New member

[ThomasM]

This Dec will be 35 yrs post surgery. I had an Aortic Valve prosthesis procedure done because of an aneurysm of the aorta. The wall of my aorta was so thin the surgeons said they could see right thru it, and also commented that if I weren't in surgery that hour I wouldn't have made it. The prosthesis was prepared before surgery, allowing them to install a St Jude valve inside the 6 inches of dacron mesh aorta. I never dreamed I would live as long as I have, I am now going to be 67 years old with the valve prosthesis being 35 years old.

 

[Seaton]

Welcome to the forum, Thomas!
And wow!... nearly 35 years. That's wonderful to hear.
Wishing you many more healthy years ahead. ☀

 

[dick0236]

.............. I never dreamed I would live as long as I have, I am now going to be 67 years old with the valve prosthesis being 35 years old.

Welcome Thomas. It seems you and I were about the same age when we got our mechanical valves. Like you, I never dreamed I could live a long and normal life with a mechanical valve in me.........I hope you get many more years out of your valve.

 

[Chuck C]

Congratulations!! Well done!

I have the same valve as you do, a mechanical St Jude, which was put in 15 months ago. And, like you, a dacron sleeve was used to replace a portion of my aorta. The St Jude mechanical valve has an excellent track record with over 40 years of data supporting its durability. When I hear stories like yours I feel really good about my choice.

Here's to many many more years!

 

[pellicle]

Welcome aboard

Hope you fInd something here helpful.

Best Wishes

 

[Superman]

Welcome to the forum. We can talk about the old days when we had no message board to share information and could only get our INR checked at a lab. . Glad you found this place.

I’ll be 32 years with St Jude this coming November and 13 with a graft in October. But I’m not quite 50 yet.

 

[ValveAdmin]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations.

 

[Lynn]

Welcome, thanks for joining and sharing your story with us relative “valve newbies”. Very inspiring.

 

[ThomasM]

Thirty five years, but I did have one close call. I have had 3 op hospital surgeries (r ankle, left knee replacement, r shoulder rotater cuff, but these went quite smooth. About 10 years ago my prothrombin time INR jumped to well over 12.5, and I started having internal bleeding (coughing up blood), and blotchy bood spots all over my legs. My doc called me and told me to go right in the er. While in the hospital the attending nurse came and asked me how I was feeling and I told her my INR was over 12. She told me that's a mistake because the INR cannot go over 10, which I said was bs. I told her I just had it measured yesterday and it was 12.5, and that was before taking my medicine that evening following the blood draw. She Drew my blood right there at the hospital and sort of snickered and said she'll be back with results in a few hours. She came back and told me "you are right sir it is over 12, in fact it's 12.7 as I speak. I have never heard of blood being that thin in my entire life, until it happened to me. I am lucky I didn't have some sort of major repercussion like hemorrhaging in the brain or something? Lol, I am a bit wacky when I stop and think about it. What I think caused the blood level to rise so quickly so high was that I stopped a particular medicine cold turkey when I should have eased off of it. That medicine is Xanax. I had been taking Xanax for about 5 years to help me sleep, and wanted to get off of it so I stopped it cold turkey. I think it shocked my system and that's exactly the time my blood levels skyrocketed. Naturally, I stopped taking my Warfarin until the blood levels were subdued, and they also gave me some vitamin K tablets to hasten the procedure. In about three or four days my INR was back to normal and I have never had a problem since.
Edit: there's nothing wrong with taking xanax, just be careful when stopping it after an extended time of use.

 

[Yankeeman2]

Thirty five years, but I did have one close call. I have had 3 op hospital surgeries (r ankle, left knee replacement, r shoulder rotater cuff, but these went quite smooth. About 10 years ago my prothrombin time INR jumped to well over 12.5, and I started having internal bleeding (coughing up blood), and blotchy bood spots all over my legs. My doc called me and told me to go right in the er. While in the hospital the attending nurse came and asked me how I was feeling and I told her my INR was over 12. She told me that's a mistake because the INR cannot go over 10, which I said was bs. I told her I just had it measured yesterday and it was 12.5, and that was before taking my medicine that evening following the blood draw. She Drew my blood right there at the hospital and sort of snickered and said she'll be back with results in a few hours. She came back and told me "you are right sir it is over 12, in fact it's 12.7 as I speak. I have never heard of blood being that thin in my entire life, until it happened to me. I am lucky I didn't have some sort of major repercussion like hemorrhaging in the brain or something? Lol, I am a bit wacky when I stop and think about it. What I think caused the blood level to rise so quickly so high was that I stopped a particular medicine cold turkey when I should have eased off of it. That medicine is Xanax. I had been taking Xanax for about 5 years to help me sleep, and wanted to get off of it so I stopped it cold turkey. I think it shocked my system and that's exactly the time my blood levels skyrocketed. Naturally, I stopped taking my Warfarin until the blood levels were subdued, and they also gave me some vitamin K tablets to hasten the procedure. In about three or four days my INR was back to normal and I have never had a problem since.
Edit: there's nothing wrong with taking xanax, just be careful when stopping it after an extended time of use.

