Posted by Steve Giddings on August 13, 2001 at 14:47:08:
In Reply to: Re: 8 weeks post maze,palpitations en anticoagulant. posted by Ed Wehan on August 13, 2001 at 14:27:39:
I've described what my experience was conerning exercise tolerance post-op in several postings so I won't repeat myself except to state briefly that I had relatively rapid improvement over the first 6 months, plateaued and then slowly improved over the next years and half, and seem to be getting better still bit by bit, though I'm still not back to my pre-surgery resting heart rate. I'm probably as good at my sport as I was before I got limited by af. I was told to keep my heart rate at 120 or below for the first 8 weeks post op, wasn't given any specific instructions after that, so I pushed the limit bit by bit. Am I still alive? OK go a little harder.
The shortness of breath with onset of exercise got slowly better, and went away completely probably at 18-24 mo. PACs are common post op. I still have them, worse with caffeine, fatigue and stress. I don't notice them unless I'm actually checking my pulse.