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I suffer very badly if I get dehydrated, I have greyed out while driving on one occasion, which scared me very badly. I get dizzy and weak, the curtains come down if I stand up too quickly. I have to be careful not to get dehydrated. These are the same symptoms I had before I had any surgeries...

Ingrid, I am sure you will be fine, just make sure they keep an eye on the valve. In the three years where I was pregnant and having my kids I did not have an echo, with my second pregnancy nobody even listened to my heart, they all assumed there would be no problems. This enabled me to go...

Best of luck with it Ingrid, I hope you have an uneventful pregnancy. When I was preparing for my first AVR I was basically told to have a tissue valve to start with, due to my age (22yo at the time) and the fact that it would be much safer to be pregnant with a tissue valve. I was on no...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I hear what a lot of you are saying about only getting a valve changed if they had to go in anyway. That is probably a realistic way to look at it. I guess it is a bit sad that even with no real complications in the two years since my surgery I have still not...

This is a question that haunts me. I am fairly young (30yo) and have a mechanical aortic valve and pacemaker. I know that there will probably be many advancements made in my lifetime regarding my condition. Reading the thread about valves being grown from stem cells has prompted this post. I...

So glad to hear that everything worked out in the end, but what a terrible time you had! I was talked into getting a tissue valve the first time around and I am so glad I did. The valve only lasted 5 years (I got it when I was 22yo) but it enabled me to have my two boys with no problems. My...

okay, I won't hold that as gospel then :) I had one Dr tell me that lots of people get them about every 30 seconds, but that hardly anyone actually notices them. But people who have had their heart interfered with, through surgery, etc, notice them a lot more.

Hmmm... I went to the ER because I was concerned about PVCs as well... the doctor offered me a sedative! I do notice them more when I am stressed or tired. And nearly all of mine are at rest, not when exercising. It is as if when I make the heart work harder it knuckles down and does the job...

I've had mine for two years, sometimes I can hear it but the noise never bothers me. I travelled with a friend last year and one night we were sitting looking at photos on her laptop, she said 'I can hear your watch ticking'. I said 'Um, that's not my watch!'. So I guess it is pretty loud :D

I have a mechanical aortic valve and a pacemaker and I flew from Australia to England and back last year. I found it a real exercise in endurance, and by the end of it I was feeling a LOT of ectopic beats, but I had no real ill effects. I told the security staff that I had a pacemaker (and I...

Very interesting, thanks guys. I am in no hurry to switch, warfarin has a long track record and people have been on it for many years with no major side effects. Being that I am only 30 and will be on it for many years I like knowing that it will not make me grow another head or make my liver...

I had a big weekend at a festival earlier in the year, drank more than I would normally drink in a few months, probably about 12 drinks over the weekend. I didn't get especially drunk, but it was over a prolonged period. I had an INR check the next day... my INR was normal. Two things have...

I had my yearly review with my cardiologist a few weeks ago and he told me that there was a new drug in the pipeline and that he expected warfarin to be replaced by it within five years. He said that the new drug was a simple once-a-day oral medication and that INR testing would not be required...

I have horses and I have had various horse veterinarians at my place over the years. I have electric fencing around some parts of the property and sometimes it comes up when climbing over an electrified bit of fence that I have to know which fences are on or off because I don't want to get...

That is interesting. I had a bicuspid aortic valve, and mine needed to be replaced when I was 22yo. I know a lot of people have bicuspid valves that last a lot longer than that. I also had a lot of ear infections as a child and had antibiotics for these. Perhaps the two are related?

This has been a very interesting read for me. I have a mechanical aortic valve, and thus I will be on coumadin for the rest of my life. I was told by one doctor that I could not play contact sports and the face she pulled when I told her I intended to keep riding horses will stay in my memory...

Knees are cranky things anyway. Before I was on warfarin I was thrown from a horse (imagine a clown being shot out of a cannon, that was my trajectory) and landed on my face and knee. My helmet protected my face, but my knee was pretty banged up. I drove home, but it swelled up over a couple of...

Thanks everyone :) I saw my doctor today (INR day) and he has given me a summary of my conditions/medication to help get me through security. He also suggested that I get some compression stockings. Only a week to go!

Jeepers.... You know, I never thought if myself as a cyborg, despite all my artificial bits. I know I have noticed some odd changes in myself after my surgeries. I am a lot more laid-back these days, less highly strung. I used to be a dog person, now I'm a cat person. And I used to have to...

I remember waking up with it both times. The second time I must have been pretty awake before I had it taken out and couldn't control my throat reflexes, I ended up with a pretty irritated throat. Having it taken out was not that awful, though. Some things were harder second time around, but...