Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

Blog Topics: Ross Procedure Complications; Heart Valve Surgery Complications; Double Valve Replacement

After I was diagnosed with severe stenosis and regurgitation in my bicuspid aortic valve, I was required to make a pretty significant decision.

Since the echocardiograms showed that my aortic valve was beyond heart valve repair, I needed heart valve replacement surgery. (FYI, I had two echocardiograms to confirm my heart valve condition. I highly, highly, highly encourage you do the same. Second opinions are critical.)

That said, I had to answer the question, “What type of heart valve replacement surgery should I have?”

The Ross Procedure - Special Aortic Valve Replacement

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I just received an email from Roger, a recent Ross Procedure patient and reader of my book.

Roger raises some interesting points, so I thought I would include this as an email bag blog.

Roger’s comments and questions are:

I am now 20 weeks post op and I just had my annual physical today with my family dr. BP 116/70, heart rate in the 70s, blood work good so that all seems reassuring.

I am back to running about 3.5 miles at a 10 min pace. Per your suggesions, I have been monitoring my heart rate while running and trying to keep that in the 150 range.

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Every so often I receive an email that really makes me remember my heart valve surgery experience, especially the recovery.

Some of those memories are joyful. And, some of those are…. well… not so joyful.

This blog is in response to an email that reads, “How sore are your chest muscles after heart surgery?”

Hmmmmm. To answer that question, I have to let you know that there are many different types of heart surgery - some procedures require the sternum to be split and some heart surgeries are noninvasive that do not require “chest cracking”.

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One of the many things I love about life is food.

In fact, right now I’m waiting for my new bride, Robyn, to get home from work so we can go out for dinner and officially start the weekend. But, as of this moment… SHE’S LATE AND I’M STARVING!!!

I guess that brings up a pretty interesting topic - Foods For People That Had Open Heart Surgery!!!

My gut tells me you might want to know if your food consumption will change following cardiac surgery including open heart valve repair or open heart valve replacement.

“Am I right?” (If no, skip this blog.)

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Happy Sunday!

One of the greatest parts about running this website is hearing from the caregivers of heart valve surgery patients. Recently, I met Denise Hill via email. Denise’s story about her son John was so touching that I asked her if I could post it here in my blog. She was warm to the idea and provided me with a picture of her son, John Hill and his fiance, Tabitha.

There is no doubt that John is a model for us all… Even with a problematic Ross Procedure, he is moving onto bigger and better things!!

From Denise Hill:

Our son at the age the age of 16 received the Ross procedure in 1995. We initially saw it as an answer to prayer that would allow him a greater level of activity compared to receiving a mechanical valve.

Although he had excellent doctors, we still felt alone during this time. The Ross procedure had just started being performed in our area.

Our son also became part of a research study. After his initial surgery, he underwent an additional surgery 5 days after his first and had to have the two valves replaced four and a half years later because of the failure of the Ross. It was very difficult to be one of the 4% of people for which it failed. We are so grateful that we had understanding doctors who worked with him regarding his athletic activities. As parents we knew that the most important thing was for our son to be alive; however, we also had to balance that with our son’s quality of life.

At the time that the Ross procedure began to fail his cardiologist believed me when I expressed my concern that there was something more going on than what the tests showed. They got him into surgery sooner than planned and discovered an aneurysm that for all medical purposes should have ruptured. After fourteen hours of surgery, his surgeon said that there was no medical explanation for our son to be here except for that of a miracle. He played high school and college golf, has a great job, and is getting married this summer.

This was a very difficult experience for a teenager/young adult to go through. I still believe in the Ross procedure and only God knows why we went through all that we did with our son. I know his care is written about in many journals, so I can only hope that others will benefit from it. To his Dad and me he is a hero.

Thank you Adam for all that you are doing with your book and website.

Regards, Denise