He must still operate on a pretty regular basis because he has OR time 3 days a week.
The other thing that makes me nervous is because Dr. Valente mentioned that I might be on the vent a day or TWO. WHAT. I guess to cope, I was not thinking to much about the risks. My last PVR went so well. I am now 44 years old instead of 25. Because of the previous surgeries and scoliosis I have moderate restrictive lung disease with a total lung capacity of about 60%. Also 85% of my blood goes to my right lung due to severe left pulmonary artery stenosis. My VO2 last time was 18.1 on bicycle.
Dr. Valente told me last August that she is supprised at how much I can do. She said that my exhaustion level must be much higher than most people.
Debbie
3 days sounds like he still does alot of ORs, since most docs usually have at least 1 day out of the OR, for the meetings and other things..
I'm not sure about why you would be a vent so much longer (justin is usually off in an hour or so for his conduits) unless beside the PVR are they still talking about the Tricuspid (I think it was?)? IF NOT and they think it will be tougher,(which I can see the scoliosis making it harder to get off the vent along with the lungs) is there any possibility of having this replacement percutaneous? -then heck, who knows by the time THAT needs replaced, MAYBE they will be further on Mayers work and the NEXT replacement could be your own tissue which would finally be the last, you would need. (which is one of the reasons, we took Justin to Boston when we were first looking for a new cardiologist and surgeon, and I DO think your choice is great, the 2 places we narrowed it down to for Justin a couple years ago, was Boston and CHOP, we still keep in touch with Boston, but I think Spray is a great surgeon (and the one I wanted at Boston had just left, (jonus sp?)) AND Boston is 5 hours away and CHOP 15 min, which we thought would be best if he ran into any problems after he got home.
That's funny when Justin went for his appt the doctor(ACHD fellow) was Shocked at how well she was doing, from his reports/numbers) she said she thought he would be in a wheelchair and kept asking if he was SURE he didn't get out of breath climbing a flight of stairs, she almost fell over when he told her he just finished baseball where he was a catcher and walked about a mile to school and home most days. They thought he might be down playing or not noticing how bad he was so asked if we would mind staying an extra day to sqeeze in a stress test, to make sure he was ok, and didn't need surgery right away, and he did well for a person with out CHD
PS for your Left PS, what is the plan? are they going to try and open it with stents in the cath lab during the preop cath or try to replace that in the OR? or is it something better left alone because of where it is?
