We're new;Husband's AVR in 2 weeks

[bturner972]

Hello; this is my first posting. My husband is scheduled for AVR in 2 weeks. He is 51; very active; and a very large man (6'7"; 300 lbs.) He has decided on a mechanical valve (though I may have chosen tissue for myself). He is scared, and I would like to be able to address some of his fears through people on this website. I have never posted before, so I hope I am doing this correctly.

 

[Lionheart]

Hi Bturner,
Your husband (and you) have a lot of good company here on VR.com. Tell him other big, active guys have had the same thing and do really well and usually feel better after they get their new valve. It might be a little bumpy at first after surgery but things will settle down and smooth out over time. I know I feel better than before my surgery and I am about 5 months out from surgery.

Find out what specific fears your husband has and stay connected with us. There is a large group of good people on this site who are willing to share their knowledge and experiences. You too will need support as the primary caregiver, so don't forget to include your questions and needs too.

I am sure you will hear encouragement from several others soon.
Take care,
John

 

[Mary]

Hello; this is my first posting. My husband is scheduled for AVR in 2 weeks. He is 51; very active; and a very large man (6'7"; 300 lbs.) He has decided on a mechanical valve (though I may have chosen tissue for myself). He is scared, and I would like to be able to address some of his fears through people on this website. I have never posted before, so I hope I am doing this correctly.

You did a great job of starting this thread!
Welcome to both you and your husband. It's nice to make your acquaintance, even if the circumstances aren't the best!
Where will your husband have surgery? I see you're in the LA area, and I am curious about which hospital and surgeon will do the replacement. If you'd like to share the surgery date, we'll get it placed on our calendar too.
If you have specific questions, please ask away or check out the significant others forum for questions other spouses have had. The presurgery forum also has many threads that address issues before replacement.

Once again, I'm glad to see you joined and I look forward to more of your posts.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Since your husband has indicated a preference for a mechanical valve, may I suggest you (and HE) check out the latest developments offered by the ON-X Valve (introduced to the World market in 1996)?

See www.onxvalves.com and www.heartvalvechoice.com to learn of the technological improvements over the older designs from 20 and 30 years ago. You might be interested in knowing that ALL* of the bi-leaflet valve leaflets were designed by the same man, Jack Bokros, Ph.D. who saw the potential for the Pyrolytic Carbon material he (and others?) developed for use in the Nuclear Power Industry. (ALL* USA mechanical valves = St. Jude from 1970's, ATS and Carbomedics which were spinoffs of the original St. Jude design, and Dr. Bokros' latest breaktroughs represented by his On-X valve.)

The St. Jude Master's Series valves hold the record for Longevity at 30 years and counting. See www.sjm.com for their information.

'AL Capshaw'

 

[Karlynn]

Welcome! I'm happy that you found us.

Since he's going with a mechanical valve, I highly recommend checking out the Stickies in our Anticoagulation forum here. http://valvereplacement.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5 I say this because there is still a lot of myth and incorrect information being given by the medical community and some make it sound much harder to live with than it is.

There are many of us here who home test and do our own dosing. It's no harder to learn (and probably easier) than diabetics who test their own blood and dose their own insulin. So I'd advise your husband to just start telling his doctors that he plans to home test. It will make him feel like he is in control of his health and make your life feel much less interrupted.

I wish you both the best. Remember that there's no such thing as a dumb question.

 

[ricks399]

Welcome

Welcome

This is the right place for both you and your husband for both support and information. I learned quite a bit by lurking here before I joined. I know the waiting is difficult on both of you and I'm sure you have your own fears and concerns about the surgery but valve replacement has become routine, to the extent that any OHS can be said to be routine!

I had my surgery on 7-21 (also double bypass) and I'm trying to take my recovery one day at a time, and some days are better than others. Take care of yourself and read through some of the threads on problems faced by spouses - they may be helpful and let you know that others have made it through similar problems. Good luck to you both and I look forward to hearing more about how things are going for the both of you.

 

[Susan BAV]

Welcome to the site; glad you found it. Hoping all goes well for your husband. Questions? Ask away .

 

[Okielady]

It is hard to take that first step and make a post but once you do it is like opening up the floodgates of love and support. Everyone here is either waiting to have surgery or already have and are there to let us know what it is going to be like on the other side of that mountain. Good luck and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[Bina]

Bt, welcome to the group. Please re-assure your husband that all will be fine.
If I can get through OHS, then anyone can!

 

[bturner972]

Thank you for your supportive words and here's more info

Thank you for your supportive words and here's more info

His surgery is scheduled for August 19th at UCLA - Westwood. The surgeon is Richard Shemin, who says that my husband may be a candidate for minimally invasive, and that he will initially attempt the surgery that way. My husband's greatest fear seems to be that they (the doctors) will not be able to restart his heart once it is stopped for the AVR and he is put on the heart machine. Apparently, someone years ago told him that he would not be able to survive a heart attack due to his myopathy. None of hiscurrent doctors have mentioned this, so I thought I woulld throw it out there. Is this a common fear? Is three an answer to it? Again, thank you all for your kind and prompt responses.

