April, I became a graduate of the Pardee Cardiac Rehabilitation Wellness Program.  Just as on my first day of the program, I had to walk laps around the gym.  How easy it was this time with my body working with me instead of against me.  Just to prove I could do it, I ran the last lap.  There were high-fives all around, afterward one of the nurses and I boogied to "Hit the Road Jack" blasting on the sound system.  I felt jubilant.  The average improvement for program participants is 20%.  My improvement was 69.3%.   Although there were participants with ages in the 50's and 60's, and one young woman in her early 30's, most were oldsters like myself with some well into their 80's.  Yes, it sort of blows your image of the typical gym with buff young bodies populating the place.  I saw no six-packs, but some were sporting beer bellies likely due to too many six-packs.  Many have much more to overcome than just heart problems, such as diabetes, obesity, inactive lifestyles, worn out and painful joints, arthritis, and lung problems from a lifetime of smoking.  I felt fortunate that my challenges were simpler.  I can't say enough good about the Pardee rehab program.  The medical staff couldn't have been better.  Knowledgeable, caring, funny, and enthusiastic, they made each session feel like a party.  While operated by the hospital, being in a separate location in town, I felt like I was going to a cool gym rather than a medical facility, thus eliminating the medical-patient victim attitude. 

Well, now for the not so good news.  The very next day, last Saturday, my heart rate, which is usually on the higher than normal side anyway (called tachycardia), averaging about 105 to 110 when at rest, soared to the upper 140's and low 150's and remained that way all this week.  In addition to my heart beating so rapidly, literally pounding, it's very irregular.  I thought all this was behind me since I had surgery over five months ago.  I took some leftover beta blocker that causes me to have such shortness of breath I can barely walk across a room without gasping.  It did bring the numbers down a bit, but only for a few hours after each dose.  Obviously that wasn't the answer.  I did vagal maneuvers such as holding my breath and bearing down like childbirth, face planting into a pan of ice water, forced coughing and gagging and putting pressure on my eyelids.  Of course I didn't do all these at the same time and of course I couldn't do them without laughing.  Some worked, but only briefly.  I saw my local cardiologist on Monday.  He confirmed that my heart was back in artrial fibrillation and my heart rate was out of control.  He tried carotid sinus massage, another vagal maneuver that requires being hooked up to an EKG machine while pressing with his fingers deeply into my neck.  This didn't work.  He put me on a different drug that takes about three weeks to become effective.  My husband's brother, a cardiologist in Nashville, felt I needed to get my heart rate and blood pressure down ASAP.  I went to Spartanburg SC on Thursday to see the cardiologist I worked with pre-op and he put me on an additional drug that works faster while also keeping me on the slower acting one.  It must be working because today my heart rate has stayed below 140, but it's still irregular.  Although I hate taking medications, I was relieved that he had a game plan that didn't include rushing me to the hospital as happened several times last year.  If this med doesn't do the trick then I'll have to go for cardio conversion shock treatments.  This was done unsuccessfully last October.  At that time my heart stayed in rhythm for only 15 hours and I was left with some nasty burns on my back and chest from the electric paddles.  The Cox Maze III ablation I had in February is considered the "gold standard" treatment for A-fib (atrial fibrillation).  It is done only if there is another serious problem with the heart, in my case a dis-functioning mitral valve, because it requires open heart surgery.  Claiming a success rate of at least 96%, leave it to me to fall into that other 4%.  It may be necessary to have another ablation done, but it will be through a catheter in the groin or through incisions in the sidewalls of the chest.

I had big plans for this week in the work toward my "Rocky moment," but the docs curtailed that.  They don't want me to do any strenuous exercise until my heart stabilizes.  I did take my little duck and my goat for a walk up the road to the top of our property this afternoon.  Once again Olive, the goat, is learning to walk on a leash and she did much better this time.  When we stopped so she could graze on crab grass and weeds along the road, I enjoyed inhaling the sweet scent of the honeysuckle growing wild around us.

Meds:   Coumadin, Amiodarone, Cardizem, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne, Garlic, B-12, L-Arginine, DHEA, Resveratrol  

DAYS 126-147 Recovery

A week ago I would have summed up my condition in one word - exhausted!  Exhausted everyday and in every way, but this week, thanks to the encouragement of a dear friend who has become my cheerleader, I can truly say that everyday in every way, I'm getting better and better.  I still go to cardio-rehab through one of the local hospitals three days per week. I started the program in April and will graduate Friday.  While there I push my body to the max toward rebuilding strength and endurance.  The guys give me a hard time telling me that I'm making them look bad.  At home I do pretty much the same thing.  Last week I was wheeling a pickaxe to break through our rock laced soil in order to dig an 18-inch deep trench to plant shrubs.  My strength and muscles are slowly returning, but my endurance has a way to go.  I do something, then rest, do something, then rest.  This means I'm slow but given enough time I do get stuff done.  All this work to improve my body comes at the expense of my mind.  My minimal mental energy doesn't accomplish much more than writing the grocery list, thumbing through magazines, and playing word games with my husband.  Even "doing" Facebook seems overwhelming to me.  After completing the rehab program this week, I'll still be working out at a gym a couple of days a week through the Silver Sneaker program supported by my health insurance company, but my physical focus will be running, walking at first, one mile up that mountain road in an effort to reach my "Rocky moment."  My mental focus will be to catch up on long overdue answers to emails, messages, letters, and this blog.  

