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The amount of personal attacks you're leveling at other users says a lot frankly. We're all in this together aren't we? It's easy and free to be kind to people, even if you disagree with them.

Very correct! Great mindset, and great reminder for everyone :) Reminds me of that Confucius (apparently) quote...

Really disappointed reading the aggressive and accusatory statements from the OP here. Regardless, here's my experience. Perhaps this will help someone else reading the forum. I've been diagnosed with ADHD & high functioning autism spectrum disorder in the past, I have pretty regular migraines...

I'm on warfarin and my INR is usually around 2.5-3.0. When I nick myself shaving or accidentally cut myself doing something else, the wound bleeds a minute or two longer than it may have in the past. That's it. Small injuries will not be an issue :)

Hey! Glad the surgery went well. The recovery time in the hospital can be rough, not to mention really boring. You got this! Hang in there.

Hey! I just had my bicuspid valve + dilated aorta replaced with an On-X mechanical valve + aortic prosthesis in May and I'm doing great. Pre-surgery I had severe regurgitation and a 5cm aortic root. My surgeon was in agreement with me that doing both in one surgery made a lot of sense, since...

The 'clinic incompetence' I'm talking about is solely the fact that they seem to be completely unaware of how amiodarone washout and recovery from surgery might increase warfarin resistance, and therefore chose to keep me on an overall lower dose even though my INR was obviously going...

My partner finds it reassuring. I don't think my roommate has even noticed it. It's very hard to hear without focusing on it in a quiet room, and only if I'm not wearing layers. I'd imagine if I was dating it would just be another cool fact/conversation starter. It doesn't affect my sleep, I...

It's also quite easy to find studies where mechanical valve replacement results in life expectancy similar to the general population: https://www.annalsthoracicsurgery.org/article/S0003-4975(07)00667-4/fulltext Two hundred six BAV patients (mean, 53 ± 14 years, 84% male) underwent composite...

Sorry to hear about the oxygen level issues, that sounds worrying. Here's some reassuring data about PFOs, which are very common. They found a small PFO on the transesophageal echo they did during my recent surgery :) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3723385/ The frequency of a...

There's a video from 2y ago linked right below it that goes over very similar info lol

Makes you wonder how many of those deaths could have been prevented or at least delayed if patients were better at compliance and self-management.

As someone who had a mechanical valve installed a month and a half ago, I can say that so far the warfarin has been a piece of cake, even though I am going to a clinic right now because the US requires that for a few months. It's just a half hour or so out of my week. With self-testing it would...

Huge agree with this. There is no 100% consistent way to detect underlying connective tissue disorders, as the full range of genetic mutations that cause them is unknown. I tested negative on an aortopathy genetic panel, and yet clearly I had some kind of connective tissue disorder that is...

I don't have any info on surgeons in Europe or more info on the Ross or Ozaki. I did just want to say that it's important to remember when reading studies about mechanical valve complications that they almost always don't account or adjust for ACT compliance or time in therapeutic range. There...

Yeah this is extremely accurate. I was kinda shocked when I found out that "young" in studies on heart valve patients means younger than like 55-60. Heart surgery is very common in those older than 50, with great results.

Welcome to the forum. Open heart surgical valve replacement has the best long term outcomes. Surgeons and their teams are very experienced with it and its very effective and safe. No info on your age/other health conditions, but there are stories on this forum from all sorts of people about...

Agreed. Also agreed in that progress is exciting. To clarify, the point of my post was "if you match this clinical description (young, male, pure AR, dilated annulus), be wary of the Ross procedure (unless you have access to these three or four guys who do it very well.)"

I think it's important to tease out what patient qualities these surgeons are selecting for, not just who the best surgeons are. That is very relevant to us. As someone who did have pure aortic insufficiency and a dilated root, I was 100% confident that the Ross wasn't a good idea for me. My...

The following is my views based on my understanding of the options. You're already familiar with the upsides and downsides of mechanical and bioprosthetic valves. The benefits of the Ozaki and Ross is that they use your own tissue, and thus don't require lifelong anticoagulation therapy...