Thanks for the warning on Xanax. I stopped taking it some time ago because it can increase odds of getting dementia.

 

[slipkid]

About 10 years ago my prothrombin time INR jumped to well over 12.5, and I started having internal bleeding (coughing up blood), and blotchy bood spots all over my legs.

I have the blood spots on my legs starting shortly after my OHS. Started as a few small red "freckles" and I asked my PCP Dr about it and he said it was called "petechiae" (some weird indian sounding name which I now just say as "chia pets") and it was due to combination of the warfarin, a venous deficiency in my legs (due to having a vein removed from my right leg used for one of my coronary bypasses), and the fact that I am on my feet too much at work standing & walking on concrete for like 12 hours a shift.

Over the years now (about 8 post OHS) those dots have multiplied a couple hundred million fold and the fronts of my shins and are completely covered with them such that my skin color has changed there and people that know me when they see me in shorts ask what the heck is wrong with my legs?

None of the Drs or other healthcare professionals that I've seen since in recent years even bother to say anything about it when they see it which I find odd. I did ask about this up here a while ago.

 

[Superman]

I have the blood spots on my legs starting shortly after my OHS. Started as a few small red "freckles" and I asked my PCP Dr about it and he said it was called "petechiae" (some weird indian sounding name which I now just say as "chia pets") and it was due to combination of the warfarin, a venous deficiency in my legs (due to having a vein removed from my right leg used for one of my coronary bypasses), and the fact that I am on my feet too much at work standing & walking on concrete for like 12 hours a shift.

Over the years now (about 8 post OHS) those dots have multiplied a couple hundred million fold and the fronts of my shins and are completely covered with them such that my skin color has changed there and people that know me when they see me in shorts ask what the heck is wrong with my legs?

None of the Drs or other healthcare professionals that I've seen since in recent years even bother to say anything about it when they see it which I find odd. I did ask about this up here a while ago.

Iron stains from dead red blood cells at the skin level. I get them after hiking in hot weather. Then some stay permanent. Doesn’t sound quite as prominent as yours. But I definitely have permanent stains on my shins.

 

[pellicle]

I have the blood spots on my legs starting shortly after my OHS. Started as a few small red "freckles" and I asked my PCP Dr about it and he said it was called "petechiae"

I would also wonder about INR levels, if they've spiked higher than 3 or 4 for any sort of time. These stains are perhaps going to mess with your bikini modelling career but I doubt much more. I'd be more worried about "ankle edema" than this (which isn't only caused by warfarin but may be exacerbated by it). I notice warfarin isn't mentioned in that:

Oedema is usually caused by:​

• standing or sitting in the same position for too long
• eating too much salty food
• being overweight
• being pregnant
• taking certain medicines – such as some blood pressure medicines, contraceptive pills, hormone therapy, antidepressants or steroids

Have you tried using pressure stockings (mild ones) under your socks (for discretion)?

I've used this for decades (prior to my sugery) on long international flights (think 2 times >10 hour legs)

@ThomasM may be interested to read your earlier post (and the replies)
https://www.valvereplacement.org/threads/petechiae-red-dots-on-skin-warfarin.888093/

 

[slipkid]

I would also wonder about INR levels, if they've spiked higher than 3 or 4 for any sort of time. These stains are perhaps going to mess with your bikini modelling career but I doubt much more. I'd be more worried about "ankle edema" than this (which isn't only caused by warfarin but may be exacerbated by it). I notice warfarin isn't mentioned in that:

Oedema is usually caused by:​

• standing or sitting in the same position for too long
• eating too much salty food
• being overweight
• being pregnant
• taking certain medicines – such as some blood pressure medicines, contraceptive pills, hormone therapy, antidepressants or steroids

Have you tried using pressure stockings (mild ones) under your socks (for discretion)?

