by the way i am 27 years of age and i want the cows valve …coz i want to have kids..and does cows valve fit for my age?
plsss..reply me….

I would actually like to know what kind of operation my brother may need. I’ve been asking some doctor in my country but unfortunately they are not so certain to let me know what operation he needs. My brother was diagnosed with a Rheumatic Heart Disease & Chronic obstructive Pulmonary Disease. I wonder if you could help me which kid of action we may need so we could organize ourselves as well for the necessary arrangements may required.

Hoping your prompt reply.

by the way i am 27 years of age and i want the cows valve …coz i want to have kids..and does cows valve fit for my age?

That being said, I researched some more, talked with people who had replacements and made my decision. I figure that with the blood issues, the coumadin, the easy bruising and bleeding, the monthly lab work and the possibilties of mechanical failure, as well as the tweeking that would be involved with any future surgeries for other conditions (all possible as we age) that the biological valve made more sense for me. I am still a young 50 years old. I lift weights, ride my bike, and participate in sports, all of which would change some – at least the intensity level- if I had to take coumadin. I have a horse that I enjoy riding, 2 labs and a Great Dane, all of who accidentley bump me from time to time when the are greeting me. Not good if you’re taking coumadin.

By the time I need to think about replacing the bio valve (12-15 years), if my life style has changed then I can always get the mechanical valve then. Who knows what strides will be made in medicine in the next decade. Maybe, then, the surgery that is being performed on patients needing AVR (valve is placed through the Femal Artery, in the leg) but are too weak for surgery will be perfected and common. Even today, we don’t always need the 8 inch sternum break but can often elect the 3 inch mini operation. Bottom line, I’m getting the biological bulls valve.

Furthermore, being a vegetarian who can no longer enjoy the Vitamin K enriched foods I used to be able to eat freely, it is very difficult for me to control my weight. And no, increasing my warfarin intake does me more harm than good – my INR stayed low for weeks when I upped my intake and ate leafy green vegetables. I was at 9 mg daily a year ago, (when I was 40 pounds heavier) and now am up to 12, without being able to eat salad daily as I used to. I have a resistance to warfarin. It took a month for my INR to go up to normal after being off warfarin for 6 days prior to my angiogram this past October.

To add to that, after three years of begging for answers as to why I never felt better after my operation and why I have no stamina, it seems likely that I have severe patient prosthesis mismatch. My surgeon did not even discuss this possibility with me before or after my operation when I asked why I felt worse instead of better. Cardiologists told me my valve sounded just fine. The attitude was that I had my operation, so I had no reason to complain.

I was also born with an interarterial left main artery, and this was re-implanted during open-heart surgery. No one was interested in doing an angiogram to review the results of re-implantation. I had to go out of province a year ago to get a CT angiogram which showed a severe kink in that artery and I was told I needed immediate surgery to bypass it. I could not face another surgery – I then met with another heart surgeon in Winnipeg who insisted on a conventional angiogram. Tests showed my blood flow to be above .8 so he told me I didn’t need another operation to bypass the kinked artery, but suggested I should lose weight because my valve is too small for my body size.

I thought he was being patronizing as I had already lost a significant amount of weight (I gained 80 since the operation and have lost 40 to date) with no improvement in my symptoms of chest discomfort and extreme fatigue. Just a few days ago, I saw a new cardiologist who told me to look up “patient prosthesis mismatch” on the internet. I did and found that this is a very real condition that was named in 1978, but in 2007, my surgeon did not do his homework.

I am a tall woman, 5′ 10″ with a very large bone structure. The cardiologist told me that even though I should lose the extra weight and more, I will still have severe patient prosthesis mismatch. The surgeon who told me to lose the weight seemed to think that is all that I need to do to feel better. I would not have gained that much weight if I had been able to be physically active as I expected to be. I gained 30 pounds in two months a few months after my operation, in spite of trying to be more active.

If I had it to do over again, I would have taken my chances with my original valve. My life is worse, not better. There seem to be a lot of studies discussing “survival” rates from a medical point of view, but very few that I’ve seen discussing quality of life in relatively younger patients. The ones I did read say that patients with a large body size younger than 60/65 should never be given a valve too small for their relative body size because it increases the likelihood of ‘cardiac events’.

I was 53 when I had the operation, and it seems the surgeon should have enlarged my aortic root rather than put in a valve that can’t support my size. I didn’t know this condition existed. Since my operation, I have had several episodes of severe chest discomfort, and it seems this will get worse instead of better.

Please do your own homework before having open-heart surgery. I wish I had.