Don's Guestbook

Hey Don, I had a baseline echo done before I left the hospital. In July I had another one done and everything is looking good. Said see ya in 6 months. He likes to keep up on things.Ok by me. Still have a small amount of pain espically if I pick up something to heavy. Guess you forget what happened a year ago. Maybe you should see about another cardio. doctor. Its always best to stay in touch with them just to make sure nothing ever happens. Take care.

Hey Don and Surgery Pall, I have been wondering what ever happened to you. You just kinda dissappeared. Glad you are still doing good. I am also. I have been busy with rehab too, and am enjoying it. I will miss it when it is over with in Feb. But I plan on getting on with Curves or something like that. Now that I have been more active I have had some more pain. I guess it is a slow reaction lol. You keep doing good and I would still like to keep in touch with you. My email is lmyrrah@charter.net. We all have so much in common. I have a couple of people from here on email and facebook as well. Its nice to keep up. Well guess I will go get on HVJ and make a new posting. Talk to you later. Linda H and Elsie AVR 9/19/12

Hi Don, I had suggificant calcium build up on my aortic valve as well. I did ask the technican that was doing my echo before surgery if it would come back, she didnt think it would and that I just got a bad card dealt out to me. That is what caused it. My aunt had to much calcium of thyroid, thought maybe thats where it might have come from but she said no. We are going to be ok.We have been so blessed. Keep doing good. Mooing all over Linda H and Elsie AVR 9/19/12

Hi Don,Glad to see you back on here. I thought about you a lot while in the hospital. I am so glad it is over with, and I am amazed that I dont have very much pain at all, or ever did. My surgery lasted 5 1/2 hours and the breathing tube lasted another 4 hours. Really dont remember much about that except they kept in CVICU for 2 days instead on 1. They couldnt get my BP over 85 so had to give me more blood. The third day was a bad one dont remember going to my room and tried coming home and then it hit I was in the hospital. I was released on Monday . I got a cow valve I named Elsie along with about a 3 inch dacron graft for my anuersym. The doctor said it was larger then tests showed and it was a good thing I got it done when I did. I\'m not pushing myself. Went out for the first time on Tues. and I am doing pretty good. Im still loosing the 20 pounds of water that I took on and had to have my lungs drained. They got about 2 liters of fluid. That was a lot.. We both have a lot to be thankful for. Now for the good life. Im so glad you are doing good also. So with that welcome to the other side of the mountain. It is beautiful over here and the grass is pretty good for grazing to lol. Heres to a speedy recovery. Mooing all over Linda H and Elsie AVR 9/19/12

Hi Linda, My surgey turned out great; so far. Surgery was on the 19th, as you know but 19th-21th quite a bit of pain. Then on the 22th woke up with a racing heart; got it settled down but then on the 23th had the racing heart and irregular heart beats. Medicine worked and end result, released me on the 25th (yesterday). Came home, walked some yesterday and more today. Pain medicine, maybe one or two times a day. God truly watched over me and the Surgeon, Remember talking to antitheologist and next thing, trying to wake me up. It took between 4-5 hours to get me awake. The Dr., hospital and nurses were great. My plans were to talk with Dr. prior to surgery about which valve but Anthiologist took care of that. Ended up with a bovine valve; feel good and very blessed. How is Linda? Please let me know, we have a date and the valve in common. Been thinking a lot of her and the surgery. Today was the first day to turn on computer. Actually, did not miss it a bit. Don S.

