Can you be active after heart surgery and while taking an anticoagulant?
This question loomed over me for months before surgery. Here is what I have learned in the years since. A photo of me in Washington Pass about two years after surgery Heart surgery undoubtedly changes a person's life. In 2016, when being rolled into the operating room to replace a faulty Aortic Valve, I did not know the extent of this change. A few people told me stories of what it was like to live with a mechanical valve. The main focus of my interest in these stories was to learn what it would be like to live life on "blood thinners" (anticoagulants), since this was one of my biggest concerns about choosing a mechanical heart valve. The issue, though, was that the people I talked to did not live their life similar to the way I want to live mine, so their antidotes were not fully helpful. Sometime bruises 'appear' after a long day of climbing. They had "normal" lives, where risk is not part of the day-to-day experience. Sure, some of the people I ...