greenberetTFS, my father had his aorta valve replaced in his 70s and is stilling going at 81. He recovered from his surgery quicker than he did from his aortic abdominal aneurysm repair. It is a serious surgery and may not be the correct path for you, but I wanted you to know I was amazed how quickly he recovered.

I agree with JJ BPK. My dad had open heart 10-11 years ago now. He was always in incredibly good shape and worked manual labor jobs most of his life due to a language barrier. The set back knocked him for a loop psychologically and he was timid in getting back to his usual activities even though he was physically able. Now he is again running around in the mountains hunting elk. Killed his biggest bull ever last year at 73 years old. He drew a buck tag this year and is all excited.

Teddy, based on my experience working telemetry floors and ICU/CCU I have some thoughts for you.

Some cardiologists are better than others. Some surgeons are better than others. And so on. Most people do more research and due diligence when picking out their carpet than they do their general physician, cardiologist, or surgeon...

Go to the hospital. Bring someone with you (to help remember). Talk to the nursing staff that work in the recovery room, in the CCU, the telemetry floors. Talk to the ancillary staff (X-Ray, IV, EKG, Ultrasound, etc.) working there too. Find out which cardiac surgeons patients do better than most. Ask them if they were you, who would they choose.

Talk to your surgeon and ask him/her about their success rate. Then ask them to define success and see if it matches your own definition. Ask them what their one year and five year success rates are - what that really means. Note that I used the term success and not survival. They have different meanings. Ask them to define "quality of life" and see if it matches your own.

Remember that some doctors will take more serious cases than other doctors and their success rates will vary accordingly.

In my experience it is rare for cardiac patients to think about the after (quality of life) until it is after. I commend you for that, but I would also advise that you not put the cart before the horse.

If you are a good candidate for success, I would schedule the surgery for a Thursday. That gives you 2-3 days in CCU and then your on the step-down or telemetry floor for a normal M-F (full staff) schedule. If your not a good candidate for success, schedule for Tuesday and tell the surgeon your not going to the floor until Monday. Avoid all surgery on Mondays and Fridays.

Good luck to you and yours and may God bless whatever decision you make.

JJ

Thanks for the prep talk,but the people I know who have had it done were in the hospital at least 2 weeks,at home and required to be house ridden for several months.........Maggie couldn't have that much time left for runnung the house,she just couldn't do it.......:(

Big Teddy :munchin

There's your answer.......:(

Big Teddy :munchin

MR2

All excellent points and if I do change my mind I'll be sure to consider your advice,especially not scheduling my surgery on a monday or friday.......:(

Big Teddy :munchin

What about any family that could come and help out for a short while? Friends or relatives that could either stay over or drop in on occasion to help out, or clean acouple times, prepare or help with meals? Lasagna and tuna caserole can go a long way in situations like this.

If you plan it out and let someone close to you know you might need them regularly, then every other day and less frequently as you get back on your feet. If not, sometimes churches have volunteers that are more than willing to do this kind of work. Just a bit of networking and advance planning to get that ball rolling.

Don't look at it as accepting charity, the ladies that do this kind of volunteer work are about as selfless as you QPs! Anyways, just an idea.

Family members are pretty well tied up in their own needs,but you've got a point regarding church members.............We don't go to church anymore because it's kinda like a hassle to go through considering we are really homebound........We only go out when absolutely necessary(Doctors visits,Hospital and food shopping(always need help carrying things in and stocking them away).........:(

Big Teddy :munchin

FYI,
The opinion of the surgeon outweighs the opinion of the cardiologist relative to overall risk. The surgeons look at the medical work up and then figure in the surgical risk......a cardiologist works from only one data set, the surgeon has two.
Please ask the surgeon for his/her opinion about overall risk and "expected" recovery. No, we don't have a crystal ball but we use the benefit of those two data sets, experience, pattern recognition (profiling!!) and previous outcomes that are weighted against overall medical status and condition.

ss

Thanks Syd,your opinion is really valued by me,I'll follow up on that advice.....;)

Big Teddy :munchin

I' ll add a little more on the churches. Some of them, it makes no difference if you are a member or attend. They will help out anyways. It might not be the same volunteer from day to day, but it might be worth a shot and a few phone calls or web browsing to find the right folks.

Some of them might even have gone through this before theirselves, or already have cared for persons in the same circumstances.

I hope that it can work out and take much of the burden off of your recovery, and worrying about Mrs. greenberetTFS during that time.

Welp, I'm now in line for aortic surgery soon. I remembered Big Teddy's thread and reread it today. (Rest in Peace, Teddy!) Since its 12 years later, does anyone have more updated information or advice. Mine is a bicuspid aortic valve with some calcification. It's been monitored for years, but my latest echo showed an increased gradient over the previous echos. The surgery will be done in Tucson. Like Teddy, my cardiologist suggested getting an angiogram before scheduling the surgery. It seems to be a tossup as to which procedure I'll have until I meet with the surgeon.

Pat

I wish you nothing but the best with this Pat! I know nothing about the valve business but I had a triple by-pass 10 years ago and it was bad enough.

Point is that it was 10 years ago and he's still here! :lifter

I'm not worried about the surgery but the recovery period. I'm still in pretty good shape, but the Tucson hospital is quite aways from our house. Is my wife going to have to take the travel trailer up there or get a motel room? And once I'm home, how much of a burden will I be on her if any?

How long was the stay in the hospital and how long was the recovery? We live an hour and a half from the hospital, so we need to plan for my wife. We have a travel trailer if the hospital will allow her to stay in the parking lot. There's a 50/50 chance that they won't have to crack my chest, but I'm expecting the worst. To be honest, as long as I don't have to have another NG tube, this will be a walk in a shaded park. ;)

Metallic or porcine valve? Your wife may be able to live in your room most of the time. But she will need a break from all the noise, activity, and stress.

