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And in shock. My mother passed away 6 hours ago of some sort of aortic valve-related event. I don’t know much at this point. I am out of town on a work trip and sitting a tarmac trying to get home. What I know so far is that her valve was stuck 100% open and they suspect a torn leaflet. She had...

Sounds about right. Those chest tubes are the pits. You feel so much better when they come out.

Welcome, Brian! My, oh my, what a story. You truly did get a second chance. We’re glad you’re here.

Hi, Zara. Welcome. ^ This is the approach that my cardiologist and surgeon recommended for my first AVR at age 31 in 2004. I met my husband in my 20s, got married at 30, and was not yet a mom when faced with the dilemma of valve selection. We went with a homograft (human donor valve) and it...

Sign me up pronto if K2 can help reverse AS! Kidding aside, that’s intriguing. I’ve never heard of a backwards trend, only the inevitable, gradual worsening.

^^ This^^ Time marches on and you almost forget what the surgical experience and recovery were like. Most of us just continue on with our lives as we did before surgery once we’ve recovered. Welcome, Justin!

Congratulations! That is truly wonderful. I hope your valve continues to serve you well for many years to come. It is interesting that some of us get longevity out of a prosthesis and many of us don’t.

Happy Belated Birthday, Gail!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. I hope it’s all smooth sailing from here.

Kmac, I experienced that after AVR and then redo AVR. Nothing tasted good to me for a couple of weeks. I lost weight after both surgeries. It was only temporary. I don’t recall a specific reaction to a particular type of food, although IIRC plain Jane vanilla ice cream tasted normal.

I looked back at my posts from 2017 and found the answer. I don’t know the size of my annulus but at least now I remember what Dr. Davies said. And I actually have the operating notes somewhere. I can’t put my hands on them at the moment because our house was flooded during Hurricane Sally in...

Then what other reason could they have for putting in a tissue valve? I have to find out. I’m really confused now.

That is serendipitous. It makes me happy that you got to experience that, and in such a perfect way. You describe what a perfect night looks like to me; but, it’s usually with a campfire, drinks, s’mores and fireflies! We plan to try again. We have been thinking of Alaska or Churchill, Canada.

Pellicle I love all of these pictures. The 2nd one is especially breathtaking. I like the view where you live :). We live in a rural area and see the stars quite often.

Yes, exactly. My attitude has been that he made what he felt was the right decision at the time and he couldn’t run it past me in the moment. So I just got back to the business of living my life and got over it. I would like to understand why he made that choice. I will be asking, for sure...

No, I don’t. I know the implanted valve is 21mm and that was as large as they could go.

We’ll that is just disappointing…..

Yes, thank you both. What’s interesting is that my brother had a St. Jude’s valve. He passed away in 1991 during his 4th OHS. We even discussed St. Jude’s valves prior to surgery. I obviously have a lot of questions to ask this next time around. Again, I can only state what the team told me...

Your photos were taken in my neck of the woods! I am fortunate to live where other people vacation. Are we neighbors?

Thanks, Chuck. I was honestly just so thankful to be alive after the tamponade that I didn’t spend a lot of time questioning my surgeon. I trusted what he and his team told me, as it was clear to everyone that I wanted a mechanical valve. I confirmed my choice with the team several times...