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I was hoping to be able to avoid having mitral valve repair surgery, but my symptoms became unmistakable so the surgery was necessary. It took about six months for me to feel fully back to normal physically, and somewhat longer mentally and emotionally. Now, at five years out, I feel the same as...

If you want to know details about people's experiences with the process of surgery, you can find many writeups in the post-surgery forum here (maybe search for the keyword "story"). I spent months before my surgery going back through that archive and learning about people's various experiences...

I've had root planing and scaling on all four quadrants. Each quadrant took about an hour, so it was done in four separate appointments. Four hours would be a long time to spend in a dental chair, and it would be hard on the hygienist too. Given the hassles of bridging and antibiotics, two...

If you're the kind of person who likes having a lot of information ahead of time, there are some great pinned threads in the pre-surgery and post-surgery forums: Pre-surgery list of questions What to take to the hospital What surprised you about surgery Of course everyone's experience is...

Five years ago today I had my mitral valve repair surgery. I had been mostly lurking and learning for months previously. When I made it out of the waiting room and knew surgery was imminent, I posted about being "deeply freaked out" and got lots of support and encouragement from the community...

Write on the chalkboard one hundred times: "Correlation does not imply causation." Randall Munroe of xkcd said it well: Correlation

My cardiologist thinks it's unnecessary for me with my mitral valve repair, so I do not premedicate. I did get my teeth cleaned recently for the first time since the pandemic started. The hygienist wore a face shield over a mask and only used hand tools (no power tools or polishing), with extra...

That's the one, pellicle. Thank you!

There was a funny photo that someone posted, where our idea of "young" was a 20-something and the doctors' idea of "young" was a fit-looking 75-ish-year-old. That's the one I'm looking for.

Can anyone point me to the picture that has been posted here a few times of the difference between what doctors consider a "young" patient and what the rest of us consider "young"? I wanted to send it to a friend and have been unsuccessfully searching for it. Thanks, Claudia

The collected experience of the members here is extremely helpful. I especially liked the pinned thread about things that surprised people, in the post-surgery forum. That thread taught me that I might get blood sugar tests and insulin injections while in the hospital, despite not being...

Good to hear -- congratulations!

I had the equivalent of option 2, mitral valve repair through a port incision. It was still very major surgery even though my sternum remained intact. I was on the bypass machine for nearly three hours. I felt extremely weak at the beginning of my recovery and it took several months for my...

Sunbeam, my experience has been almost exactly the same as yours. I started getting ocular migraines decades ago and had only one or two per year, each lasting twenty minutes. After my mitral valve repair surgery in 2015, the frequency increased to one or two per month. My cardiologist had never...

There was an interesting discussion about a new sternal closure method here: Intense Pre-Op Testing Day The original post was by a member who was participating in a clinical trial in 2015. I found the results published in 2018 and added that information to the thread.

EasterRat, I was given no timeframe for expected failure/re-op. Mitral valve repairs are usually expected to last indefinitely. The best data I've found shows around a 5% re-op rate over 20 years.

Hi EasterRat, I had mitral valve repair rather than any valve replacement, so my situation may be different from yours, but after my six-week followup echo after surgery, my cardiologist said I didn't need regular echoes, but that I should have my internist listen to my heart every year to see...

After my mitral valve repair surgery in August 2015, Kaiser gave me the Pneumovax 23 immunization before I was discharged from the hospital. Apparently this was the standard of care, at least at that time.

I know mitral valve repairs are supposed to last indefinitely (the last research I saw said something like 5% rate of need for reoperation over 20 years), but it's good to hear from a real example. Congratulations on your continued good health!

Not I. I've had some PACs/PVCs, but no AFib that I know of, and no Coumadin after the first three months post-op.