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One thought: I suspect that many, if not most, of us here heard our valves more vividly immediately post-op, then the sound eventually leveled out, dissipated, whatever, so that most of us seldom hear it. I don't think it's as much due to "getting used to it" as it is to the healing process...

I heard my St. Jude at first -- in fact, my niece and nephew could hear it standing beside my bed at the hospital. When I returned to work, I could hear it over ceiling fans, CPU fan noise, telephones ringing, etc. I seldom hear it now -- in a quiet, tiled bathroom or sometimes lying in bed...

FWIW: Bactrim's generic name is co-trimoxazole -- a combination of trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole. Any drug whose generic name ends in -azole will increase the INR. Metronidazole (Flagyl) is a frequently prescribed one. A lot of antifungal drug names end in -azole: ketaconazole...

Tell your dad good luck. I am sure he will do just fine. It's not fun going through a 2nd surgery, I'm sure, and it is pretty unusual to require a re-op so soon after a repair. But you do what you have to do, and it sounds as though your dad realizes it. He will have the strength to get through...

Marcia: Good luck through this. It's an odd feeling having a family member go through almost the same procedure. Been there, done that! I was able to help my husband avoid some discomfort/pain thanks to my experience. But I knew too well what could happen (and luckily didn't).

OK, I've found where vitamin K2 helps restore natural flora in the gut when taking broad-spectrum antibiotics. That makes sense. I assume the enox is enoxaparin??

I'm not sure I understand why the need for vitamin K2...

What do your cardio and neurologist say? I'm assuming a neuro saw you after your strokes.

I get mine at Walmart, get RXs for 10mg and 1mg, and split them. My dosage varies from 5 to sometimes 6mg and this works well for me. My PCP suggested I do this to stretch my money. I may spend $30-$40 or so a year on warfarin. Never had a problem with doing this.

Warfarin is a lot more stable than most people think -- as long as you are consistent in your lifestyle, which is not a bad idea to maintain good health. Yes, a wide variety of things affect it, but all in all, it's more stable than you'd think. My main question is why test that frequently, why...

Excellent idea! Please keep us posted on what you hear.

Why the need to test 159 times in 34 weeks' time? An average of testing every 1.5 days??? That triggers a yo-yo effect -- a real disservice to YOU if you are making any adjustments in that short a time period. You have to remember that it can take up to 72 hours for warfarin to load and to show...

I have been colder since my surgery, but I also lost quite a bit of weight since my surgery. So I have less natural "insulation." I think that's the reason, not the face that I'm on warfarin.

I had a full sternotomy with my MVR; my hubby had the side incision with his MV repair. Not all surgeons like to do the thoracotomy/"key hole" incision like my husband had. I've been by Mo Bap -- good hospital. I think it's near St. John's Mercy, where my great-nieces were born. I've been to...

I had MVR, not AVR, but I did have back and shoulder pain. I think that comes with any OHS in which you have a sternotomy, due to the way you are positioned on the OR table. My husband had MV repair 4 years after my surgery, and his surgeon did a thoracotomy, an incision just under the right...

Since you got a tissue valve, I'm surprised that you were put on both amiodarone and warfarin. My husband had a-fib while hospitalized after his MV repair, so his surgeon put him on amiodarone while in the hospital. It didn't affect the a-fib and he was going to send him home on amiodarone, but...

Your post reminded me of an article I had seen in the New England Journal of Medicine's iPhone app several weeks ago. It involved the daughter of an 86YO woman who accompanies her for a routine physical and asks if her mom should have a colonoscopy (which are NOT recommended for this age). The...

I was lucky when I got a diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse in early 1990. A woman in our Sunday school class worked for the Fort Worth Chapter of the American Heart Association and gave me a wonderful book about the heart. I read and read that book. Was not referred to a cardiologist for annual...

Congratulations!!! A breakfast buddy is considering getting his own testing machine. I told him this week that after home-testing for 8 years, I don't ever want to go back to trips to the Dr.'s office for INR tests.

Freddie: I have a CRV, too. A 2001 (one-owner) with 234,000 miles on it. It's green, so maybe I should decorate it with red bows???