Jamie's Posts

It has been one year since I had my Mitral Valve replaced. I cannot believe how fast this past year went by. I am thankful every day, that I have not had any complications due to this surgery. It is the Thanksgiving season, so I would like to just say again how thankful I am to have had a brilliant surgeon and a wonderful team of doctors to take care of me. I really couldn't have asked for a better outcome! Thanks again to all of my family and friends for your continued support and love. And thanks to Adam for making this site available to all of us, I know I couldn't have made it through this journey without all the information and support from people going through the same thing as me. I have the St. Jude's Mechanical valve and have been on Warfarin for 1 year now. I know that a lot of people have side effects and problems on this drug, but I have not had one single problem with it. My INR is always in range and has been since very early on. I watch what I eat, but I still have the things I love every now and then. I haven't had any bleeding problems or any other complications. I'm so thankful that I haven't had to struggle with taking this drug and I hope that I will continue to have success with it. I can still hear my valve clicking away. I am definitely more used to it. I try to read as many stories as possible, but there are so many of us that sometimes is hard to keep up and I think once you've come out of the surgery successfully the need to connect with others going through it gets less and less as each month goes by. But I wish everyone going through it now, or in the future good luck and I hope you have as well as experience as I have.

Time has just flown by, I can not believe that I am celebrating my 9 month since surgery day today. I am doing so good. I'm back to doing everything I was doing before surgery and then some. I'm exercising regularly and I feel great doing it! In September I am doing my very first 5k ever, I have never done one before, so I am really excited to do it. And as a bonus it's the American Heart Associations Heart Walk/Run, so it is for a organization that is very important to me. I'm very excited and happy to raise money for them and I'm so thankful that I am able to participate in this event. I still here my mechanical valve clicking everyday. Sometimes it's louder and sometimes I can barely hear it. I'm not sure why it's like that, but it seems to be loudest when I'm exercising or nervous about something.. It still doesn't bother me, I like to hear it...hearing it let's me know my heart is strong and beating! Lol! My coumindin levels have continued to be really easy to maintain. I do pay attention to vitamin K a little, but I don't avoid it all the time. I am so thankful that I have been able to have a good experience with coumidin thus far. I haven't had any major episodes of bleeding or bruising in anyway. I hope that it continues to be that way for me. I haven't updated my journal for quite sometime, but I do read other peoples updates as much as I can. Good luck to everyone who is new to this site and are just begining their journey. Thanks again to all who have given love and support to me during my journey, you all made this process so much easier then I ever thought it would be! Love Jamie

It has been 4 months since my Heart surgery and I am doing great. Most of the time, I feel like I didn't even have surgery. I would say I'm 95% back to my "normal" self. That last 5% is more mental healing that needs to be done, not physical. I spent 18 years with that little pig valve in my heart, thinking and worry about when it would need to be replaced again and now that it has been replaced, It's hard to not worry about something happening to this mechanical valve and having to have it replaced as well. I went to see my Cardiologist for a follow up yesterday. He reassured me again by saying that this valve should last for the rest of my life. He said it sounded great and my echo showed no issues. This surgery was a huge thing for me to get past. Spending all of my adult life thinking "when is it going to be time" left a huge impact on me. I really believe that Mac and I were supposed to come back to Houston just for me to have the surgery here in the wonderful facilities at the Texas Medical Center. A second surgery has more risks, and I am greatful that I was lucky to have a wonderful and talented surgeon do mine. So I guess as the day's go by I will learn to trust that I'm going to be fine and hopefully I will get to a point where I don't think about it at all. My INR continues to be in the acceptable range. I have not had any problems with my blood getting and staying in the range. If it gets out of range because of something I ate or took, they adjust my meds for a couple of days and it falls right back in range. I have been lucky that I haven't had any side effects or complications because of the Coumadin. I am learning everything I can about it and trying to incorporate it into my life. And it hasn't been that big of an adjustment. I hope that will continue to be the case. Thanks again to all of my family and friends for all of your support during my time of need. I love you all very much!