Building a SnowMan

Eden and me are staying quite busy enjoying the falling snow and another season of our lives. I don’t believe anyone could have thought I’d be home in October building a snowman with my girl. What a miracle.

Photo: Playing in the snow with Eden

Looking back to where our family was last year I read a section from my October 5, 2008 blog entry showing some of the challenges we were faced with. It read:

“After a difficult week of being in the hospital to help with my exhaustion my cardiologist pulled some strings to get me home for the weekend. My daughter has been sleeping at my parents home and also at my sister n' laws home. My wife has been working. So, I am happy to be with them for this short weekend. Tomorrow, after church and a nap my wife will work a night shift. I'll be with my daughter at my parents overnight before I go back to the hospital on Monday for several more days of procedures and minor surgery. I will have another Heart Cath and they will put a stent in. They may also change my pacemaker. Then I'll recover for a few days."

Needless to say, life is now back to normal. My wife still works her nursing shift at the newborn intensive care and I am thankfully able to attend to Eden.

Life could not be better!

Whether I am walking in the morning or riding my brother's bike in the afternoon I am exercising each day.

Most people don't realize a transplanted heart has no connection to the brain. It works independently. I'm amazed.

There are a few minor challenges in adapting to a new organ. I believe I have one of the best organs a recipient could receive because of how my body is responding to exercise. I didn't know this type of energy existed.

The following is a deeper explanation of how my new heart functions.

Photo: Last year at this time with Eden in the hospital trying to get my body stable to endure the waiting process

How your new heart responds to exercise

Healthwise

http://www.revolutionhealth.com

During your transplant surgery, some of the nerves that help control the function of your heart are cut, which results in your heart being slower to respond to exercise. In a normal heart, an increase of cardiac output (the total amount of blood that leaves the heart) is a result of an increase in heart rate as well as stroke volume (amount of blood leaving the heart per beat).

In a transplanted heart, however, this increase in heart rate is delayed, and instead your stroke volume provides the amount of blood that your body needs. Your heart rate will increase if you exercise hard, but only after your stroke volume can no longer provide enough blood to your body.

This is important to know, because it means that your heart rate will not increase when you exercise the way it used to with your old heart. Also, your new heart will have a higher heart rate when you are resting (about 95 to 115 beats per minute bpm]), as well as a lower maximum heart rate when you are exercising (about 150 bpm).

Therefore, measuring your heart rate is not a good way to measure how hard you are exercising. Instead, you may need to monitor other signs such as blood pressure, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and shortness of breath while you are exercising

Your heart rate may be highest right after you finish exercising and will remain high. You will also need to give your new heart longer to cool down afterward.

Due to this delayed heart rate response to exercise and the smaller-than-normal stroke volume, your overall exercise cardiac output may be lower than that of the average person. This means that you may achieve a lower overall cardiovascular fitness level than if you had an original healthy heart.