hubb1972
New member
My first post and very happy with the wealth of information found on this forum. Reading others experiences definitely eased my mind a little beofre surgery. Below I posted a little about my experience:
I had a bicuspid aortic valve, dilated aortic root, and and aortic aneurysm. My hospital choice was pretty easy for me since I live 15 minutes away from WFU Baptist Medical Center in Winston Salem, NC. I chose Dr. Neal Kon as my surgeon. We discussed valve choices on my initial visit and he was very open about my thoughts on selection as well. His specialty is the Medtronic Freestyle Stentless porcine valve as he has been putting these in since clinical trials I found out. He also is well regarded in the area for the Ross Procedure but he says he likes doing that in younger patients than me (I am 42). Plus when he noticed my aortic root had dilated, he said it made sense to go with the freestyle since it includes the valve and the root. Plus, when we have to do a redo, he felt very confident that it would me done much less invasively by then. He feels like I should get 15-20 years out of this valve based on his research. Let's hope he is right!
I was in ICU 3 days only because they main floor was full. I went in on March 17th for surgery and was discharged on the 22nd. I would have left sooner but my heart rate was high 120+. I am on Metoprolol to control that now and seem to handle that med ok. While on the meds, I am in the low 80's. He also put me on a daily dose of aspirin, lisinopril, and pravastatin.
Other than that my recovery is going remarkably well. Starting cardiac rehab next week and looking forward to that. I cannot say enough about the wealth of information I have found here. I keep referring back to see if others have had similar issues and they have. So glad I found the site!
I had a bicuspid aortic valve, dilated aortic root, and and aortic aneurysm. My hospital choice was pretty easy for me since I live 15 minutes away from WFU Baptist Medical Center in Winston Salem, NC. I chose Dr. Neal Kon as my surgeon. We discussed valve choices on my initial visit and he was very open about my thoughts on selection as well. His specialty is the Medtronic Freestyle Stentless porcine valve as he has been putting these in since clinical trials I found out. He also is well regarded in the area for the Ross Procedure but he says he likes doing that in younger patients than me (I am 42). Plus when he noticed my aortic root had dilated, he said it made sense to go with the freestyle since it includes the valve and the root. Plus, when we have to do a redo, he felt very confident that it would me done much less invasively by then. He feels like I should get 15-20 years out of this valve based on his research. Let's hope he is right!
I was in ICU 3 days only because they main floor was full. I went in on March 17th for surgery and was discharged on the 22nd. I would have left sooner but my heart rate was high 120+. I am on Metoprolol to control that now and seem to handle that med ok. While on the meds, I am in the low 80's. He also put me on a daily dose of aspirin, lisinopril, and pravastatin.
Other than that my recovery is going remarkably well. Starting cardiac rehab next week and looking forward to that. I cannot say enough about the wealth of information I have found here. I keep referring back to see if others have had similar issues and they have. So glad I found the site!
