Originally Posted by MR2 (Post 457363)

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.

Originally Posted by Sarski (Post 457399)

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.

Originally Posted by swatsurgeon (Post 457414)

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

Originally Posted by PSM (Post 680291)

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

Originally Posted by cbtengr (Post 680297)

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.

Originally Posted by MR2 (Post 680299)

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

Originally Posted by cbtengr (Post 680297)

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.

Originally Posted by PSM (Post 680327)

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?

Originally Posted by PSM (Post 680328)

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. ;)