 

[Superbob]

Welcome, Turners! Glad you have joined us. I wish your husband all the best for the surgery and for a smooth recovery. There are plenty of nice friendly folks here who are willing to share their experiences and perspectives if you have any questions or concerns. Look forward to your posts. Your husband should do fine -- I was a dozen years older than him when I had my aortic valve and root replacement, and I am enjoying life. All best to you both!

 

[EVELYN]

Hello Turners

Welcome to a great site. I'm Evelyn, whose husband, Tyce, had AVR in 2002. He received a St. Jude's mechanical at age 50. We were from New York, but have since moved. I hope you like this site....the people here are the best and you can always get more than one answer to your questions.

Please know, that your hubby's heart surgery affects the entire family, so feel free to ask any questions that affect the both of you. Our surgeon, Dr. James Taylor of St. Francis, didn't want to do minimally invasive because he said that if he ran into any trouble once Tyce was opened up he wanted plenty of room to work. Luckily he didn't and all has been well, thank God, ever since. Actually, we're up in NY and just saw our old cardio who said Tyce's echo and ekg was excellent....all is well.

If your hubby gets a mechanical, please know coumadin/warfarin is NOT an issue.....at least for us. There are alot of professionals out there who have absolutely NO idea how to manage it.....this site has been the best for learning how to do that, too.

Please feel free to post any time. Looking forward hearing from you from cyberspace.

Evelyn

 

[Mary]

His surgery is scheduled for August 19th at UCLA - Westwood. The surgeon is Richard Shemin, who says that my husband may be a candidate for minimally invasive, and that he will initially attempt the surgery that way. My husband's greatest fear seems to be that they (the doctors) will not be able to restart his heart once it is stopped for the AVR and he is put on the heart machine. Apparently, someone years ago told him that he would not be able to survive a heart attack due to his myopathy. None of hiscurrent doctors have mentioned this, so I thought I woulld throw it out there. Is this a common fear? Is three an answer to it? Again, thank you all for your kind and prompt responses.

.
I've placed his surgery date on the calendar so you will have all our support throughout his replacement.
I had the same fear. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to restart my heart. I suppose the only thing that helped was knowing I had no control over it, and whatever was going to happen, would happen.

 

[ShezaGirlie]

Just extending a welcome to you both...and hope you take note of Al's advice below on the ON-X valve which may require less anticoagulation which in my opinion, is a great thing. To answer your question - personally I didn't have time to even think about my heart not starting after AVR since I was an emergency case.

Since your husband has indicated a preference for a mechanical valve, may I suggest you (and HE) check out the latest developments offered by the ON-X Valve (introduced to the World market in 1996)?

See www.onxvalves.com and www.heartvalvechoice.com to learn of the technological improvements over the older designs from 20 and 30 years ago. You might be interested in knowing that ALL* of the bi-leaflet valve leaflets were designed by the same man, Jack Bokros, Ph.D. who saw the potential for the Pyrolytic Carbon material he (and others?) developed for use in the Nuclear Power Industry. (ALL* USA mechanical valves = St. Jude from 1970's, ATS and Carbomedics which were spinoffs of the original St. Jude design, and Dr. Bokros' latest breaktroughs represented by his On-X valve.)

 

[WayneGM]

Welcome to VR. Glad you found us. Best wishes to your husband for a successful surgery and smooth, speedy, recovery.

 

[hall]

Welcome to both of you. Prayers and thoughts for your husbands upcoming surgery and hoping for a uneventful recovery.

 

[Freddie]

Hi and Welcome bTurner. Can't really add anything more that has been already mentioned, but I too want to extend my best wishes for a successful surgery and smooth, speedy, recovery.

 

[DebbyA]

Welcome to this site! I hope you and your husband find the information you need to help you through the AVR and recovery.

You might consider a post with "myopathy" in the title to get the attention of those who have the knowledge or experience to answer his fear.

Also, a possible complication from myopathy is certainly a question to direct to the surgeon. Open heart surgery has been constantly improving over the years, so whatever "someone" told him years ago may no longer be valid. And, valve replacement surgery is not quite the same thing as a heart attack, thank goodness!

Best wishes,

Debby

 

[Susan BAV]

I don't know if this personal experience is applicable...

I don't know if this personal experience is applicable...

I never worried about my heart getting restarted but the operative notes indicated that it took several tries to get me going again, but I don't know why exactly or if that's even an unusual situation.

I don't know if that is encouraging but I hope so.

Also, my dad suffered from some pretty severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and his heart stopped once during a stress test but after three progressively increasing zaps they got him going again.

I think this is the perfect kind of question your husband should feel free to ask his surgeon about. It would be nice to know the surgeon's experience in this regard and it could really help your husband deal with this very real worry. Hoping all goes very well .

 

[AquaJeff]

Welcome and good luck. There is plenty of great info on this site and so many knowledgeable people here that are happy to answer any questions you may have.