Meds:   Coumadin, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne, Garlic, B-12, L-Arginine, DHEA, Resveratrol 

DAYS 109-125 Recovery

Like parts wearing out on an aging automobile, an aging body's needs escalate as the years pile on.    During the past couple of weeks I've been making the rounds of the offices of a gastroenterologist for an endoscopy and colonoscopy, a periodontist for a dental implant, and a neurological surgeon to determine the source of neck and head pains.  These areas have needed attention for quite some time but had to wait until my heart was in better condition.  I'm hoping for the day that I'll have all my body parts in good working order and can put an end to medical appointments crowding my calendar.  Is that too much to hope for? 

Meds:   Coumadin, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne, Garlic, B-12, L-Arginine 

DAYS 101-108 Recovery

I didn't expect to suffer some hearing loss as a result of heart surgery, but surprise, surprise.  I'm blaming the heart surgery, perhaps it was the medications or the anesthesia or whatever.  Or maybe it was just time for another part on my seventy-year old body to start wearing out.  I first noticed a difference in my hearing back in March.  The evening before I was due to be released from the hospital all sounds and voices, especially those coming from outside my hospital room, suddenly became extremely loud as if they were being amplified.  The next day when my husband came to pick me up, I was wondering why he was speaking so softly.  Being the adapter that I am, and to a fault, I caught myself trying to read his lips.  I then realized my ears weren't working to full capacity.  Being optimistic, I figured my hearing would eventually return to normal.  It's been 3 1/2 months, but it doesn't seem to be improving.  I no longer hear vehicles coming up our road, the washing machine thrashing away in the mudroom when I'm in the other part of the cabin, and other sounds that those around me notice.  When out in the pasture playing shepherd with the goats, they will often spook to a sound I am totally unaware of.   It's a strange feeling because I don't know what I'm not hearing.  I'd say it's only a mild hearing loss so maybe it's not totally a bad thing.   

Meds:   Coumadin, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne, Garlic, B-12 

DAYS 92-100 Recovery

While wearing the heart monitor 24/7 for 30 days was irritating and sometimes a nuisance, I can think of far more worse things that some folks need to wear and for far longer, for example a poop bag or artificial limbs. 

It feels good to no longer have electrodes stuck to my chest with gooey stuff, no more dangling and tangled wires hanging from my body, no more carrying around the sensor and the designated cell phone that transmitted constantly and needed to be recharged several times during the day.  It also feels good to be off the heart drugs and not have to fight side effects caused by the medications. 

The most frustrating part of the whole heart monitor ordeal was that I was monitored for less than half of the 30 days that I wore it.  The cardio-surgeon specified a 30-day monitoring, but when the cardiologist's technician set up the enrollment he mistakenly ordered it for only 14 days.  

The heart monitoring gods in Chicago left me a message this week saying that since I had already sent back their equipment, they'll send me another set so I can finish my 30 days.  First of all, I have not returned their original equipment since I was waiting for the cardiologist to determine if he had gotten enough info, and secondly, there's no way I'm wearing and dealing with that gear for an additional two weeks.  My heart is being monitored three days a week while I'm at cardio-rehab, so if it does go back into atrial fibrillation, surely they'll detect it there.

Not wanting to be overcharged for this monitoring since I received only 14 of the 30 days of service, I contacted Life Watch and was told the cost was the same. Believing they were scamming me I checked with a couple of other sources and was told the same thing.  This makes no sense at all.  I'll never understand medical billing.  Though I probably wouldn't be too wrong in thinking they charge whatever they can get away with.  

Meds:   Coumadin, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne, Garlic, B-12 

DAY 91 - Recovery

With yoga this morning and working out at cardio rehab this afternoon, I feel I'm on a roll.  It's beyond bedtime and I'm still loaded with energy.   The best news is that my blood pressure dropped down to an acceptable level this evening.  

Meds:   Coumadin, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne  

DAYS 89-90 Recovery

Huge increase in energy and stamina this past week.  If I continue at this rate I'll be able to get back to my "normal" in the near future.  I received a couple of good suggestions for natural means to lower blood pressure.  I'm returning to yoga classes starting tomorrow. 

Meds:   Coumadin, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne    

DAY 88 - Recovery

Blood pressure scary high today.  It's been creeping up there since I've been off the beta blocker and diuretic.  Rehab nurses also concerned about my heart rate.  They'll send a report to my cardiologist.  Natural methods to lower blood pressure and heart rate didn't work before but I'm going to give it another try.  Anyone have any suggestions or advice?  I do not want to go back on meds.  I can't handle the side effects. 

Meds:   Coumadin, Vayacog, L-Carnitine, Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, Lutein, Hawthorne