Navin323i
Member
Hello Everyone,
It's with great honor and respect that I make my first post here. Up until now I had never thought about seeking out web forums dedicated to folks like me with prosthetic heart valve, so when I discovered this forum I was extremely thrilled.
My story is quite unusual, especially how I've used my cardiology background and heart surgery experiences to serve the community so here goes...
In 1973 I was born with a congenital heart condition... one known as "Shone's Syndrome" which is characterized by multiple left heart abnormalities. Prognosis for longtime survival for folks like me historically hasn't been too good, but I was fortunate to be operated on by some good surgeons including Denton Cooley at Texas Childrens Hospital. He performed my first two surgeries, open heart surgery #3 was performed in Denver to repair coarctation of the aorta, #4 was performed June 30, 1993 to replace my aortic valve with a St. Judes Aortic Valve, and #5 was performed 9 days after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 to replace both my aortic valve and ascending aorta with a St. Judes Composite Graft due to an aortic aneurysm. In removing the old mechanical aortic valve, swelling developed around the AV node so I ended up with complete heart block and now have a dual chamber St. Jude's pacemaker (I should be the spokesman for St. Judes given all their products inside me, lol) inside me, however my own intrinsic heart rate eventually returned so now I have exercise induced 2 to 1 heart block, but again only when exercising, so the pacemaker takes care of that heart block so that I can exercise normally without issues.
June 30, 1993 when I had surgery #4 was always an unusual day for me in the years to follow... I considered it both a good and not so good day... good because the surgery prolonged my life, but not good due to the bad experiences I had waking up after the surgery and dealing with the heart lung machine and breathing tube (not being able to talk), fluid in the lungs, and the INTENSE pain when they removed the chest drainage tubes from me (pain as great as childbirth, according to what female patients who had the same surgery told me). Ironically, June 30 eventually wound up being my favorite day of all time... in my ancestral culture (India), we determine our wedding days based on the constellation of stars that the bride and groom were born under and compare that to the constellation of stars on various days to determine the ideal wedding date. Sure enough, of all days, June 30 wound up being the most auspicious day for my wife and I to have our wedding in 2002... exactly 9 years after my surgery #4 (ironically 9 happens to be my favorite number).
Surgery #5 was significant because I was engaged to the woman of my dreams and doctors told me that they didn't think I'd survive my surgery due to the fact that this was open heart surgery #5 and that scar tissue from previous surgeries made my anatomy "unpredictable", so sawing open my chest bone could possibly nick my heart which was pushed over from where it's supposed to be due to scar tissue.
But with a lot of love and prayer, I lived to see the day I married the woman of my dreams and lived to see the days I held both my 2 baby girls when they were born in the hospital. God kept me alive so that I could continue to serve my wife and serve my 2 daughters.
To show my appreciation for being alive, I serve the community by educating the public about congenital heart disease and I do so in a unique way. One of my passions in life is customizing cars, and I have modified my vehicle which is both a show car and daily driver with the same material that my mechanical valve is made from... carbon fiber. In doing this I've created a car that tells my "heart story" and inspires the general public who see my car at the car shows to live a heart healthy life. My work has not gone unnoticed. My car and I have been featured in major car magazines, newspaper, and MTV interviewed me at a car show in Chicago a couple of years ago.
The main thing I tell people at car shows as well as people I meet at doctor offices, etc. is that as heart patients (or as any type of patient) it's very important that we take an active approach in understanding our medical conditions and the medications that we may be taking. The first question I'm asked by doctors and nurses is whether I'm a doctor, because of the active interest I've had in studying cardiology and the specific condition that I was born with
Below are the links to a couple of my features and I'm attaching a few pics too... I look forward to getting to know you all.
Washington Examiner Newspaper Feature
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/l...close-to-this-customizers-heart-42690682.html
Eurotuner Magazine Feature
http://www.eurotuner.com/featuredvehicles/eurp_0811_2000_bmw_323i/index.html
Thanks for looking! :thumbup:
Navin
It's with great honor and respect that I make my first post here. Up until now I had never thought about seeking out web forums dedicated to folks like me with prosthetic heart valve, so when I discovered this forum I was extremely thrilled.
