I am now five months post open heart surgery and at the stage where it doesn’t consume every waking moment. Most days pass without it being mentioned. But just as I, to quote my daughter, ‘am over it’ it comes back to bite me.

At the start of the New Year I went back to training. I started off with a session with my personal trainer. I’m not sure who was the most nervous, me or her. It is a huge responsibility training someone that has had major surgery and there must be a temptation to take things a bit too slowly. This is something I didn’t want to happen as I want to get back to full fitness and beyond as soon as I can. As expected my personal trainer did not disappoint and I finished my first session feeling confident that I was back in the saddle. Those assault bikes are killers.

Whilst it was six months since I last trained I had retained most of my lower body strength. What I had lost completely was the power in my upper body. My push-up was pants. Only to be expected as my pectoral muscles had taken quite a bashing during the surgery. But I was pleased that I was actually doing a push-up albeit on my knees. There were occasions in the first couple of months of recovery where I doubted that I would ever be able to do a push up again let alone a bench press.

So I was back. Training four times a week with the occasional run thrown in and a few minutes of yoga here and there. My downward dog is also fairly pants at the moment.

What I hadn’t anticipated is the effect it would have on the dreaded warfarin. I had been back to training a couple of weeks when I had an appointment at the anticoagulant clinic. My INR (a test to measure blood clotting times) had plummeted from 2.4 to 1.3. Well out of therapeutic range. The only thing that had change during that time was the training. So I was back onto the heparin injections and being tested two-three times a week. It is lucky I am not yet back to work. Two weeks later and with a bruised abdomen I am back in range.

It did send me back to google to research the management of warfarin when exercising. Surprisingly there appears to be  very little information available even though there must be athletes that take warfarin. What has come home to me is that I must be consistent. This is easy to do at the moment but what happens if I want to train for an event and need to taper just prior to the event and then recover after. My warfarin dosage may need to change but if I am reliant on a four-six weekly blood test this won’t be possible.  What I did find out in my google search is that I am less likely to suffer blood clots or excessive bleeding if I self-monitor or self-manage my warfarin but this is not offered in my NHS Trust. So I will have to either persuade them otherwise or go to a private haematologist.

I suppose what this has brought home to me is that I have to manage the warfarin and not let it manage me and that the consequences of having open heart surgery are with me for life.

On the silver lining side of things there is every chance that my sternum will be stronger than ever. It now benefits from wires and extra bone growth so who knows. 40kg bench press here I come.

What I do want to explore (now that I have a heart that works properly) is other forms of exercise. A few years ago (2011) I completed all five Great Swims and then in 2012 cycled from London to Paris. I didn’t shine in either. Was I already starting to feel the effects of a dodgy heart valve! Maybe I should try both of them again. Add a run and you have a triathlon! So as a baby step I have signed up for Parkrun which as you may know is a free, timed 5k event held in many parks across the UK on Saturday morning. My first one is this Saturday.

I know it is cheesy but I really have been given a second chance and I am not going to waste it.