As crazy as this may sound, I wore my polar heart rate monitor watch and strap religiously for at least the six moths following surgery (even in the sauna and steam room). I listened to my body and kept a close eye on my heart rate while walking, working out etc. I know this might sound a bit excessive but I wanted to make sure I was not overdoing it and to see that m resting heart rate went back close to pre surgery levels.
During the three weeks post open heart surgery, I walked as much as possible. Basically going from walking around the ward in my hospital, to walking a mile plus and then more. After three weeks, I was give n clearance to get back into he gym. This is where I kept a close eye on my heart rate. I found it painfully annoying to not be able to push my body initially in the way I did pre surgery. I followed a regiment prescribed by my physical therapist that deals with every type of person and knows a lot about recovery post heart surgery. He had me running on the treadmill and cycling at a particular clip but not overdoing my heart rate. I followed this regiment for a month plus. Two months post surgery, the final test he gave me was the swim test. Basically swim a few laps and then stand up carefully and walk out of the pool. Basically this was to test how my body reacted from going horizontal to vertical (change in blood flow). It all went fine and away I went to do whatever I wanted. After this clearance, i began training for the NY City Marathon but did not push my body if things felt odd or uncomfortable. Less than six months post surgery, I ran the marathon and raised awareness for Benās Friends (the organization our site operates under) and folks with rare diseases which ASd is.
Listen to your body and donāt be afraid to ask any of us questions.
John, I thought about you one day as I was running and I think I pushed a little too hard. This was like 3-4 weeks ago. I thought it may be a good idea to have a heart monitor, hehe. I might purchase one :D
Magda, I did not get the numbness feelings. If it passed, I would not worry about it but if it gives you peace of mind, it would not be a bad idea to ask your cardiologist :)
I had palpitations, contacted my cardiologist and wore a Holter monitor for 48 hrs. It turned out to be nothing, so I attributed it to healing (my heart getting used to the foreign body) and to anxiety. They have now dissappeared, thankfully :D:D
Magda and Bryan, keep it up :D:D and keep in touch!
John, so cool that you ran a marathon so soon afterā¦ Definitely encouraging. 
I will be listening to my body and not overdoing itā¦ I think I may have come back to work too soon but I was seriously going nuts at home!
Jessi, Iām so gladly your palpitations are all gone. Iām hoping to start feeling better soon too. I never imagined I would feel so drained. I wanna go back to Zumba and soccer so much! Hearing youāre up and running makes me feel way more optimistic!
Hi: My name is Rafael,I had my closure done on 11/2002, i'm also an avid runner and bicycler,I't took me several months before starting some strenuous exercise...i would recommend power walking,and yoga like exercise...are you on a profelaxis beta blocker...some doctors start asa 81 mg and beta blocker for 3-4 months and then ween you off the blocker...every patient is different...I had 3 tia's prior to closure.....and after the closure some patients can develop the occasional A-fib episode whitch is not life threatening...i usually get 1 a year...usually lasts about 15 min to 1 hour, my longest episode of A-fib was 1 hr and 17 minutes last year...you will also probably experience PAC's- premature atrial contractions...this is when your heart feels like it stops for a moment.....usually not felt...but some time can be felt like going down a roller coaster for a moment....my age is 49 yrs old and will be 50 yrs this may 2012....definitely exercise to your maximum potential...i decided to to stay with Atenolol beta blocker as a profelaxis...lowest dose is 25 mg..so i score them to 6.25 mg PO.........I bicycle about 75 to 100 miles per week......also use my total gym...FYI-I ran the mile in 4 min 11 seconds prior to my first TIA back in 2000....Haven't been able to run my full 100 %...feel more like 85 %...so I switched to bicycling more...the sitting position allows me to rest for a few seconds between intervals and still get the same benefit of running.........this is my experience...and will be different for others......I'm aslo an LPN and bridging to RN next year, work Float pool in North East Georgia Medica Center...cardiology is one of my floors....Hope everthing works for you...and wish you the best of health.
