New Member

[paulyhand44]

Hello all,

New member here (I'll apologize in advance as I'm bad with all the proper medical terminology).
Currently 46 years old. 1st surgery was when I was 29. Routine exam with a new family doctor heard what he thought was heart murmur and sent me for an Echo. They found a bicupsid aortic valve, a severe leakage in my mitral valve and my aortic root was severely dilated. Was referred to world renowned surgeon Tirone David at Toronto General hospital to perform the "David technique". He was not able to properly perform the technique due to the damage in my heart so both valves were replaced with Bovine valves and the Aortic Root was reconstructed. Fast forward about 6 & 1/2 years on a family vacation in Cuba and I saved a woman from drowning only to start coughing up blood a few hours laters. Spent a few days at a Cuban hospital and was released to follow up when I got home to Canada. Went to my cardiologist who couldn't find any problems on an echo. I started to feel worse and worse by the week until I eventually had a stroke at work. At the hospital they discovered that my mitral valve had become stenosis which caused a clot. Had my 2nd surgery at Hamilton General hospital in which they replaced both valves with mechanical valves. My new surgeon said that the 1st doctor should've used mechanical valves and not bovine. Anyways, in a couple weeks will be 10 years since my last surgery and still feeling good other than my ongoing gout which may or may not be caused by my warfarin therapy. I'm still working through threads and posts but thank you to everyone for sharing your stories. The normal everyday person doesn't really understand what we went through or go through daily both physically and mentally. It's nice to have his community. All the best

Paul

 

[jeffp]

Wow! Quite the story/adventure. Welcome. We get to be like family after a while (with similar pluses and minuses). Pull up a chair and join in.

 

[Gkeraney]

Hello all,

New member here (I'll apologize in advance as I'm bad with all the proper medical terminology).
Currently 46 years old. 1st surgery was when I was 29. Routine exam with a new family doctor heard what he thought was heart murmur and sent me for an Echo. They found a bicupsid aortic valve, a severe leakage in my mitral valve and my aortic root was severely dilated. Was referred to world renowned surgeon Tirone David at Toronto General hospital to perform the "David technique". He was not able to properly perform the technique due to the damage in my heart so both valves were replaced with Bovine valves and the Aortic Root was reconstructed. Fast forward about 6 & 1/2 years on a family vacation in Cuba and I saved a woman from drowning only to start coughing up blood a few hours laters. Spent a few days at a Cuban hospital and was released to follow up when I got home to Canada. Went to my cardiologist who couldn't find any problems on an echo. I started to feel worse and worse by the week until I eventually had a stroke at work. At the hospital they discovered that my mitral valve had become stenosis which caused a clot. Had my 2nd surgery at Hamilton General hospital in which they replaced both valves with mechanical valves. My new surgeon said that the 1st doctor should've used mechanical valves and not bovine. Anyways, in a couple weeks will be 10 years since my last surgery and still feeling good other than my ongoing gout which may or may not be caused by my warfarin therapy. I'm still working through threads and posts but thank you to everyone for sharing your stories. The normal everyday person doesn't really understand what we went through or go through daily both physically and mentally. It's nice to have his community. All the best

Paul

Thank you so much, Paul. I think most of the surgeons are thoughtful and are making tricky calculations. It sounds like the first surgeon had his hands full as the plan he originally had was failing. Some of the surgeons do want to minimize lifetime warfarin risk and because of that will put a bio valve in a young person, knowing full well it will probably fail in ten years or less. These folks, especially at the large urban medical centers, are quite confident we can get through up to 3 open heart surgeries. The frustration I have with that surrounds the lack of sharing a lifetime management plan, in most cases. There just isn't enough full disclosure. The surgical team, for example, could have told you if the David Techique is unable to be performed, we will put bio valves in you, as I dont think you should start warfarin at age 29. If we went mechanical, and you live a very long life its a good bet that you need a second surgery anyway. Anyway, I am glad you are doing great and thank you again for sharing your story!

 

[dick0236]

Welcome Paul, glad you found this forum. If you are fortunate, hopefully, you have had your last heart surgery. I received my first, and only, mechanical aortic valve when I was about your age, 31, and still have that valve at 87. My cardio tells me that "I'll die before my valve dies". I found this forum long after my surgery but have gotten a lot of comfort and information from the folks that post here.

 

[pellicle]

These folks, especially at the large urban medical centers, are quite confident we can get through up to 3 open heart surgeries.

I can personally vouch for that.

However I took seriously the advice of my surgeon when planning what to do with my 3rd: you won't find good surgeon's lining up behind you to do your 4th

So personally my view is have as many as you need, but don't plan to have more just to avoid something you may fear.

 

[MdaPA]

However I took seriously the advice of my surgeon when planning what to do with my 3rd: you won't find good surgeon's lining up behind you to do your 4th

Kind of heard the same thing from my wife's surgeon when he was about to do her 3rd OHS. He said "you don't want a 4th OHS". We did, however, meet someone in the waiting room who was having a follow-up after her 7th OHS!