Sooo….

A very interesting story concerning my aortic valve ^[1] and its calcification ^[2]. After my aortic valve replacement surgery ^[3] I met with my surgeon, Dr. Vaughn Starnes ^[4], three weeks post operation. Dr. Starnes entered the examination room and shook my hand. He then picked up his stethescope and said, “Alright. Now let’s have a listen.”

I’m sure my heart fluttered. I was so nervous. There was no regurgitation (leak) in my valves following the Ross Procedure ^[5] but it had been 21 days since my operation. Could something have changed? Dr. Starnes looked at me…. And smiled.

“Your heart sounds just perfect. No more heart murmur ^[6]!”

Peace rested over me. Peace rested over my family. This was great, terrific, spectacular, amazing news. In reviewing my heart valve replacement surgery, Dr. Starnes told me that my aortic valve was in very, very bad shape and that it was very good timing that I had the operation when I did. Dr. Starnes went on to tell me that my bicuspid aortic valve was very calcified, very white and really impacting the flow of blood through my heart and body.

Again, he said, “It’s a good thing this surgery happened when it did. The valve was very calcified.”

In that moment, I wanted to ask the heart valve guru if he still had the diseased valve. I wanted to see it. I had no idea what a calcified valve looked like and I was interested. “Am I sick?” I thought to myself. Anyways, I never got around to asking Dr. Starnes for the test tube that contained my valve. I’m sure it exists somewhere. Or, perhaps Nurse Matthew simply threw it in the garbage, next to the syringes and doughnuts?

Regardless, I wanted to see what a calcified heart valve looked like. Well…. Thanks to the power of Internet search engines… I just struck gold!!! Here is a picture of calcified aortic bicuspid valve.

This photograph shows the aortic valve from above, with a short segment of the aorta around it. The valve clearly has only two cusps (bicuspid aortic valve ^[1]), and is narrowed and densely calcified – you could put only a fingertip through the opening, which would feel hard and gritty.

Keep on tickin!