It's been a little over four weeks now since I had the heart valve replacement so I'm able to gradually start using my arms a little bit more. The nurses at the hospital told me to limit my arm use for four weeks because it puts strain on the breastbone that was opened up. Using your arms puts strain on it and may cause it not to grow back together properly. It wasn't really that hard because my arms were painful and weak anyway. That seems to be gradually improving with time.

The difficult part was not using my arms to get out of chairs and bed. I wasn't supposed to use them to help push myself up. Getting out of chairs wasn't too bad but bed was hard. My wife had to help me with that. The last couple of days I've been working at getting out of bed myself, using my arms as little as possible, and it's getting a little easier. It takes some practice.

I still have a picc line(an IV) in my left arm so I have to be kind of careful with that. It comes out on the 6th, hopefully. I can't really do any stretching or mobility exercises with with that arm because it gets irritated from the IV, plus I have to be careful I don't accidentally pull it out. I don't need any more trips to the hospital.

My upper back muscles and arms are still causing me the most pain. The incision and chest area really aren't that bad, unless I cough or sneeze. I think most of the pain is TOS stuff.