Heart Health after WLS question

Mersh congratulations on your success and off all your medications. Good luck with the cardiologist appointment. Glad you are going. Hopefully it is nothing to be concerned with and just your body needing to be regulated or something.

On Friday I went to a new primary care after not having one for probably 3.5 -4 years (he moved away) .... along with my WLS! They all moved! Anyway to my surprise I now have a murmur that I never had and he did an EKG and it was abnormal and have to have a Echocardiogram (ultrasound) done this week. I was freaked but staying calm. Never had a murmur or an EKG abnormal. BP was 120/70. Strange as in great shape I thought, lost much of my regain. I have yo yo though 15-20 lbs like 3 times in last 3 years ... before finally staying stable and dropping lower. Heart problems (congestive heart failure problems) in my family. I am much older then you though (51). Almost 10 years out and in my mind not related to my WLS surgery but age and family history probably. I cut out caffeine.... my coffee and soooo tired and headaches these last 3 days. I was drinking 2 to 3 cups of coffee (probably 24 plus ounces a Day.

Good luck Mersh .... so happy for you!!!!!

Oh no! If I don't get my coffee I'm miserable (on the inside, thankfully I'm never cranky!). Thank you for your kind words as well. I am confident it is all just from weight loss, but it's good to get it looked it especially since I've never seen a cardiologist before anyway. When I was heavy I avoided doctors as much as possible.

I know, day 4 no coffee... but no headache this morning and not as tired .... I miss it though! Not as chatty either!

Hi Mersh,

hope your feeling better. Did you go to cardiologist yet? I hope all is well.

i had my Echocardiogram this morning and totally normal! Got result tonight! I think he knew I was stressed and told me as soon as he had the report! He says do not worry about the heart murmur and abnormal EKG I had last Friday! I guess the Echo supersedes the other findings. See if I still have a murmur next time I go. In the meantime I feel much better! Amazing how we can psyche ourselves out!! I was good all week though and did not overeat. I might just stay off coffee since tomorrow is day 8 and through the withdrawal!

I agree with their extra salt ( and fluids) . Honestly i never thought I'd recommend air popped pre toasted ( for taste ) popcorn with butter buds and salt to ANYONE for heart health... yet i feel WAY better making it once again a regular part of my diet .

My inexplicable body ... dictates to my also but very differently expressed inexplicable appetite.

The bottom line is .. I listen to my body no matter how "crazy" its desires ...

and im healthy as well.. a horse , iguana, donkey .. take your pick.

I'm extremely grateful to enjoy that rude careless health.

My doctor once explained to me that it often isn't low heart rate or BP that causes dizziness or fainting, but a rapid change. If you walk around with a pulse of 50 all the time, you probably would feel fine. If you walk around with a pulse of 90 most of the time and it suddenly dropped to 65, you would probably not feel fine. Same with BP.

I don't know if that's of any help, but I thought it was an interesting fact at least, hahaha.

And to more directly answer your question, yes, my pulse is quite low all the time. It was 52 at my physical today. When I was in the hospital getting prepped for my scopes last week it was 46 while I was laying there and the damn machine kept beeping at me.

My doctors seem unconcerned when they find out that this is where mine always is. I wore a fitbit for 18 months or so, and my heart rate was generally in the low 50s when resting, and often dipped into the mid-upper 40s when sleeping.

I try an exercise fairly regularly, but I focus on just moving more - mostly walking. Sometimes I lift weights for a period of time or will do some regular cardio, but I am FAR from a super fit individual. So it isn't low because I'm a marathon runner, for sure.

On the BP side - I was medicated for high BP for years before surgery (a decade or more), but within a couple of months i was off all medication, and my BP was generally around 110/70. Sadly, as I approach 2 years post-op it has been more regularly around 125/85 or so. This is telling me I need to start doing some regular cardio again to try and nip this in the bud. I would be very sad to have to go back on BP meds.

I think you are right about the sudden change. I have been monitoring my heart rate often and I am going from a pretty normal clip of 70ish, down to the 40's. My best guess is it's definitely related to losing so much weight, but I'm going to get everything tested so I have some peace of mind.

I'm 3.5 years post-op, and I've been maintaining for over 2 years now.

But during the 18 months when I was losing weight my resting heart weight was occasionally in the 40s. It seemed very weird to me, although I wasn't dizzy and certainly never fainted. As I've maintained my weight very stably and as my body has adjusted in various ways to its new dimensions (inside and out), my resting heart rate has increased slightly.

In fact, I just measured my resting heart rate a minute ago, and it's 54 bpm. That's where it normally is these days when I'm at rest.

BTW, my blood pressure these days is normally 115/75, although I didn't have high BP pre-op either.

As my doc told me last fall during my annual physical, "The bad news is you're going to die. The good news is it won't be from heart disease." :) BTW, the ratio of my bad cholesterol to good cholesterol is now exactly 1.0. :) It can't get any better than that. :)