Hi Evelyn
Hi Evelyn
Hi Evelyn and welcome to this wonderful site. Like you, I am the spouse of a heart valve patient. By the way, is your husband's surgery this Wednesday the 20th, or the following Wednesday, the 27th?
My husband is 71 years old and has had an aortic and mitral valve replacement, both mechanical, a repair on the mitral valve, 2 lung surgeries and many other less complicated surgeries. He's also been through some very nasty and difficult medical things, not even related to heart surgery, the latest one being a problematic gallbladder surgery in May of this year.
I can relate to how you're feeling right now. You can feel very much alone. The only way to approach it is to realize that your husband needs you desperately right now. He needs your strength, he needs your calmness, he needs your belief in him. This is going to be the biggest day in his life, almost like being born again in a way. He'll be helpless, maybe for the first time in his life and will be feeling many different emotions which he has to deal with. He'll need you to get him through. You will become his cheer leader.
The mortality rates for this surgery, in a good hospital and in the hands of a good surgeon are around 2 percent or minus . That means at least 98 percent to the good. So the odds are overwhelmingly in his favor. Lumped in that percentage, are some very, very sick people, and some who are older than your husband, and many who aren't in as general good health as he is. The fact that he never smoked is a very favorable thing. He's young and strong. He just has a bad body part. So "out with the bad thing", and in with a new shiny part. Then with a little healing time, he'll be better than he has been for probably many years.
The surgeons who do this are a dedicated group of doctors. They have superior training, are thorough and very exacting. They do it every day in some form or another and know their way around your heart like the back of their hand. They will pull together an excellent team for the operating room and your husband will have the very best of care in the OR, on the heart surgery floor, and in the ICU just after surgery. You'll be amazed in the science of it all. They'll be tons of equipment, ringing, buzzing and whirring around your husband, all to keep him safe while he recovers those first few days. You'll be very surprised when they get him up for the first time. You'll think it's too soon, but the human body is very strong, and resilient. When he first comes home with you, he'll be very weak, but gradually he'll start to gain strength and will be able to do more and more.
So you'll both be fine through all of this. It's a tough time, but the result will be very good. It's OK to be scared right now, but don't let your fear transfer over to your husband. Put on your best smile, your nicest looking clothes, your cheeriest attitude, especially when he's in the hospital. Look for the humorous things that happen in the hospital and laugh together about them.
I'll be thinking about you as you wait for your husband to come out of surgery.
Take care,