Hole in the heart recovery post surgery.

[3spd]

A friend is having a hole in his heart closed, by catheter method.
He's finding it hard to get info on how long he should stay off his road and mountain bikes.

Obviusly he will ask his consultant but he's looking for a heads up while waiting to see them.
One consultant has stated he'll not be able to mountain bike but my friend thinks he's thinking more downhill mtb'ing than the two wheeled rambling we partake in.

Any advice or experiences appreciated.

[rich.hr6]

Hi 3spd,
After my open heart surgery for an Aortic valve replacement the ' very expensive plumber' as he called himself, said give it 6 to 8 weeks and then see how it feels. So that's what I did. That was in 2002, and since then I've cycled up, over and down most of the hills in this part of the world. Getting from Tenbury to the golf ball on the top Clee Hill had me huffing 'n puffing so much I almost threw up, and coming down the other side of The Long Mynd from the gliding club, having come over the moors from the Ratlinghope side, almost frightened me to death, but I'm still ticking, loudly at times, though no real problems when on the bike. 22 at the front, 34 at the back and I can cope with most things, albeit slowly, at my own pace!!! I'm 66, by no means fit, and only head out if the weather has a Mediterraneanly warm and sunny feel to it. Holding the bike whilst on the scales seems to weigh in at 14 stone, 12 for me [at 6 foot tall] and the other 2 for the bike, plus food and drink on top of that.
Presumably catheter surgery will be less invasive than open heart, so your friend should be fine. No doubt the surgeon will give him all the info' he needs.
Tell him good luck from me.
Hope this is a help.
All the best, Rich.

[martinn]

It depends is the simple answer, is the hole a PFO, ASD or VSD, or other rarer lesion.
MTB is probably going to be at a later time than road biking, due to the assumed liklyhood of incident! I would guess 3 months for MTB and probably only a couple of weeks for road.

Martin

[scragglymonkeyman]

Interestingly, a 'hole in the heart' is an unusual cause of migraines, although no-one knows why, and closure of holes used to be done as a treatment.

[martinn]

Scragglymonkeyman, not quite.
The type of migraine that maybe associated with a PFO is one that has aura, or other visual problem. The only reason you would close a PFO for migraines (when we were allowed to) is when all other options had failed and the quality of life for that individual was significantly affected.
However, the individuals who have had a closure for other reasons over that last 10 years have commonly reported that if they suffered from migraines with visual disturbance they have either disappeared completely or have significantly reduced in intensity and/ or frequency. Migraines without visual disturbances are generally unaffected.
You also close PFOs for divers who have had skin bends

regards

Martin

[axel_knutt]

Migraine is a common after-effect of PVI ablation for atrial fibrillation due to the atrial septal puncture.