Audrey's Posts

Hi There Back in 2011 I had heart surgery to replace an aortic heart valve. At the time the surgeon told me I should get 10-15 years of life out of the porcine valve. It is now 13 years since that day and the valve is starting to fail. For the past year I have had Heart failure and have had four admissions to our local hospital to remove fluid from my right lung due to the heart not pumping well enough. I am now 87 years old and wonder what my chances are of getting some heart surgery to correct this. I live in New Zealand and am not sure of how up to date we are in terms of heart operations for the elderly. Apart from the heart failure and some loss of kidney function I am a healthy person, good bone density and muscle tone, no joint problems and still alert and mentally functioning well. I would love to hear from people of a similar age who have undergone surgery or had similar problems to me. I used to be a regular contributor to this community and it was my lifesaver at the time of my surgery in 2011, it got me through what was a worrying experience for me at the time. In the years since I have lived a full and active life and, hopefully, can look forward to a few more years of quality living. I hope that there are new and different procedures available to me and I have an upcoming appointment with a cardiac specialist to discuss this in the coming weeks. Any information that you can give me would be helpful.