I'm changing my sig, see below. The point of this post is that I came home on Day 3 after the surgery and I'm about 2 months from being 80. The folks at the hospital said they'd never seen anyone, of any age, go home on Day 3 before. I'm telling folks that I trained for 30 years for this. "Never quit" is what I tell folks who want to know how I was so fit before the surgery. Of course, now my fitness is in the toilet, but I know how to train and I trained today, just a few walks, but they got my breathing rate up and I'm trying to use my inspirometer 10 times an hour. The medicals say it'll be 3 months before I can do anything interesting. Probably so.

Why did I need bypass surgery? Recent research postulates that it could be too much time in the upper zones, plus heredity. My older brother had a quadruple bypass in his 60s. He was not an athlete. I previously had 3 stents which this surgery bypassed.

Yowsa!!
Good news you're home and on the mend. Tough old dude!

Keep on truckin carbonfibreboy

Glad it went well and you broke another record, fastest discharge. Keep healing.

Very Glad for you and SO that your journey on this rock has not been interrupted ! Waking up every morning is prolly the most important thing we can do.

and not wanting to be prickly, but usually Bypass and stents are because of blockage in the arteries... and your talking about "too much time in the upper zones", which might lead to myocardial fibrosis; which would not benefit from a bypass (as far as I'm aware...)
And congrats for the coming 80... as far as I care, it's OK to 'round up' at this point in the count... LOL!
(are you needing to wear a HRM device? I don;t really know anyone directly who has had a Bypass...)
Ride On
Yuri
... and this seems a direct connection to the 'Statin' thread in 'Training' forum...

Congrats for doing the right thing and doing it so well. Hope all goes well. And, here I am at 79 being all whiney about facing hernia surgery.

WOW!!! Just remember there is nothing wrong with being a Porch Dog for a few months. I have followed more then a few athletes after open heart surgery. Most told me it was their lungs that took the longest recovery. Don't rush it man. Your an inspiration...

Glad that it's going well. It's inspiring to hear that you are committed to working out still. Even if it's just the breathing exercises!

I do so hope to be reading your replies to other posts when I'm pushing 80 in 13 oops, bad luck. I mean a little more than 12 years from now. <grin>

Well done on the rapid recovery, Carbonfiberboy . It sounds like you'll be burning up the tarmac once again soon.

I'm interested in the research you mentioned that found intense exercise might cause CVD. I've only found results that don't associate exercise at any level with soft plaque deposits. Hard calcium deposits, yes, but they are less harmful. It's the soft stuff that's the worrisome stuff.

Seconding the advice about taking it easy. You'll be champing at the bit to get back on the bike, but as far as your body is concerned, major surgery is major trauma.

Remember---those rides, however hard they were, lasted only a few hours. Recovery from heart surgery is just as stressful as those rides, but instead of a few hours, it's 24/7.

cheers to day three and every day after
inspirational, indeed

Me Too!

At age 59 I had a quad bypass, just like all my male relatives! (Bad genetics on my dad's side!)
I too had been training for that day on my bike for 40+ years.
They do some kind of an evaluation test right after they close up your chest and I scored one of the highest scores. (Bike training pays off!!!)
That was 13 years ago and I am still getting close to 5000 miles a year in on the bike. (I would do more miles but I still work 20 hours a week.)

The point is...
Keep cycling!!! It is GOOD for your body, mind and soul!!!

Ah…so bypass is OHS? One thing I wish I had done after OHSs (3 within 7 weeks) is work more on lung capacity. My breath hold freediving really sucks post surgery — 14 years. Get on the stationary bike spinning easy.

As a long-time lurker, I have always found you to be the most incisive thoughtful poster on Bike Forums. I hope and expect that your forced time off the saddle will enable you to produce more posts for a while. I really enjoy reading them.