I've used this for decades (prior to my sugery) on long international flights (think 2 times >10 hour legs)

@ThomasM may be interested to read your earlier post (and the replies)
https://www.valvereplacement.org/threads/petechiae-red-dots-on-skin-warfarin.888093/

Yes, my feet/ankles/calves have gotten an inch or two wider post-surgery (plus tons of varicose veins).

Original cardio DR suggested compression socks only when I asked about the swelling and that turned out to be a total joke. They "fitted" me with prescription socks of some kind and charged like $100 for the "fitting" when in reality there were only THREE sizes in the first place. Not like it was any type of fit at all.

Then trying to wear the ****** things (which cost something like $50 a pair, and I stupidly bought 2 pairs from the Dr at the time) I found them to be unwearable they were so tight (yeah that is the idea I guess). Require a special technique to even get them on. I wore them for one day just while I was still at home doing nothing. When I took them off at night as I was told to do I noticed that at the ankle where my feet bend the indentations from the socks were so deep they took something like 12 hours to go away. It was like I had tied my ankles with rubber bands only a cm long.

In addition with those socks on it was impossible to wear ANY of my shoes. My shoes were falling off. And if I put another pair of socks on top of them, even the thinnest I could find, all my shoes were so tight it was painful.

Adding to that that I have to wear expensive safety shoes for work which were then unwearable, if I were to have tried to continue with those socks & ignore the fact that they were squeezing my ankles (& feet) to death I would have had to replace all of my shoes including the safety ones.

Then of course trying to discuss any of this with the Dr's assistant (who was a major a-hole who refused to even answer my questions at the effed up "fitting" session) was a total waste of time.

So, no I do not wear compression socks. What I do wear outside work are loose diabetic type socks and at work I wear very thin socks which I have to cut the sides vertically at my ankles because otherwise the swelling gets too painful.

Don't get me started....

 

[pellicle]

Original cardio DR suggested compression socks only when I asked about the swelling and that turned out to be a total joke. They "fitted" me with prescription socks of some kind and charged like $100 for the "fitting" when in reality there were only THREE sizes in the first place. Not like it was any type of fit at all.

Mein Gott ... and you worry about getting ripped off on eBay

I got some for a few bucks (on eBay) which are comfortable and sufficient and I've used them on flights a number of times. I guess that given daily use they may fail but I'll see if I can find a link.

just check their return policy and try a few sizes ...

 

[Art O Ceitinn]

I have the blood spots on my legs starting shortly after my OHS. Started as a few small red "freckles" and I asked my PCP Dr about it and he said it was called "petechiae" (some weird indian sounding name which I now just say as "chia pets") and it was due to combination of the warfarin, a venous deficiency in my legs (due to having a vein removed from my right leg used for one of my coronary bypasses), and the fact that I am on my feet too much at work standing & walking on concrete for like 12 hours a shift.

Over the years now (about 8 post OHS) those dots have multiplied a couple hundred million fold and the fronts of my shins and are completely covered with them such that my skin color has changed there and people that know me when they see me in shorts ask what the heck is wrong with my legs?

None of the Drs or other healthcare professionals that I've seen since in recent years even bother to say anything about it when they see it which I find odd. I did ask about this up here a while ago.

Hi slipkid I have the same problem on my legs spots and blotches and dry skin from below my knees and like you tried compression socks. I find it hard to put on normal socks and shoes (Arthritis) so compression socks are a no no. My doctors have told me its a circulation problem which can be resolved by Laser treatment for Varicose veins. If I find the time to get them treated I will share the before and after pics.

 

[Chuck C]

I got some for a few bucks (on eBay)

Instead of paying $100 for a fitting and $50 per pair, your trusting your health to something you bought on eBay(and saving a bundle)?
Risky stuff!

 

[carolinemc]

Instead of paying $100 for a fitting and $50 per pair, your trusting your health to something you bought on eBay(and saving a bundle)?
Risky stuff!

I got wonderful Compression socks at Amazon, no regrets. Legs are better with these compression socks that even nurses, and others wear. And can take the heat of summer also. And paid less for a 6 pack of them.

 

[Brinntache]

I bought those exact socks that @pellicle has on his post. They work fine, not too tight. Not quite the same level as the premium compression socks but a heck of a lot cheaper. You can buy a few. Easier to get on as well. Recommend, easily worth the cost to see if they work for you.

 

[pellicle]

Instead of paying $100 for a fitting and $50 per pair, your trusting your health to something you bought on eBay(and saving a bundle)?

yeah ... I'm just a wild colonial boy (not a scientist)