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Sorry I missed this. Congrats. And btw, my 1-year anniversary by the same team is this week. Full sternotomy. Becky, Lars' nurse, said the scar would flatten and disappear. Not totally disappeared yet, but very flat and fading more and more seemingly every day. The upper four inches or so were...

At my age, now 68, yes. Surgeon agreed, tho he was careful not to tell me what to do. Plus he sized it for TAVR later. The one thing he didn't do was give me the Resilia, even though I believe he was the lead investigator. I think it had to do with a combo of my age and the fact that it was a...

Let's hope they don't drop a wrench in there and forget it ;-)

Bingo. That's interesting to read. I always felt myself to be asymptomatic. But in the year or so before surgery I started noticing "things." For example, I was getting ocular migraines several times a year for most of the 40+ years since I was first diagnosed with a "murmur." But in the past...

Honeybunny's comments hit the bullseye. I remember when I was in my hotel room at the Cleveland Clinic before surgery. I was very confident, because everything I had read suggested the odds were overwhelmingly on my side. I looked out and saw the cancer center, and told my wife I would be...

John, +1 to everything Katherine and Pellicle said. When I thought about surgery when I was in my 40s and 50s, it freaked me out, too. At some point in my 60s (I think it was during an echo) I had an amazing feeling come over me - it was an acceptance that this was going to happen. From that...

Best of luck and for what it's worth: It wasn't until my surgery at CC 50 weeks ago that - despite all of the imaging - they found a unicuspid. My surgeon said that most folks with a unicuspid have it replaced BY their 30s-40s. Mine was severely stenotic, but I felt I was asymptomatic. The...

I fully agree on choosing the surgeon/facility. I chose Cleveland Clinic, and flew from San Diego. My goal was a surgeon who is aortic-centric. At all times I felt I had the very best of care.

I'm only about a year in but I the thing I keep saying in these forums is that if it wasn't for the souvenir scar, I wouldn't know I had so much tinkering done under the hood. My surgeon said I'm good for another 100k miles, and that is the point: We're like cars, and as we age they replace...

God love you Aussies.

I was told I had a murmur in my late 20s and tracked for 40 years. At some point they started saying it was "probable" or "possible" bicuspid. Even after CTs/MRIs and always after most echos. Had surgery last March when I was 67. Guess what? It wasn't bicuspid at all...but unicuspid!

You're the best, Pellicile. Totally missed the fuss I stirred! :eek: Genuinely sorry about causing a fuss!!! Two months from those posts I was already opened, closed and on the mend. Things moved too fast to consider anything but what I had done.

Hi there, When I had my surgery at the age of 67 last March I considered myself asymptomatic with a stenotic bicuspid aortic valve. I also needed a new aortic root, partial ascending aorta and a single bypass. (The latter was discovered in the pre-surgical angiogram, which is mandatory.) Like...

A friend had Dr. Stinis do his TAVR. My cardiologist told me he is world class.

Regarding asymptomatic.... I'm among the many here who thought I was asymptomatic. But one theme I've seen in my years of lurking and then participating in these and other forums (pre and post-surgery) is that after surgery we feel better than we did pre-surgery, which suggests we were somewhat...

Hi Chuck, If I had to have my valve replaced by surgery in the foreseeable future I would go back to CC and Dr. Svensson. TAVR, I would very likely go to Scripps since they have been on the leading edge – depending on which IC was doing the work. Since you're local and we both have consulted...

I think your "youth" likely bodes well for that. ;-) As far as I'm concerned the clock is ticking for me on a replacement. The current setup was sized for a TAVR, so we'll see what they do and use years forward. BTW, in my final year or two pre-surgery I had graduated to the every 3 month scan...

Hi Chuck. My surgeon led the Resilia trials but when I had my surgery last March he chose the Carpentier-Edwards Perimount, an old tried/true valve. My choice was really between a mechanical or that. I was 67 at the time. He felt that, at that time, the older valve would be best for me. I...

He did my surgery eight months ago. bio-Bentall + CABGx1. He and his team are beyond fantastic.

Freebird, congrats on the surgery and glad to hear you are doing well. Your comment on the lead-up vs the surgery has got to be one of the most consistent comments I've read in my years of reading valve-surgery forums. While some folks definitely have a harder time in recovery, the reality is...