My story is quite unusual, especially how I've used my cardiology background and heart surgery experiences to serve the community so here goes...
In 1973 I was born with a congenital heart condition... one known as "Shone's Syndrome" which is characterized by multiple left heart abnormalities. Prognosis for longtime survival for folks like me historically hasn't been too good, but I was fortunate to be operated on by some good surgeons including Denton Cooley at Texas Childrens Hospital. He performed my first two surgeries, open heart surgery #3 was performed in Denver to repair coarctation of the aorta, #4 was performed June 30, 1993 to replace my aortic valve with a St. Judes Aortic Valve, and #5 was performed 9 days after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 to replace both my aortic valve and ascending aorta with a St. Judes Composite Graft due to an aortic aneurysm. In removing the old mechanical aortic valve, swelling developed around the AV node so I ended up with complete heart block and now have a dual chamber St. Jude's pacemaker (I should be the spokesman for St. Judes given all their products inside me, lol) inside me, however my own intrinsic heart rate eventually returned so now I have exercise induced 2 to 1 heart block, but again only when exercising, so the pacemaker takes care of that heart block so that I can exercise normally without issues.
June 30, 1993 when I had surgery #4 was always an unusual day for me in the years to follow... I considered it both a good and not so good day... good because the surgery prolonged my life, but not good due to the bad experiences I had waking up after the surgery and dealing with the heart lung machine and breathing tube (not being able to talk), fluid in the lungs, and the INTENSE pain when they removed the chest drainage tubes from me (pain as great as childbirth, according to what female patients who had the same surgery told me). Ironically, June 30 eventually wound up being my favorite day of all time... in my ancestral culture (India), we determine our wedding days based on the constellation of stars that the bride and groom were born under and compare that to the constellation of stars on various days to determine the ideal wedding date. Sure enough, of all days, June 30 wound up being the most auspicious day for my wife and I to have our wedding in 2002... exactly 9 years after my surgery #4 (ironically 9 happens to be my favorite number).
Surgery #5 was significant because I was engaged to the woman of my dreams and doctors told me that they didn't think I'd survive my surgery due to the fact that this was open heart surgery #5 and that scar tissue from previous surgeries made my anatomy "unpredictable", so sawing open my chest bone could possibly nick my heart which was pushed over from where it's supposed to be due to scar tissue.
But with a lot of love and prayer, I lived to see the day I married the woman of my dreams and lived to see the days I held both my 2 baby girls when they were born in the hospital. God kept me alive so that I could continue to serve my wife and serve my 2 daughters.
To show my appreciation for being alive, I serve the community by educating the public about congenital heart disease and I do so in a unique way. One of my passions in life is customizing cars, and I have modified my vehicle which is both a show car and daily driver with the same material that my mechanical valve is made from... carbon fiber. In doing this I've created a car that tells my "heart story" and inspires the general public who see my car at the car shows to live a heart healthy life. My work has not gone unnoticed. My car and I have been featured in major car magazines, newspaper, and MTV interviewed me at a car show in Chicago a couple of years ago.
The main thing I tell people at car shows as well as people I meet at doctor offices, etc. is that as heart patients (or as any type of patient) it's very important that we take an active approach in understanding our medical conditions and the medications that we may be taking. The first question I'm asked by doctors and nurses is whether I'm a doctor, because of the active interest I've had in studying cardiology and the specific condition that I was born with
Below are the links to a couple of my features and I'm attaching a few pics too... I look forward to getting to know you all.
Washington Examiner Newspaper Feature
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/l...close-to-this-customizers-heart-42690682.html
Eurotuner Magazine Feature
http://www.eurotuner.com/featuredvehicles/eurp_0811_2000_bmw_323i/index.html
Thanks for looking! :thumbup:
Navin
