New member and thanks

[francesco11]

Hi guys, I am Francesco (22 years old) from Italy and on 04/13/23 I had AVR.
I just wanted to tell my story briefly.
I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve and almost two years ago, during a visit to my cardiologist, he noticed that the valve was leaking a lot. He then suggested that I start thinking about surgery so as not to damage the heart, which was getting bigger and therefore fatiguing. At first I was very shocked, but then I found a surgeon(Dr. Salvador chief of cardiac surgery in Vicenza) who gave me hope for a possible repair of the valve with a minimally invasive surgery.
Unfortunately, during the procedure, the valve was very damaged so he wisely decided to replace it to avoid a second surgery in a short time . Before the surgery I had chosen a mechanical valve in case the valve could not be repaired (also thanks to the suggestions collected on this site during these months of waiting) but without making explicit the model.
Fortunately, the surgeon chose an SJM Regent, which I found out in these days to be a Gold Standard between mechanical valves, so i'm pretty happy about the outcome of the procedure.
I am recovering really fast now, and I wanted to thank all the users of this site/forum from whom I was able to learn a lot of advice and information during these years, as well as being reassured by your stories.
Proud to be part of this group of brave people. I wish everyone the best .

"Per aspera ad astra"

P.S. I'm not so good at English so I used a translator hahaha. I hope to be clear.

 

[Chuck C]

Welcome to the forum Francesco!

Fortunately, the surgeon chose an SJM Regent, which I found out in these days to be a Gold Standard between mechanical valves,

I also have a St Jude mechanical valve, as of my procedure 2 years ago. These valves have been in use for decades, with excellent performance in long term studies.

I'm not so good at English so I used a translator hahaha. I hope to be clear.

Everything came out very clear.

Please keep us updated on how your recovery comes along.

 

[MdaPA]

Benvenuto francesco11,

Glad to see your recovery is going well/fast.

If you will be self-monitoring your INR with your own machine then this website has a lot of helpful information.

Do be mindful if you enjoy cicoria (dandelion greens) which is a common vegetable in Italy, especially when it's reduced by cooking down (e.g. cicoria in padella), it is very high in vitamin K and may affect your INR. The main thing here is not to avoid it, but try to be consistent when eating these foods high in vitamin K and know how it affects your INR.

Ciao!

 

[francesco11]

Benvenuto francesco11,

Glad to see your recovery is going well/fast.

If you will be self-monitoring your INR with your own machine then this website has a lot of helpful information.

Do be mindful if you enjoy cicoria (dandelion greens) which is a common vegetable in Italy, especially when it's reduced by cooking down (e.g. cicoria in padella), it is very high in vitamin K and may affect your INR. The main thing here is not to avoid it, but try to be consistent when eating these foods high in vitamin K and know how it affects your INR.

Ciao!

Thank you so much for the advice. I don't eat it but I'll keep it in mind. I hope that in the rehabilitation center where I'm right know, they will teach me how to manage the INR and diet. To be fair, I'm a little concerned about having a strict diet also cause I like eating almost everything and change frequently my meals. I hope experience will teach me how to manage Warfarin based on the food I eat.
Ciao!

 

[pellicle]

Hi and welcome

they will teach me how to manage the INR and diet.

that's so refreshing to hear they'll teach you the basics about INR management. However just be very cautious about what they teach you about diet (because its in the main wrong or at best inaccurate)

Especially if they start telling you to avoid greens.

https://journals.lww.com/md-journal..._between_dietary_vitamin_k_intake_and.23.aspx

In conclusion, the available evidence does not support current advice to modify dietary habits when starting therapy with VKAs. Restriction of dietary vitamin K intake does not seem to be a valid strategy to improve anticoagulation quality with VKAs. It would be, perhaps, more relevant to maintain stable dietary habit, thus avoiding wide changes in the intake of vitamin K. Based on this, until controlled prospective studies provide firm evidence that dietary vitamin K intake interferes with anticoagulation by VKAs, the putative interaction between food and VKAs should be eliminated from international guidelines.​

(*emphasis mine)
Myself I do think there is some, however its both minor and easily worked with ... especially if you regularly eat greens (which you should !!)

What they probably won't tell you about is grapefruit
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2021/05/grapefruit-and-warfarin.html
and the underlying aspects of Cytochrome p450
Best Wishes

 

[Superman]

Welcome and thanks for sharing! I’ve had a St Jude valve for over 32 years and was 17 when it was installed. I did have a second surgery at 36 years old due to an aneurysm. They put in a new valve so I could have a one piece valve / graft. But the other valve was still just fine. I’m now over 13 years since the aneurysm.

I’m 50 and married to an amazing woman and we have five wonderful kids. Life does go on and your condition won’t define you. But it does make a nice conversation piece.