Aortic valve repair vs mech valve replacement

cldlhd · May 13, 2014

river-wear said:
Thanks! I have spoken with him on the phone and was impressed that he took the time to answer my questions, and was so willing to help out a stranger in need.

He might be all questioned out by the time I leave Tuesday. ....

river-wear · May 14, 2014

Better leave some for me or I'll hunt you down. :tongue2:

Are there any "must see" places in Philadelphia you'd recommend? (Besides the usual, like the Liberty Bell, etc.) I'm planning to visit the Mint on Monday too.

tom in MO · May 14, 2014

If you like weird things, the Mutter Museum and the Eastern Penitentiary are nice and unusual. The Art Museum is world class as well.

cldlhd · May 14, 2014

Eastern penitentiary is a great Halloween night out, The museum district is great also. I sent river wear a private message with some suggestions as I figured not everyone here would find my recommendations worth reading.

tom in MO said:
If you like weird things, the Mutter Museum and the Eastern Penitentiary are nice and unusual. The Art Museum is world class as well.

Bryan B · May 14, 2014

cldlhd said:
I pressed my cardiologist as to why an echo, she didn't seem like she wanted to contradict the surgeon but eventually admitted its not good for monitoring the size of the aneurysm but is good for looking at the valve. Seeing that my valve has some leakage but no stenosis I asked her why not another CT.She voiced a concrrn about the radiation but seeing this was my first set of measurements I have no idea how fast its growing so I'm going to push for better monitoring. If for no other reason than to get my mom to stop calling me and telling me I need to get it checked out sooner.
I think the first step when I have my surgeons meeting on the 20th will be that issue then once he tells me what size he feels we should intervene then I'll get into the whole repair vs replace decision.

The concern about radiation is why my surgeon alternates between the MRI and the CT scan for diagnostic testing at my followups.

river-wear · May 15, 2014

I'm not sure the Mutter Museum is the place for me so close to OHS... but thank you for the suggestions!

Chris (cldlhd), if you're squeamish, avoid the video, but here's a written description of how Dr. Bavaria goes about aortic valve repair and aortic arch reconstruction. The page won't load for me here at work, so I hope I have the right link. http://www.annalscts.com/article/view/1411/2039

cldlhd · May 15, 2014

Ha -I agree the Mutter is probably a bit too morbid. The link worked fine-thanks. I didn't bring myself to watch the video yet , I just had pizza , but I did read the text. I'll probably watch it later. Not sure if you saw yet but "heart of the sunrise" had his follow up with Dr Bavaria and it sounds like it went great.