I can definitely second the motion regarding PACs and PVCs. I've had TONS of them. Not a problem, though, and exercise actually seems to help.
esotericman said:
Hi: My name is Rafael,I had my closure done on 11/2002, i'm also an avid runner and bicycler,I't took me several months before starting some strenuous exercise...i would recommend power walking,and yoga like exercise...are you on a profelaxis beta blocker...some doctors start asa 81 mg and beta blocker for 3-4 months and then ween you off the blocker...every patient is different...I had 3 tia's prior to closure.....and after the closure some patients can develop the occasional A-fib episode whitch is not life threatening...i usually get 1 a year...usually lasts about 15 min to 1 hour, my longest episode of A-fib was 1 hr and 17 minutes last year...you will also probably experience PAC's- premature atrial contractions...this is when your heart feels like it stops for a moment.....usually not felt...but some time can be felt like going down a roller coaster for a moment....my age is 49 yrs old and will be 50 yrs this may 2012....definitely exercise to your maximum potential...i decided to to stay with Atenolol beta blocker as a profelaxis...lowest dose is 25 mg..so i score them to 6.25 mg PO.........I bicycle about 75 to 100 miles per week......also use my total gym...FYI-I ran the mile in 4 min 11 seconds prior to my first TIA back in 2000....Haven't been able to run my full 100 %...feel more like 85 %...so I switched to bicycling more...the sitting position allows me to rest for a few seconds between intervals and still get the same benefit of running.........this is my experience...and will be different for others......I'm aslo an LPN and bridging to RN next year, work Float pool in North East Georgia Medica Center...cardiology is one of my floors....Hope everthing works for you...and wish you the best of health.
So I feel a little weirded out. I am 29 and apparently had/have a pretty enlarged heart because of the hole. I was suffering from shortness of breath, fatigue, and palpitations. My 5k times in the past 2-3 years have gone from 21-22 minutes to 25-26 minutes, but I originally tacked that to getting older. The only reason I even got it checked out was because I had cancer 8 years ago and recently moved. When I went to meet my new oncologist for my cancer checkups I was digging through my medical files to make copies for him and stumbled upon a heart health readout I had two years ago and saw on the EKG the words "abnormal rhythm" so I mentioned it to my oncologist. He asked some follow up questions about shortness of breath etc. and then asked me if I wanted to get it checked out further and I figured, eh, why not, its only money, so I had an echo done and here we are.
I had my ASD closed with an Amplatzer device on April 11th. The doctor used a 2.6 cm device. My doctor was very good but had a hard time getting to and closing the hole with the cath because it was at an odd angle and pretty large and almost had to can it for an open heart procedure. Luckily, he was able to keep trying and get into the hole to close her up. Much like everyone here I was advised to not lift anything over 10 pounds and take it easy basically. The weird thing is I only took two days off work and probably could have only taken one. By a week later I had a ton of energy. I went and did a 4 mile walk in a state park that is pretty hilly yesterday and other than normal muscle soreness from disuse I feel great. I actually thought about going for a run this morning but told myself that rushing it was kind of pointless. I just find it strange because I have always been a quick healer but this is something else in my mind. Like you were Bryan I am really anxious to get back to running and working out and I don't know when I should. I feel like my body is responding very well to the procedure but I have always had a problem of pushing myself too soon and I don't want to do something stupid.
I really appreciate this forum because it helps me figure out how I should ease into things, but I am not seeing anyone else on here that felt like their body was responding in a way that was going to let them push hard and I am wondering if I am just making myself think that or what. I really don't want anything really bad to happen but I feel ready to kick it into high gear soon. Did anyone else recover really well from their procedure and was able to exercise hard reasonably quickly?
Hi Rusi,
I am so pleased to hear how well your recovery has been. That is fabulous!
I had my ASD closed via robotic open heart surgery in May 2010. I don't what it is like to have the device put in me but what I can say about my own experience is that I was walking all over the place after a week, back in the gym at week 3, full tilt at 2 months and marathon after the less six. For me, I followed a strict regiment from my physical therapist (deals with athletes extensively and a number of heart patients), listened to the signs my body was giving me and wore my Polar heart rate monitor religiously. I stopped if I felt weird, my heart rate was out of kilter or I just did not feel right.
Hope this helps a little bit.
That does help a lot. I have been thinking about getting a heart rate monitor. I have always been the minimalist type of runner so I run with barefoot shoes and no iPod or anything but maybe I should make an exception when I start up. I decided that even though I feel good enough to run today I will go for a few more long walks before I start running again next weekend. I am glad to see that you were able to gear up that quickly. That is very encouraging.
I want to be able to do a marathon. I trained three times for one. The first year I pulled my hammy a few weeks before the race so I couldn't do it. The second year I got a weird knot in my quad the week before the race and the third year I got cancer. That was all 8 year + ago and I still have never run an official marathon. Now I figure it is about time I do one. This boosts me up to know I should be able to try one in the fall maybe and definitely next spring! Thanks!
