52 years on ONE valve

[dick0236]

Today marks 52 years since I got my "ping pong ball aortic valve" installed......8/16/1967-8/16/2019. At my age of 83+ I now check the newspaper obituaries daily.......to see if my name is there yet and notice that most of the folks listed are younger than me, so I guess my AVR can be considered a success and, more or less, without incident.

I continue to post my birthday for the younger folks who come on here wondering about their futures with their brand new shiny valves......yep, mechanical valves can last a long time .

 

[Paul1972]

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Today marks 52 years since I got my "ping pong ball aortic valve" installed......8/16/1967-8/16/2019. At my age of 83+ I now check the newspaper obituaries daily.......to see if my name is there yet and notice that most of the folks listed are younger than me, so I guess my AVR can be considered a success and, more or less, without incident.

I continue to post my birthday for the younger folks who come on here wondering about their futures with their brand new shiny valves......yep, mechanical valves can last a long time .

Congratulations Dick you truly are an inspiration to us all , it’s also my second year anniversary of my second surgery today as well. I’m privileged to share such a great date with you, may you have many many more .Regards Paul

 

[Duffey]

Congratulations, Dick, on 52 years of ticking! Best wishes on many more!

 

[rich01]

That's great. You should let Starr-Edwards and the Kentucky Medical Center know. Maybe you can get paid to do PR for them!

 

[Protimenow]

Congratulations, Dick. I hope you can get the Guinness team to give you the credit you deserve. (My St. Jude is relatively new, compared to your valve - only 28 years next week)

 

[tom in MO]

Congratulations Dick. Also thanks for all your input over the years, you are not only an inspiration but a model.

 

[dick0236]

That's great. You should let Starr-Edwards and the Kentucky Medical Center know. Maybe you can get paid to do PR for them!

A Starr-Edwards valve like mine started the Edwards Lifesciences Co. about 1960. They have moved into the tissue valve market (where the big money is) and have little interest in promoting mechanical valves.....even one of theirs

The UK Med Ctr put me in touch with our local newspaper, Louisville CJ who did an article a couple yearss ago when the valve turned 50. That prompted some ribbing from my golfing buddies.

Thanks for asking.......I thought I might be able to make a buck......but for the general public it ain't a big deal

 

[dick0236]

, Dick. I hope you can get the Guinness team to give you the credit you deserve.

I gave up on that.............besides, Guiness seems more appropriate for "most hot dogs eaten in two minutes" or "the longest fingernails" a guy in India (must be 5+ feet long) or the one my grandaughter's husband holds (fastest car driven in reverse). He used to be an "open wheel" race car driver.......one/family is enough

 

[Seaton]

What an inspiration, Dick!
Keep them years coming please.
Congratulations and onwards to you

 

[pellicle]

Excellent ... and here is wishing you another orbit on that valve again

Sorry there's no cake this time ;-)

 

[thomas999]

I have 32 on my STJAV prosthesis. I am a youngster to you but a veteran to most.

 

[mina]

Dick, when I suddenly found myself as a young person with a mechanical valve courtesy of emergency open heart surgery after a nasty bout of endocarditis (when I didn't even know I had a bicuspid valve or that OHS was ever something I might need to have), I found such comfort in stumbling onto this site and seeing your fantastic example of what is possible. It was truly the first time I felt even remotely okay about my valve or my life expectancy on it.

Thank you for continuing to give us and all newcomers hope, good sense, and a realistic view of what is possible (nay, even probable). Congratulations on 52 years!!

 

[dick0236]

It was truly the first time I felt even remotely okay about my valve or my life expectancy on it.

Thanks Mina. I know what it's like to have a surgery like this and not be able to get any info except thru medical professionals who really don't understand the problems that the scalpel couldn't fix. I gave up trying to predict my life expectancy when I turned 50, about 20 years after surgery.........now l just "go with the flow".

 

[TheGymGuy]

Wooohooooooooooo. Congrats sir!!!!!

 

[FredW]

@dick0236, you are an inspiration for many of us. Happy Aniversary.

 

[Superbob]

Happy Super-Valversary, Dick! Takin' a lickin' and keeping on tickin' and tickin' and tickin' -- and so may all continue to be well.

 

[Protimenow]

Superbob - only one of us old farts (like you, me, and Dick) would remember what 'takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin' means. For those of you younger than, say, 50, or out of the country, in ads for Times watches, they did some difficult things to these watches. John Cameron Swayze was the announcer for those commercials. In one commercial, they strapped the watch to one of the blades on an outboard motor and turned the motor on. They couldn't find the watch after the motor had run for a while. Other challenges may have been just as tough -- but at least they were able to find the watch.

 

[Warrick]

Maybe the strap broke

 

[Protimenow]

Maybe. I suspect that they did a lot more than that to get it to stay attached to the propeller. (Maybe it was a Twist-o-Flex (remember those?).

 

[Superbob]

Timex watch commercials -- yep, I guess that imagery was somewhere in the mists of my memory, and is why I drew on it in describing the remarkable durability of Dick's valve. I'd had forgotten specifics of the tests, though, so "thanks for the memories," Protimenow! (That phrase is from Bob Hope, BTW, just to let the youngsters here know.) ☺