wes
Well-known member
Hello everyone! Thanks for the kind and warm welcome to the forums! 
I had my meeting with the surgeon (Dr. Kobayashi) this morning and everything went well. To my surprise, he'd lived in the States for 3 years, working at a hospital in Chicago and doing cardiovascular research at the University of Alabama. Boy did that make me feel so much better! We spent most of the time talking about the differences in surgery between the U.S. and Japan. Apparently, Japanese people's bodies are quite different, and he told me the INR range is between 1.2 and 1.8 over here! Luckily, he's going to treat me differently from the others and put me at the more comfortable 2.0 to 3.0 INR range. Oh, and he was very flexible with the type of valve. (I chose the On-x valve immediately).
All of my questions were answered and I feel so much more at ease. Unfortunately, Dr. Kobayashi couldn't give me an exact surgery date, but put me on the waiting list for the operation. If all goes well then I will have the AVR before the end of October. I'm sure I'll be posting a ton of questions between now and then. For some strange reason, I'm not feeling the least bit nervous about the operation. I must still be in the denial phase, right? I'm sure it will all change when I get admitted to the hospital (the rule in Japan is to admit patients 4 to 5 days BEFORE surgery. I'm sure the anticipation will cause a lot of sleepless nights before the actual operation!)
I had my meeting with the surgeon (Dr. Kobayashi) this morning and everything went well. To my surprise, he'd lived in the States for 3 years, working at a hospital in Chicago and doing cardiovascular research at the University of Alabama. Boy did that make me feel so much better! We spent most of the time talking about the differences in surgery between the U.S. and Japan. Apparently, Japanese people's bodies are quite different, and he told me the INR range is between 1.2 and 1.8 over here! Luckily, he's going to treat me differently from the others and put me at the more comfortable 2.0 to 3.0 INR range. Oh, and he was very flexible with the type of valve. (I chose the On-x valve immediately).
All of my questions were answered and I feel so much more at ease. Unfortunately, Dr. Kobayashi couldn't give me an exact surgery date, but put me on the waiting list for the operation. If all goes well then I will have the AVR before the end of October. I'm sure I'll be posting a ton of questions between now and then. For some strange reason, I'm not feeling the least bit nervous about the operation. I must still be in the denial phase, right? I'm sure it will all change when I get admitted to the hospital (the rule in Japan is to admit patients 4 to 5 days BEFORE surgery. I'm sure the anticipation will cause a lot of sleepless nights before the actual operation!)
