Coping With Pericarditis

Last August I had three stents placed in my heart, within a week they collapsed. On September 11 I had open heart surgury. They did two bypasses a valve repair and a maize procedure. I had to return to the hospital 3 times because of complications. In January I was admitted again, they did a heart cath and found out that the bypass artery that was harvested from my leg got a ‘kink’ in it and had to have a stent placed in it because the blood flow was 90% blocked.

After that I kept geting tired and just exhausted. I had to quit rehab therapy because I couldn’t keep up. The Dr. said I had pericarditis I was placed on Indocin 50 mg for 2 weeks. There was no improvement. Then I was put on 900mg. Ibuprofom for 10 days very slight improvement. Next I was put on Prednisone 40 Mg for 3 days then 20 for 3 days and then 10 for 2 weeks. Got about 50% better. Went to Dr. today and was put back on pred for 6 weeks.

He said I could be as active as I was able to tolerate, said I couldn’t hurt my heart. I was wondering to what extent others coped with this as far as being active is concerned. Some days I have a good surge of energy and other days I am too fatigued to do very do much.

Thats my long long story -8months - and not up to par yet. Would like to hear about yours.
Ken