Write down your questions - and write down the answers. Best have a witness with you, as you will misinterpret the answers - I guarantee you!

It kinda depends on what kind of shape you're in now - like, can you, physically, go up some stairs vs can you even get up off of a couch. That said, baring complications, plan on between 2-5 days in hospital post op. You will need to make frequent visits back to the doc/surgeon/hospital. Demand physical rehab and cardiac rehab. And do it!!!

As for a burden at home - if you cannot get out of bed w/o assistance, you will need a potty chair and a regular chair close by. You may need to arrange for a home nurse to assist the wife. This could be 24-7 to just every other day. Depends on your needs.

In a couple of weeks, you need to start cardiac rehab. Both of you! Be sure to do the psych and dietary sessions. Stick with it ( and hopefully you'll still be here in another ten!)

I spent 4 nights in the hospital, would have been 3 but I was not coming around and it turned out I needed a blood transfusion. Everything I ate and drank tasted terrible for quite sometime. Within two months I was putting scaffolding up and replacing windows in my house. I am hoping they do not have to crack your chest. Godspeed!

Fortunately, I'm still in very good shape. I wouldn't have even known about this problem if the surgeon for my inguinal hernia hadn't insisted that I see a cardiologist before getting general anesthesia. Even now I have no noticeable external effects, no pain, no shortness of breath, only the heart mummer that they picked up on.

And my wife is in excellent shape, as well.

As to the pig valve vs metallic, that has yet to be determined as is the method of replacement. They want to do the pig valve my cardiologist is worried that I'll a little too young and healthy and it may not last me a lifetime. But, he doesn't want to put me on blood thinners for the rest of my life either.

Metallic or porcine - the dilemma...

You're looking at a daily (expensive - but better) pill or inevitably another surgery down the road that you are, technically, less likely to survive. That sounded harsh, it's probably not that dire. Probably meaning depends on how your health is, how soon it fails, and whatever new health anonomly pops up.

Prayers out!

Exactually! Whoever thought that it would suck to be healthy at 74? My mother is 97 and only recently started using a walker. And she's taking care of my younger sister and her husband who is only a couple of years older than me. You're right, I've been gored by a wild dilemma!

PSM, you're on my prayer list; your good health doesn't hurt (we're similar age, enjoy it) .
Look at cbtengr; he's probably restoring headstones sayin' "not yet, buster!" lol :D

PSM wishing you all the best

Thanks all! I was waiting for our son to return from deployment to do anything (something that was in the news a few months he was greatly involved in, and I didn't want to interfere with that). He got back this weekend, so I get the ball rolling tomorrow.

Had the angiogram this morning and amazingly, after nearly 75 year of eating butter and lard, my pipes are clean. And the pressure in the heart showed low, not my arm pressure, though. One flap of the valve is totally calcified, though. I was awake for the whole thing, but I only got about a 15 second view, which was disappointing. They went through my right wrist, which was great, but now I can't use my right hand for a couple of day, which I'm finding very difficult.

Prep was about 45 minutes and surgery (?) was also about 45 minutes. Recovery was 2 hours to ensure the bleeding had stopped. My wife ran out and got me a Popeye's chicken sandwich during it. NOT SPICY like I ordered! That was the worst part. ;)

I'm very very happy for you. Sounds generally excellent all-around (except maybe the sandwich). This should increase confidence level in procedure to come I'd imagine for ALCON. Thanks for the report.
:lifter

Glad that went well! Pretty amazing what they can do these days with minimal cutting and discomfort. Hang in there!

All in all pretty good news. The technique to replacing an aortic valve is much better now than even 10 years ago. Good luck when you have that done.

Thanks, Doc!

So do you need us to send you very small discreet bottles of hoysauce to hide on your person for these occasions? :cool:

Well, that's now in the rearview! Not at all what I expected. The only pain after surgery was in my back, below my right shoulder, which kept me awake most nights in the hospital.

The nurses were outstanding! Every single one of them was a type A+ personality. They had me up and walking almost as soon as I woke up. During our walks over the next week, I questioned them about their after-work life, and they were all extremely adventurous or industrious, from thru hiking the AZ Trail to woodworking, and they were all female. I got the impression that most of their patients never asked about them, only complained about themselves. Sad.

While the hospital food looked very good, and the breakfasts were great, my wife, stuck in a nearby hotel that often housed Resident doctors, catered my lunch and dinner from local restaurants.

The night before my release, a doctor noticed a spike on my heart monitor. The next morning, the day of release, they installed a pacemaker. :mad: Nothing on the week-long printout showed any other anomaly.

So, back home and the recovery was way less of a problem than my hernia surgery recoveries. I had the same lifting restrictions, but at least I could stand up straight the first day. And getting out of bed was much easier since I could use my core muscles, which I couldn't after the hernia surgeries. But I still couldn't sleep more than an hour at a time due to the back pain.

The only problem left, now, is that the ring and little finger on my right hand are still numb, which makes it hard to fill out all the damn medical forms!

OUT-standing! :lifter Great you're home and things went so well.

Prayers for your continued healing and recovery.

DOL

Great news. Delightful report. Time to focus on the windshield and hit the gas!

Good news. Praying for a speedy and full recovery.

Glad it came out positive. Great news. Get better soon.

Thanks! Better already...I'm up to 3 pushups a set! :lifter

Glad everything worked out PSM. :)

Keep it under control. :D

TR