Haven't been around for awhile - surprise surgery!

[Wally]

So, I had an aortic dissection about 4 weeks ago. Here's a link for anyone that's not a medical professional:

Aortic Dissection: eMedicine Thoracic Surgery

Basically, I had emergency open heart surgery and have been restricted to watching movies/tv and minimal activity for the past month. I am currently doing "cardiac rehab" 3 days a week, which mostly involves treadmill walking, and expect to make a full recovery in the next 6 months, but for now, lifting anything over 10# or even jogging is not an option.

I had no idea I had any cardiac issues and I was the youngest, healthiest person they had ever seen in the heart hospital where I received treatment. From what the doctors and nurses said, I am extremely lucky to be alive and the sweet 8" scar where they cracked my chest open to perform surgery is a small price to pay for basically being able to "walk away" from an aortic dissection.

Anyways, I don't get cleared to go back to work for a few more weeks, so I'll be around for awhile.

[stilwrks]

Glad to hear your doing better!

[Mr Tyler]

Dude. That's crazy. Glad you're here!

[cszink]

So what led up to them doing this? Were you having some awful chest pains or something?

[wiseoracle]

Did you have a family history of bad heart issues?

You can feel and look healthy, but never know what lies underneath. Sucks to hear, but you're alive and that's all important.

[HomieG]

Hope you have a speedy recovery. Get better man!

[ZERK]

Wow Wally this is sad news! I'm glad you are doing better. I know how much it's going to suck to not be able to do all of the workout stuff you were doing. This is why I worry so much about the pain I've been in recently, because you just never know what's going on inside there, young and healthy or not. Still glad to hear you survived something so serious.

[Bitter]

wonder if the weight loss stressed your heart in some way

[JeremyV]

Damn, that sucks. Were you taking any type of ephedrine when this happened?

Good to hear you're ok now and hope you have a speedy recovery!

[wright06jhs]

Glad your ok and doing better.

[Damian]

Holy shit dude. I'm glad you're ok! Have they told you future prognosis? Like, are you able to continue to work out hard once you're fully recovered? Take care of yourself.

[Bro'Man]

Recover well man. Sorry to hear this happened to you but glad to hear that you're coming through it.

[Wally]

The diagnosis from the doctors was that this was a freak thing and they have no idea how or why it happened. I do have family history on both sides, but not anything that would point to an aortic dissection at 30 years old. They said, if they had done every existing test 2 hours prior to this happening, they still would have had no idea it would happen.

I was actually lifting when it started. It was crazy. I got tunnel vision and my right arm started to go numb, but also hurt when I raised it up - which put a kink in the power cleans I was doing at the time. One of the staff at the gym drove me to the ER and my pulse was 32bpm when they got me in there. From there, I was eventually transferred to a heart specialty hospital where I was diagnosed and rushed into surgery. The doctors said my physical fitness is probably the only reason I lasted long enough to get into surgery.

[wiseoracle]

Wow, that is nuts man! Definitely opens your eyes.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Damian

Holy shit dude. I'm glad you're ok! Have they told you future prognosis? Like, are you able to continue to work out hard once you're fully recovered? Take care of yourself.

I'm currently doing "cardiac rehab" 3 days a week, which consists of walking on a treadmill and some recumbent bike work for about 45 min while hooked up to an EKG. I should be done with that in the next 6-8 weeks and then I can start working with weights and building back up to where I was. In the longer term (6+ months) I should be able to get to at least 95% of where I was prior to the dissection.

Right now, I've lost 15 pounds (a lot of which is muscle) from laying in a hospital bed on an IV drip for a week. I also am not allowed to lift more than 10# until my chest bone fuses back together. I'm hoping to be back up to 180lbs and able to deadlift over 350# by the end of the year.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by JeremyV

Damn, that sucks. Were you taking any type of ephedrine when this happened?

Nope. I wasn't taking anything other than protein and fish oil at the time.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Bitter

wonder if the weight loss stressed your heart in some way

Actually, the doctors said I'm the fittest guy they've ever seen this happen to.

They also said the rest of my heart, my cholesterol and everything else looked great. Just a freak occurrence as far as they're concerned.

[ZERK]

Originally Posted by Wally

I'm currently doing "cardiac rehab" 3 days a week, which consists of walking on a treadmill and some recumbent bike work for about 45 min while hooked up to an EKG. I should be done with that in the next 6-8 weeks and then I can start working with weights and building back up to where I was. In the longer term (6+ months) I should be able to get to at least 95% of where I was prior to the dissection.

Right now, I've lost 15 pounds (a lot of which is muscle) from laying in a hospital bed on an IV drip for a week. I also am not allowed to lift more than 10# until my chest bone fuses back together. I'm hoping to be back up to 180lbs and able to deadlift over 350# by the end of the year.

