Congratulations and thank you for being here…you’re an inspiration to all!
56 years clicking!!!
- Thread starter dick0236
- Start date
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You truly are an inspiration Dick. Thank you for sharing your life with us and for all of your help and encouragement to us mechanical newcomers.
Your valve is older than I am! Happy valveversary!!
David Robbins
Active member
Congrats Dick. I’m 15 years and still clicking with a St Jude mechanical. Ex wife wished me dead at implant but I lived to spite her. I’ll have to live to 110 to match your record but I’m certain I will be an outlier on the life expectancy statistics too.
Superman
Well-known member
Ouch! Is she one of those who wondered how you could have the nerve to burden her with your health issues?
Congratulations! Keep on tickin'
Congratulations, Dick! Keep going!
TheGymGuy
Well-known member
MartinF
Well-known member
Congratulations Dick, keep the counter running.
johnnycake23
Two-time AVR Vet
Joe DiMaggio had his 56-game hitting streak, and you have your 56-year valve streak. Not sure which is more impressive, but damn sure which is more inspirational. Congratulations.
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2020
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- 2,805
@dick0236, please correct me if I am remembering this wrong, but the only reason that you are not in the Guinness Book for the longest lived valve is that you could not show evidence from the hosptital, in that they don't keep medical records that long.
It would seem that there must be some way to show them evidence. It would be cool to have you in the Guinness Book officially, even though we here know that you have the record. You could then add to your signature block "World Champ"
It would seem that there must be some way to show them evidence. It would be cool to have you in the Guinness Book officially, even though we here know that you have the record. You could then add to your signature block "World Champ"
Congratulations!
Chuck, thanks for your interest. I could write a book on the difficulties of getting old, old medical records. Remember, my surgery was the olden days of paper files and typewriters. The only record that was found was the "Operative Record" .....a one-page document that outlined the various procedures of the surgery. The only mention of the valve is "The valve was entirely excised, the route was measured and a #9 Starr-Edwards valve was the proper size"......that report spent more time explaining the wire size (#20) used to close the sternum than on the heart surgery itself. I did learn that the "sponge count was verified" which makes me feel better knowing they didn't leave a sponge in me.
I did make an inquiry from Guiness and after reviewing the required info I just said "It's not worth it" and never pursued it.
That is why I tell the new folks to get and keep, any records they may need..... four or five decades from now.
GW Vancouver BC
New member
And I thought my 24 years with Mitral and Aortic St. Judes was pretty good! Maybe Guinness has a separate category for DVRs.
Dick—you are an inspiration to all of us. I’m only at 13 yrs but have had 2 other major surgeries along with 2 rounds of endocarditis. But I’m still ticking.
Congratulations, Dick. Thank you for leading the way.
