chuck barton
Member
I have been reading some of the threads posted here for the last year when I was first diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis but at the time nobody wanted to operate. Gradient was 30 and area over 1. When I had my echo last April the valve showed some deterioration so I had a cath and tee and they decided that the gradient was above 50 and I needed to replace it. At the time I was running 3 miles a day or swimming about 1/2 mile, still am. So I decided to wait till Oct when it would be more comfortable to walk outside.
I tried to talk the surgeon into a TAVI but they deemed the illness not suffiently progressed, although they referred to a double blind study where some patients would get a TAVI, although that was out of the question. So I tried a different surgeon to see if he would replace it with an OnX valve. Due to a low platelet count there is no protocol for blood thinners using an OnX. Likewise the Ross procedure was out of the question due to my age, 71.
So I finally settled on a Bovine pericardial valve. They will be using a Sorin valve, which was surprising since I would have expected an Edwards. I am having the surgery done at the St Lukes -- The Texas Heart Institute. There did seem to be some advantages as well to the biological valve as I was told that there is a very lower catastrophic failure rate than with the mechanical valves (although very low). At least they failure for tissue valves is slow like your native valve so it is possible to monitor it every year with an echo.
Am looking forward to it, although I would really rather spend October in Munich at the Octoberfest. Nevertheless it seems that the longer the wait is, the more hypochondria takes over. Everytime I start to have trouble getting my breath while swimming, probably bad form, or get a little tightness in the chest while running, it feels like this might be a heart attack.
Thanks for all the good advice to others from which I have been able to benefit. Initially I was miffed that they would not replace it a year ago, although in retrospect it has been very beneficial to spend the year getting comfortable with the idea of the surgery and valve types.
Best regards to everyone who posts here.
I tried to talk the surgeon into a TAVI but they deemed the illness not suffiently progressed, although they referred to a double blind study where some patients would get a TAVI, although that was out of the question. So I tried a different surgeon to see if he would replace it with an OnX valve. Due to a low platelet count there is no protocol for blood thinners using an OnX. Likewise the Ross procedure was out of the question due to my age, 71.
So I finally settled on a Bovine pericardial valve. They will be using a Sorin valve, which was surprising since I would have expected an Edwards. I am having the surgery done at the St Lukes -- The Texas Heart Institute. There did seem to be some advantages as well to the biological valve as I was told that there is a very lower catastrophic failure rate than with the mechanical valves (although very low). At least they failure for tissue valves is slow like your native valve so it is possible to monitor it every year with an echo.
Am looking forward to it, although I would really rather spend October in Munich at the Octoberfest. Nevertheless it seems that the longer the wait is, the more hypochondria takes over. Everytime I start to have trouble getting my breath while swimming, probably bad form, or get a little tightness in the chest while running, it feels like this might be a heart attack.
Thanks for all the good advice to others from which I have been able to benefit. Initially I was miffed that they would not replace it a year ago, although in retrospect it has been very beneficial to spend the year getting comfortable with the idea of the surgery and valve types.
Best regards to everyone who posts here.
