Is Weight Training Safe After Watchman??

I didnt ask Dr Natale but am 8 days out and would like to resume my weight lifting even easing back into it. Am i safe with the Watchman placed on 2/16? My TEE is 3/31
I just do not want to risk having it experience movement or sealing etc he said my LAA was silent
Tom

Sure, there are no limits on what you can do once the insertion sites are fully healed. They use large catheters for the Watchman, so if I were you I think I'd give it 10 days before lifting, especially if you lift heavy.

I’m told the watchman can shift with lifting until the scar tissue forms. Was the discharge nurse incorrect?

If the LAA is silent. The watchman flex has prongs. But id hate for it to end floating around my chest. Loose. Omg

It wouldn’t float around. I’m asking the risk of leaking from lifting weights?

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susan.d
I’m told the watchman can shift with lifting until the scar tissue forms. Was the discharge nurse incorrect?

I think one or both of you misunderstood the other. There is no scar tissue involved with the Watchman itself. The only scar tissue would be a small hole at the insertion site in your groin and the puncture in your atrial septum. The insertion site is the only reason you need to avoid lifting for at least a week.

A Watchman can't be displaced by physical activity.

Thanks Carey. My groin sites are perfect. They were perfect the morning after. Natale s group does little things. The collagen plugs. They had me on colchicine. Holshouser never did. They gave me lasix the first morning. Holshouser never did So i never had any fluid or pericarditis. Its little things. No urinary cath. Etc. it sets them apart. One interesting thing Dr Natale told me: he has a post covid patient with autonomic nerv system tach. 128. Will not come down! Beta blkrs not working. He kinda shook his head
He told me my 20’mg propananol was a child dose. He upped to 40 twice a day

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Carey

I’m told the watchman can shift with lifting until the scar tissue forms. Was the discharge nurse incorrect?

I think one or both of you misunderstood the other. There is no scar tissue involved with the Watchman itself. The only scar tissue would be a small hole at the insertion site in your groin and the puncture in your atrial septum. The insertion site is the only reason you need to avoid lifting for at least a week.

A Watchman can't be displaced by physical activity.

Sorry I meant Endothelialization. See photo: [ibb.co]
Article: [myheart.net]

“The device is nicely in place and over the next weeks to months a process occurs whereby the body covers the device with its own lining known as Endothelialization. This is great for a few reasons. Firstly, this ensures the device will essentially remain stable lifelong. Secondly, this will further act to prevent clot formation in and around the appendage.”

Tom was joking and said he hopes his watchman doesn’t float around. It did happen twice with the original watchman years ago. Technology and EP expertise has changed that from occurring again. Here is one of the two cases:
[bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com]

“We describe the case of a 77-year-old man who underwent uneventful LAA closure. Echocardiography performed the next day showed the device in place. The patient was discharged but was then lost to follow-up. 1.5 years later, he was admitted for ischemic stroke. Transesophageal echocardiography showed the absence of the occluder device in the LAA. Computed tomography scan of the abdomen showed the device in the abdominal aorta.”
[www.jacc.org]

Or the two random patients below unable to get complete Endothelialization. Should they hit the weights? Again another extremely rare and fluke of weirdness not relevant to Tom or myself if we are physically able to encapsulate the watchman with Endothelialization …but it happened to some unlucky persons using unskilled EPs and physical tissue growing glitches. Whose to say using gym weights two weeks post implant is 100% safe until Endothelialization occurs? Rare cases do occur. So a “watchman cannot be displace” maybe accurate to majority but it has happened.


[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Yes, it has happened in the past, and more than twice, but that had nothing to do with the patient's physical activity. It was due to improper placement in the early days of EPs learning how to use the device.

When Natale placed your Watchman, and Tom's, he would have tugged on it firmly several times to make sure it couldn't be dislodged before releasing it from the catheter. No amount of weight lifting would ever place that kind of stress on a Watchman.

Physical activity just isn't relevant to a Watchman. There are no limits on physical activity once you're beyond the week of lifting restrictions to protect your insertion sites. It just doesn't matter.

Makes total logic. Besides im
Not entering a power lifting contest. I had two talks with Dr Natale and one with Watchman. Neither mentioned: now be very careful! The device could come out! No sudden moves no cycling no moving furniture no spreading mulch etc etc. so ill take it that lighter weight training is safe. Yes the tug test im sure was done. Susan I appreciate your erring on safety but i just cannot tip toe in fear. Ill
Just attempt to be smart.

For my own safety and because I tend to always push myself, I skipped the exercising, other than walking the neighborhood, until the week following the implant and this week resumed weight conditioning with free weights and machines.