Hey Rusi,
Glad you found it helpful. I was even wearing my heart rate monitor in the sauna and steam room and when I got back to swimming. My physical therapist used swimming as the final test for clearance post surgery (full tilt within reason - always listen to your body). This was done two months post surgery. Basically swim a few laps and then stand up and walk carefully out of pool in the shallow end - the blood is flowing horizontally and then going vertically. I felt fine.
Regarding marathons, my personal take is cross train and dont over train on the running front. Cross train via eliptical, biking etc in or outside of the gym.
Hope this helps and please ask me anything.
This is a great discussion thread and I've only just had a chance to read it all. I hope my story will be relevant to a few. I'm an avid runner and triathlete and had multiple ASDs fixed by Open heart surgery in March 2010. The surgeons didn't believe they could fix by catheter. Within three weeks I was on the stationary bike, within 4 weeks I was run/walking (albeit slowly) and within 6 weeks I was swimming. My re-entry into execise was slow and steady, little and often. My heart rate was very high at first due to inactivity and relative lack of fitness. I always always wear a heart rate monitor. Within 8 months I completed an Ironman....and then I wrote a book about it....you may find it helps? (this is not a plug!)
Www.ellenliveslifetothefull.com
Cheers
Ellen
Rusi and Ellen, thanks for sharing!! I am so happy that your recoveries have been great!! Keep it up and please stay in touch.
And Ellen, you are an inspiration knowing that you were able to complete the Ironman so soon after surgery!
How long did the chest pain last after surgery?
Take care,
Jessica
Hi Jessica,
I had pain for quite a few months, my recovery was not plain sailing by any means but I think being aware of your body and cautious about pains is a good approach.
Hope all is well
Ellen
Hello guys.
I was diagnosed with ASD with 22mm. It has been two months since the closure by occlutech device. I did a little bit of jogging twice last week, felt completely OK except the initial one and had my follow up yesterday. Echo reports showed that there are slight transfusion from left artrium to the right one through the corner of device but Doc seemed stisfied and said nothing. However out of anxiety I asked him what kind of movements I should not be doing? He said no running, no competitive sports, no heavy lifting bla bla at least for six months cause the device got to sit in properly . I am really active person and hearing all this made me so sick. I am so petrified by thinking to stay idle for freaking 6 months.
Hi Cyrus
Glad your surgery went well - welcome to the āother sideā of it !
Sounds like good advice from Doc. Youāve made a huge investment (of energy & healing) in your body and your long term health, so isnāt it worth doing the right thing, even if itās hard for a bit?
That said, I do know exactly what you mean, itās really frustrating to have to take it easy. I could walk for up to an hour at about 3 months, but I couldnāt exercise on consecutive days without flutters until month 5. (Albeit I had open heart surgery & patch rather than device).
I posted elsewhere recently āitās tougher than it looks, doing nothing!ā But in retrospect, the āenforced restā did me good (eg old calf & plantar fasciitis injuries fully calmed down). Also I understand myself better now! Iām clearly the kind of person who doesnāt stop, until something in life forces me to. And people like me do NEED to be stopped occasionallyā¦! Counselling for a bit really helped me, with acceptance & realism.
Iām now finding planning a longer term goal helps. Iāve just gently started early training, for a 6-day, 100km desert trek, which will be done (hopefully!) on about my OHS 12 month anniversary. Great to look forward to, even tho I can only do about 7km currently, lol.
I hope it goes ok for you - rest & recovery are hard, but itās a matter of months, out of a lifetime. Stick it out, youāll get back to exercise when the time is right. Good luck.
PS I wonder if you have to stay totally idle, or can do moderate heart rate stuff like walking ??? That was what kept me sane.
Thank you so much for your kind attention. Yes, I will let my body heal first. You are right in planning for long term goals. I am just 24 I should also be doing that for a safer future.
Add on: Iāve just been reminded that life isnāt plain sailing. Doc has refused to sign me off for the trek, until after some tests ! But she is right, need to ensure my heart flutters arenāt non-sinus rhythm before exercising more. Clearly I need to listen to my own advice, to listen to my body !!
Good luck with that. Come back stronger with fully healed body,.
Hey Cyrus, how are you doing? Hope youāre well.
Hello Midlifer, not bad. I hope you are well. Started doing running and swimming 3 times a week but feel uncomfortable the next day. I think thatās normal. Itās in the 4th month I hope it wonāt stick for the rest of life.