Hi Don! This is Lindas daughter Stephanie. Just wanted to see if you had any updates so I can tell mom how your doing. I hope your doing well and your new vavle is working great and its what you wanted. Mom is doing good. Shes already sat up a little today and they are hoping to get her up more tomorrow. Shes told me alot about you and said you had your surgery today too. Over the mountain with my mooing mom. Now on to recovery for you.Your in our prayers. God Bless! Stephanie

Hi Don.. I just wanted to wish you Good Luck tomorrow! I had my AVR on 7.17.12 @ Cleveland Clinic. I chose a tissue valve..for a couple of reasons... I just didn\'t want one more medication to deal with after surgery, and I knew I could do another surgery because HE has led me through many other trials in my life....I have complete faith! Stay strong tomorrow....you are almost there....the waiting truly has been the worst part of it all.... I think you will be surprised how quickly you recover....is it fun?...nope....but hey...beats the alternative...and besides...recovery is a \"nano second\" in this big ole wonderful life! You can do it!!! This I know for sure!! Will think of you & pray for you as well! See you on the other side of your mountain! :) Connie T

Don: Good luck on your upcoming surgery. I struggled with my decision about the valve until the morning of surgery. I tried to get cardiologist and the surgeon to give me their opinion and neither would they would only go over the positives and negatives. I decdied on the tissue valve becasue I decided I couldn\'t handle the noise and blood thinners; however, in the end they ended up being able to repair it. I never did find a way to make the nerves go away completely before surgery but did find that telling the nurses how I felt was helpful. They were able to reassure me and calm me down a little.

Hi Linda! Thank you so much for your input. Greatly appreciated! I think my biggest mistake was talking to too many surgeons and getting their different opinions. Talking with the valve companies didn\'t help either. You were very wise with your planning on the clinic and surgeon and going with whatever the Dr. decided would be best for you. When I drift away from the tissue toward the mechanical (because I do not want another surgery); the question comes up; why are many of the surgeons recommending tissue instead of mechanical? (ie, your surgeon) I\'m excited for you and thankful your doing so well. Take care and stay in touch. Don

Don, today is actually my 6 month anniversary. My surgery was 3/13/12. You know, here is where my head was at when it finally came time to make the decision about the valve. I had known I would eventually need surgery for several years and had actually known for about 8 months that it was \"time\". I had done a lot of research, knew I wanted to go to Cleveland Clinic for the surgery and knew I wanted Dr. Gillinov to do it. Just about the only thing I didn\'t know was \"what kind of valve?\". But you know, I have trouble deciding what I want for lunch, lol!!! When I stopped to think about it, knowing the tissue was what was being \"suggested\" even though it was \"totally my decision\", I decided, you know what...I went to the trouble of all this research, I went to the added expense to come to CCF (I live in SC), I chose who I thought was the \"best\" surgeon...now am I going to get here and then \"argue\" with the expert???? Like I said earlier, I just sort of went with it. That being said, my surgery really was almost a non-event. Even the dreaded breathing tube was almost a non-event. I was aware of it, although it seemed to only be there for a few minutes (really good drugs) and I knew prior to surgery that it would be there, so I sort of looked at it as \"oh thank God...the breathing tube...that means I survived!\". My pain was very minimal, all the tubes came out on day 2 (even the chest tube), I was discharged on day 4 and flew back to SC on day 5. I did develop pneumonia 6 weeks out of surgery (not related to the surgery, except maybe immune system still working on healing my heart) and the pneumonia was MUCH worse than the surgery. I say all this to say...even though I still sometimes wonder if I made the right decision (no logical reason to wonder), I also think it really doesn\'t matter, if I need even the full surgery again, I think I can do it. I wish I could be more helpful, but I will say this...I retired from the medical profession after almost 40 years and I wouldn\'t worry too much about what the \"valve people\" had to say ( or lack of same). They have a script to pretty much follow, my trust remains with the surgeons, Coumadin isn\'t really all that bad, was on it for several years for a small patent foremen ovale. They don\'t even use Coumadin for that anymore, but I only had issues with it if I had to come off for some other procedure, then it was a little difficult to stabilize again. But, I am getting older, my chances of falling, etc are probably greater now and I just decided on the tissue and not have to worry about that. As you said, I have turned it over to God, trusting that it was He who really made the final decision. After all, I believe if He is in control, then He is in control ALL the time. Good luck, wish I could be more helpful. We just have to trust in Him. Linda Dixon, AVR 3/13/12