Wow. Well it's best to do it right I suppose. All your dedication to working out will help you through the rehab.

[Loco]

Originally Posted by Wally

Actually, the doctors said I'm the fittest guy they've ever seen this happen to.

They also said the rest of my heart, my cholesterol and everything else looked great. Just a freak occurrence as far as they're concerned.

Thats a good thing they found it early because it would not have been pretty otherwise. Did you recently started working out after x years of break or something?

For those that asked, its usually caused on by trauma or high blood pressure but rarely but still possible is just a freak accident.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Loco

Thats a good thing they found it early because it would not have been pretty otherwise. Did you recently started working out after x years of break or something?

Nope. Been working out consistently for almost 2 years prior to the dissection. Just a freak thing.

[Chippy]

If you remember any of the details - which part of your aorta was dissected (I'm assuming from the commentary it was thoracic only)? Ascending or descending? Did it progress into your coronary arteries at all??? Must say this is a HUGE thing and rightly so should be considered lucky to still be with us, I'm glad everything went ok.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Chippy

If you remember any of the details - which part of your aorta was dissected (I'm assuming from the commentary it was thoracic only)? Ascending or descending? Did it progress into your coronary arteries at all??? Must say this is a HUGE thing and rightly so should be considered lucky to still be with us, I'm glad everything went ok.

Not sure on the details. Everything was really rushed once they figured out what was going on and I was on a lot of pain meds for a few days afterward I'll ask the surgeon on Friday at the follow-up exam.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Chippy

If you remember any of the details - which part of your aorta was dissected (I'm assuming from the commentary it was thoracic only)? Ascending or descending? Did it progress into your coronary arteries at all??? Must say this is a HUGE thing and rightly so should be considered lucky to still be with us, I'm glad everything went ok.

Just realized I never replied on this

I had an ascending aortic dissection which actually dissected all the way into the transverse arch. I have a titanium aortic valve and a stoutly repaired ascending aorta. After 2+ years of scans, ultrasounds, tests, etc., I'm actually in excellent condition and, if I didn't tell you, you'd never know I had this happen (unless my shirt's off and you see my awesomely massive chest scar)

I currently lift weights and do a good bit of Crossfit stuff 5-6 days a week.
Major side effects of my condition are that my recovery sucks and I can't really push hard enough to be truly competitive in this stuff. I'm also prone to excessive bleeding due to the blood thinners requisite with my titanium aortic valve.

[citm2000]

Is there any history of Morfan's (sp?) in your family? The only people I've ever known to have this had that disease and you're the first person I've ever heard survive an aortic dissection.

[Wally]

No history whatsoever and no real solid explanation as to why it happened. Most likely a small, undetectable congenital weakness in the aorta coupled with a big spike in blood pressure at an inopportune moment

On the surviving thing, I'm the 4% of people that live through this. It helped a ton that I'm not a 70+ year old man with a host of other health problems (that's 80% of the demographic for this type of thing) and that I was in very good physical condition.

The PA who was in on the surgery said he'd never seen a case where the dissection went so far and the patient didn't end up losing a limb, permanently losing kidney function or ending up with brain damage (for the record, I have none of those issues).

[Shelly]

Holy shit. I haven't been on as much through the past few years and totally missed this. That is really scary and I'm so glad you pulled through it. Is this the same kind of thing that actor John Ritter died from?

Are you still paleo?

[FLiPMaRC]

Wow! I didn't know about this Wally. Good to see you well

[Jar]

Probably from all the coke. Get well, man.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Shelly

Holy shit. I haven't been on as much through the past few years and totally missed this. That is really scary and I'm so glad you pulled through it. Is this the same kind of thing that actor John Ritter died from?

Yup, same exact thing that killed John Ritter. most folks don't make it to the hospital, let alone get diagnosed in time and into the OR. I was extremely fortunate on just about every account. Crazy shit.

Originally Posted by Shelly

Are you still paleo?

Let's call it "paleo-ish"

If there's one thing I've always been good at, it's eating a metric fuck-ton of food and I can easily overeat on a paleo diet. I found that out the hard way.

My current diet/exercise program is something like this:

• 5am - wake up, get some fast absorbing nutrients (protein & carbs) in
  
• 5:30am - CrossFit class right down the street from my house. Typical class involves strength/olympic lifting stuff for the majority of the hour followed by a shorter "CrossFit-esque" workout that leaves me in a sweaty, panting heap on the ground
  
• 6:30am - recovery drink (varies depending on which way the wind was blowing when I made my most recent online supplement purchase )
  
• 7:30am - usually a big shake of whey protein, peanut butter, almond milk (sometimes real milk if I'm trying to get more swole )
  
• Rest of the day - eat real food, pretty much paleo

Most of my carbs come before and immediately after workouts. The rest of the day is pretty much animals, vegetables and fats

I work out 5-6 days a week, usually taking Wednesday and Sunday off and I am actually (now) stronger and in better condition that before my aorta blew up.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Jar

Probably from all the coke. Get well, man.

