Saying hi - 41 year old with BAV and surgery "soon"

[3mm]

great stuff.

All mechanical valves (even some of the old ball and cage valves like Dicks thats lasted nearly 60 years now) are expected to perform well ...

When did you get yours put in?

Here's to many more years

My valve was installed Sep 14th, 2023, just 46 days ago.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I agree, I know nothing compared to the surgeon and SO DO YOU know nothing compared to my surgeon.

actually I disagree with the general statement, however as I don't know your surgeon I can't possibly know if I know more or less than someone I don't know.

However generally people apply a belief without question to surgeons. Let me put it this way:

Formula 1 is a commonly followed motorsport. Its very much a team, yet everyone focuses on the driver. Nobody expects that the driver knows one piston from another or thinks much about what the do and don't know about how a car engine works.​

So why is it that people believe that a surgeon is a specialist in how a cylinder head and piston crown works? He's the driver of the team, not the engineer.

Now I have plenty of evidence that there are people who aren't surgeons who do know how a valve works. Usually its not the surgeon.

You consistently cast doubts on the OnX valve

What you either willingly ignore (and I have plenty of evidence about your willingness to ignore facts) or are blissfully ignorant of is that do not cast doubt (an oblique attack on me or yet another ad hominem attack) I refer to the works of experts in the articles I have read and the facts presented by them in their studies (presumably to inform surgeons, because I doubt that the general public reads that) casts doubt from its own empirical evidence.

I refer you again to the post where I raise valid questions.

The article in which I cite evidence from is here (for your convenience)


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4559772/
The authors of that article no doubt know a metric ton more about valves and valve operation than even your surgeon (I could be wrong), for your convenience let me cite that here because I suspect you just don't go read the stuff I cite

Measurement of Opening and Closing Angles of Aortic Valve Prostheses In Vivo Using Dual-Source Computed Tomography: Comparison with Those of Manufacturers' in 10 Different Types​

Young Joo Suh, MD, Young Jin Kim, MD, PhD,

Yoo Jin Hong, MD, Hye-Jeong Lee, MD, PhD, Jin Hur, MD, PhD, Dong Jin Im, MD, Yun Jung Kim, MD, and Byoung Wook Choi, MD, PhD​

all are MD's and most are also PhD's ... their evidence on claims and the way they obtained that is pretty clear.

If you have some facts to bring to the table I suggest you do, better yet, why don't you write to them and tell them what you think.

Thing is Tom, I've spent my whole life trying to educate myself; this is because I know from experience that only by informing myself can I make an informed decision. If you don't want to make informed decisions then good for you, coins are freely available or you can just believe what the first nicely groomed man in a white lab coat tells you.

Best wishes

 

[PhillyJohn]

Thanks for everyone's comments here. Heading into my surgery tomorrow morning bright and early. See y'all on the other side.

 

[Chuck C]

Thanks for everyone's comments here. Heading into my surgery tomorrow morning bright and early. See y'all on the other side.

Best of luck!!

Please give us an update as soon as you feel comfortable doing so.

We'll see you on the other side very soon!

 

[Unicusp]

Good luck to you!

 

[PAN]

best of luck ! One day at a time, before you know it, it'll be in the rear view !!

 

[PhillyJohn]

Hello from the other side. Pretty groggy but feeling good with the exception of if $$&! drain time tube.

Thought you’d all get a kick of seeing the tattoo the surgeon had to cut through

 

[Chuck C]

Welcome to the other side!

Thanks for the update and glad to hear that you're feeling good!

 

[Survived03]

Welcome back! That drain tube should be out by day 3 and you will feel much much better. Get some walks in after they are pulled.

 

[3mm]

Good to see you! Drain tubes are nasty. They will hurt when they are removed, but remember - a drain tube has a finite length. Once they start to remove it, it will eventually all be removed. And then the pain will stop. The removal of a drain tube will be a GOOD thing, because it means you are healing!

Also, I was able to go walking with an aide while my drain tubes were still in me. Please walk as soon as your Drs allow it!

 

[dick0236]

Drain tubes are nasty. They will hurt when they are removed, but remember - a drain tube has a finite length. Once they start to remove it, it will eventually all be removed. And then the pain will stop.

Some things about OHS don't seem to change with time. I still have a dim memory of pulling the drain tubes from my surgery many years ago. The first one was a shock......and then it dawned on me that they would do it all again for the second tube. But, as you say, it is all a part of the healing process.

