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Write down your questions and talk to your doctor. You wouldn’t be learning on your own for the first time that you’ll be dead in a few years based on some googling. If you are reading the papers on your own and you’ve convinced yourself you’re lucky to be alive in a few years … you are...

Very wrong. In my experience women thought it was interesting or endearing. It’s not like you got your face chewed off by a pitbull or disfiguring burns… it’s a scar on your chest. I think the mindset that has you worrying what people might think is doing more harm on that front than any...

Don’t sweat your EF. Monitor your BP at home. If you’re insistent on doing steroids (which I’d advise against if you’re hoping to prolong pre-surgery time, which in turn opens up more options for surgery — ex: could a Foldax valve be viable in 20y?) I’d suggest at least limiting it to hormone...

Worth thinking about Ross if you’re not going prosthetic, but you’d want to be real picky about finding an experienced surgeon etc.

First, take a deep breath. This could be a lot worse. I lift and have lifted heavy-ish for years pre and post surgery. Now, competitive bodybuilding will add risk (aneurysm, deterioration of valve) and likely hasten your timeline for surgery. This probably isn’t a bad thing, because it makes...

Next steps— scheduled a Ross with Dr. El-Hamamsy in a couple months. Thanks for the discourse here, y’all.

I’m always down to hear additional perspectives and welcome any counterpoints. I think you’ve got the gist of my history, so I won’t recap it entirely, but for me it ultimately boiled down to weighing concern over stroke vs concern over reoperation. After three strokes, w/the last at 2.7...

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I’m glad you’ve had a good experience. I’ve had a few docs and NPs who don’t know **** about warfarin dosing cavalierly dispense braindead advice. And one time a pharmacist (new, i presume) wouldn’t dispense my refill script without calling and confirming it — I take about 15-17mg a day and...

I don’t think anyone specifically mentioned that as a potential vector for the three strokes, and that’s the first I’ve heard of it. Is that mostly an immediate post surgery concern?

Fascinating. Had no idea that likelihood of re-replacing the root was so high and added another few % of risk. Also had no idea about the inspiris resilia valve. I’ll ask about this and the cryopreserved valves. On the resilia — In a perfect world where they could do valve in valve in...

That’s helpful context, thanks for explaining. Those outcomes still seem potentially better than just a tissue valve, right? Trying to game out what is best if mechanical is not an option

Thank you and thanks for sharing. I was overwhelmingly in favor of mechanical but if I’m not considering that and just looking at tissue vs Ross, given I am really indexing on minimizing stroke risk, it feels like it’s worth serious consideration. I’ve been trying to read the studies and it’s...

Hey guys, just wanted to post an update here. Who I talked to: I ultimately wound up getting other opinions - one useless one from a Stanford doc shortly after this post (I won’t even dive into it, it was a waste of time) ***and then a very comprehensive week long panel at the Mayo Clinic. I...

I’ve had multiple TEEs. If it’s like mine, they’re going to numb up your throat and then sedate you (fentanyl). twilight anesthesia. Thankful for that - it would be impossible to get the camera down your throat otherwise IMO. On the whole, it’s not so bad, nice afternoon nap but your throat...

Yeah. I’m not sure what to make of him giving me apparently bad info. Maybe there’s more context that makes his comment relevant to my condition that I’m missing but he was making a fairly blanket statement about age: valve duration. I was asking a lot of questions so maybe overloaded him...

Yeah. Sorry I wasn’t clear enough, I am saying a 2nd op would take me maybe to late 40s, then 3rd another maybe to late 60s (using 15 years as a reasonably good tissue valve outcome). My cardio also said that the tissue valves tend to last longer in younger patients. I was shocked to hear...

Sounds like you’ve done that range adjustment and had no incidents since 2016. Everything I’m hearing makes me feel a lot better about pushing to not replace the valve and instead just target a range like yours (3.2-3.5) especially if the examination of the valve comes back and looks good re...

I’m sorry to hear this but glad it sounds managed. It sounds like you haven’t had any mini stroke incidents since changing your INR? How long ago was that? Out of curiosity, were you working out a lot?

Yeah, that’s valid and something I’m exploring. I wasn’t aware of the placement issue until pellicle mentioned it and having had multiple TEEs I *think* there’d be some mention of it along the line as we hunt for the reason behind these incidents with cardio- and neurologists. Imagine they can...