Two years ago my bike collided with a car, and I suffered a compression fracture on a lower vertebra. As I was pretty young back then (72), I was on my Zwift bike a week later, and back on my road bike a week after that. I couldn't have done it, though, without having my wife drive me and the mangled bike to the LBS the day after the accident.

Of course you're right, but calcium score is all we have to go on when doing a study, AFAIK. And I had a high calcium score back in '17. Is there a way now to look at soft deposits without going in?

This is a very tough recovery. Looking at it another way, it's not recovery, it's just ordinary training except that we start way down in the hole. I moved up a notch to doing 4 gentle 6-minute walks today. I'm also supposed to use an incentive spirometer 10 times an hour while I'm awake. That's really hard to work into a schedule though. There's lot's going on.

Just getting out of bed incorrectly will set a person back a day or so. I have to say it's "interesting," in that the process really holds one's attention and not necessarily in a nice way. Most ordinary folks think it's amazing that I can walk up and down stairs. Basically it sucks, but it's better than the alternative. Luckily, our dwelling has two sets of stairs, one to get to the front door and then we have our bedroom and shower on the second floor. That was not a random choice. We chose to set the place up that way. Folks who move into single level homes as they age are totally F'ing up.

Glad to hear all went well. Three days is pretty incredible. Just went through this (double bypass) with my brother, he was 10 days in the hospital (had other complicating factors). All the best/smartest folks we dealt with eventually told us the consistent use of the spirometer was the most important part of rehab. This was not clear at the outset. We were pretty good in the beginning but, after a week or so, I found I was having to pester my brother to keep using it. We went to a follow up visit with the heart surgeon and proudly reported our progress on walks and other exercises and he responded "are you doing you breathing exercises every hour?" and then plainly, "consistent use of your breathing device is the most important part of your rehab" While it was clear before the breathing exercises were important, this was a clarifying statement. When my brother went to see the Cardiologist they also focused on him using the spirometer regularly. Best of luck on your continued speedy recovery

You must be commended. It sounds like you are already getting a good start on the rehabilitation process and it’s surely due to your history of keeping in shape through riding. I like reading your posts and I wish you a speedy recovery so you are back riding again soon.

It appears to me there may be a way to image arterial plaque, but I'm not a medical person. My search came up with something called a CT coronary angiogram, which includes injection of die into a vein.

From Mayo Clinic:

"A CT coronary angiogram also is different from a test called a CT coronary calcium scan. A CT coronary angiogram looks for buildups of plaque and other substances in the coronary artery walls. A CT coronary calcium scan looks only at how much calcium is in the artery walls."

But what about discriminating calcium plaque from soft plaque? AI appears to be coming to the rescue there, in the "years to come":

"The ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically assess soft coronary plaques in the coronary arteries was by far the biggest technology advance in cardiovascular computed tomography (CT) presented at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2022 meeting. Several top cardiac CT experts said this has the potential to change the practice of cardiology by enabling a sort of 'mammogram for the heart' type serial screening in the years to come."

Progress. I'd guess that cost is an issue, too.

I don't recall what all is in that thread, but there is this: Extreme Physical Activity May Increase Coronary Calcification, But Fitness Still Prevails - PMC

I can't help myself. Going at it as hard as I can, which is to say, very, very gently.

I'm actually too busy to post much. I have activities I'm supposed to do almost every frigging hour I'm awake.

Glad you’re really on top of this. When it comes to coronary issues, by DNA is a mixed bag of awful and great. I’m thinking it shades more to the awful.

Your action is my plan. Regular monitoring and action before that heart attack. Good on ya and good luck!

I will make this brief and to the point.
Very Glad you are on the green side of the grass!

fat biker

Things may have changed some in 14 years. Now lung capacity is the #1 thing they emphasize. They gave me an "incentive spirometer" which I'm to give max suck to, 10 times an hour every hour I'm awake. I haven't been able to do anything like that much, too many other things going on, but I'm trying. The issue is the one's alveoli are collapsed, and the idea is to reopen them.