 

[Survived03]

The first one was a shock......and then it dawned on me that they would do it all again for the second tube

I had 4 tubes this last time. PA asked me to hum while pulling. I wish I could temper the tune I hummed because she looked me straight in the face rather oddly.

 

[Zoltania]

The PA asked me to hum while my central line was being pulled out of my neck. No humming for the chest tube and drain tube, but I remember they felt shorter coming out than I had expected; it was pretty quick and not that painful. The annoying thing is that the holes they left behind continued to drain fluid for about three weeks. It felt great having them out, though.

 

[Chuck C]

feeling good with the exception of if $$&! drain time tube.

I had two tubes. The removal of the first one was kind of painful. Not my favorite memory from my time in the hospital.

I was given a button so that I could self administer diaudid when needed. It's a very strong pain med and so they set it so that it can only be pressed once every 10 minutes, which they do to prevent overuse. I ended up pressing it less than once per hour. But, I did use it to prepare for the second tube removal. I asked them to give me a 30 minute heads up before they removed the 2nd tube. That way, I was able to pre-load a little with the dilaudid 30 minutes out and then I pressed it again 20 minutes out. By the time they removed the second tube, the dilaudid had really kicked in and the removal was much more tolerable.

 

[slipkid]

Hello from the other side. Pretty groggy but feeling good with the exception of if $$&! drain time tube.

Thought you’d all get a kick of seeing the tattoo the surgeon had to cut through

Great to hear the operation is behind you. Welcome to the bionic man club.

Those tubes should be out soon!! Next thing you know you'll be going home!

I had three tubes. I can't remember how many days went by b4 they came out. Maybe 4 or 5 or something like that. I didn't have much sense of time while I was in there, at least not during the time I was in the ICU. My tubes didn't come out until I had progressed enough to go to the cardio-recovery ward.

I'm hazy as to whether the surgeon's assistant pulled them all out in one shot, or one by one or what. I only remember he came by early in the morning one day (or maybe it was the previous night, I 4get) to tell me that he'd be coming by to pull those out at such and such time and that b4 that happens I should take some painkillers (I tried doing without painkillers as much as possible). I asked if he told me that because it was going to hurt a lot and his reply was something like "nah, it's not bad":.

So when he did the deed(s) it hurt like hell (but was over real quick - he pulled them out like he was snapping a whip). I remember saying something to him afterwards "I thought you said that wasn't gonna hurt" and with a straight face he answered "I lied".

 

[Gail in Ca]

After my 2nd surgery, a resident came in to remove my 3 chest tubes. He did it with the most painful method. I said to him ‘That was more painful than having a baby natural. He looked at me and said’ I doubt that’ and left.
So, for my 3rd surgery when I had 4 chest tubes, I asked for the most experienced person to remove them or I wanted to have something to make me not care!
Later, a very kind PA came in and said she would be removing them. I said I hadn’t been given anything to relax me. She said not to worry, she was good at this and proceeded to remove 2 at a time. She was very good at it, I felt no pain and I was glad I had advocated for myself for the best outcome!

 

[PhillyJohn]

After 8 days in the hospital, I’m finally home resting. I had a bit of a bumpy landing - my first night in the Step Down ward, something caused a precipitous drop in my hemoglobin levels which required a couple of emergency blood infusions. Pretty scary.

Once they got me full of blood I started to feel better, but that episode set me back a couple of days and I ended up in “Coumadin jail”, where I felt fine but my INR was only crawling up by .1 per day. Eventually I talked them into letting me go home with lovenox bridging. Not much fun, but better than being stuck in the hospital for another 5 days.

So now I’m home and feel pretty good. My only real complaints are wild night sweats that make it hard to sleep, and a persistent dry cough that I assume is because my last tube only came out yesterday.

Onwards and upwards!

 

[Chuck C]

Glad to hear that you're home and doing well!

My only real complaints are wild night sweats that make it hard to sleep

This should improve little by little. Sleep is almost always a challenge in recovery.

Please keep us posted as your recovery journey continues.

 

[3mm]

I'm glad you are at home and improving! Please remember to keep walking, even if it is inside your home. Also please remember your incentive spirometer. Work those lungs!

 

[GreenGiant91]

I’m finally home resting

Nice one! Glad to hear you're feeling good now you're home! Hope the rest of your recovery is speedy too.