Yeah, that "hookers and blow" nutrition plan was probably a bad idea

What's actually funny about this is when I was in the cardiac rehab program for a couple months post surgery, I was the youngest person in there by about 50 years, so initially I was getting the cold shoulder from all these senior citizens. I figured out in the second week, that they thought I blew out my ticker on a coke bender

[Wally]

Originally Posted by FLiPMaRC

Wow! I didn't know about this Wally. Good to see you well

Thanks! It's good to be alive!

[Jar]

Originally Posted by Wally

Yeah, that "hookers and blow" nutrition plan was probably a bad idea

What's actually funny about this is when I was in the cardiac rehab program for a couple months post surgery, I was the youngest person in there by about 50 years, so initially I was getting the cold shoulder from all these senior citizens. I figured out in the second week, that they thought I blew out my ticker on a coke bender

That's awesome.

[FLiPMaRC]

Originally Posted by Wally

Thanks! It's good to be alive!

Post up the secsi scar pic

[Wally]

This was about a week post-surgery:



The 3 horizontal lines below the large vertical incision are from various tubes that were inside me. I still have all 4 scars, they just look a little less freaky now.

Also, they shaved me from neck to toes prior to surgery - hence the unsightly chest stubble.

[Shelly]

Originally Posted by Wally

Yup, same exact thing that killed John Ritter. most folks don't make it to the hospital, let alone get diagnosed in time and into the OR. I was extremely fortunate on just about every account. Crazy shit.



Let's call it "paleo-ish"

If there's one thing I've always been good at, it's eating a metric fuck-ton of food and I can easily overeat on a paleo diet. I found that out the hard way.

My current diet/exercise program is something like this:

• 5am - wake up, get some fast absorbing nutrients (protein & carbs) in
  
• 5:30am - CrossFit class right down the street from my house. Typical class involves strength/olympic lifting stuff for the majority of the hour followed by a shorter "CrossFit-esque" workout that leaves me in a sweaty, panting heap on the ground
  
• 6:30am - recovery drink (varies depending on which way the wind was blowing when I made my most recent online supplement purchase )
  
• 7:30am - usually a big shake of whey protein, peanut butter, almond milk (sometimes real milk if I'm trying to get more swole )
  
• Rest of the day - eat real food, pretty much paleo

Most of my carbs come before and immediately after workouts. The rest of the day is pretty much animals, vegetables and fats

I work out 5-6 days a week, usually taking Wednesday and Sunday off and I am actually (now) stronger and in better condition that before my aorta blew up.

I thought it sounded similar. Thank God you made it there and they didn't think it was a heart attack like they did in his case.

We are sort of paleo/primal because we use a fair amount of dairy/cheese/milk. Jan 2, we're starting the Whole30 so strict paleo for 30 days because lately we've been a little lax in our approach.

So glad you're doing well now!

[citm2000]

I'm still amazed at not only survival, but lack of serious consequences. The two people I've known (one in 70s, the other in 20's) were felled almost instantly and never saw it coming. I've heard of a few other cases and the results were the same. If it really was the fitness, I'm going to increase from running 20km a week to 40!

[Wally]

Originally Posted by citm2000

I'm still amazed at not only survival, but lack of serious consequences. The two people I've known (one in 70s, the other in 20's) were felled almost instantly and never saw it coming. I've heard of a few other cases and the results were the same. If it really was the fitness, I'm going to increase from running 20km a week to 40!

I only run up to 800m. If the rundown is going to be longer than that, I'll turn and fight whatever's chasing me

Seriously, being strong makes you harder to kill and more useful in general.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Shelly

We are sort of paleo/primal because we use a fair amount of dairy/cheese/milk. Jan 2, we're starting the Whole30 so strict paleo for 30 days because lately we've been a little lax in our approach.

Good luck with that Whole 30. It's a pretty strict program, but it seems like tons of folks have had success with it.

I've done some tinkering and logging of my food intake over the past 2-3 months and figured out I handle dairy okay in smaller quantities (especially raw dairy) and I have no issues with rice or oatmeal (other than too many starchy carbs making me gain a little more fat than I'd like), so I limit them now, but don't completely kick them out of the pantry. Same with peanut butter. I use the non-paleo stuff for specific purposes (mostly pre & post workout) and not as snacks or "cheats".