Harry's Guestbook

Hey Harry. zLike that you are compiling data. very serious with your chart there but it will come to you ( what you want to do) as you get your own feeling of what will make you feel happy. I am 71. had a bovine tissue valve with aorta repair in 2010 at UCL A ( shout out to my great surgeon Richard Sheman who I found through this great site—double shout out to ADAM for creating and maintaining this terrific and in many cases lifesaving site where I actually found out what was wrong with me and which helped me make a decision to get surgery). Back to my story… so that's over 15 years of heavy use. And i get yearly tests with my cardio and the " valve looks great" she says how i discovered my problem. i had a therapist mention in passing i had a murmur. that was in 2008. first time i heard that. Had an echo the next year which was mild to moderate regurgitation. still no drs are worried. But I did intense martial art practice with grappling and sparing and in spite of lifetime fitness i was running out of breath. could not compete. then i noticed a rapid heart rate not connected to anything. finally i noticed i couldn't finish sentences without taking a breath. SOB they call that. then after consulting cardiologists had another echo which was moderate to severe. now i assume you have made the decision to get your heart fixed but im sure there are a lot of people on the fence about it because drs aren't pushing surgery ( for obvious reasons) unless it's a life or death thing. basically if someone with aortic stenosis or regurg significantly alters their lifestyle, as in no more high activity, the heart should chug along and you won't become a cardiac cripple. What people need to understand is that, and please adam or anyone else correct me if I'm wrong, the danger is not so much that your heart has to work harder although that also can be somewhat helped by just keeping the heart rate low so it doesn't have to beat as much to meet the oxygen demands of activity or exercise. But the leakage causes the chamber to OVERFILL every beat. that STRETCHES the heart every time it beats. And eventually it is so stretched that it doesn't have the elasticity and strength to pump. That my friends is called CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE. And the only cure for that is a NEW HEART. So after I discovered this, again only through Adam's site. no dr had this discussion with me, I ask myself, and then my drs these questions: 1-will this condition get better. Always NO 2-will it get worse-yes 3- is there any way to fix it without surgery? NO so then i decided surgery, i then looked at options. if i dont need to go on blood thinners better choice. i was and still am not afraid of a repeat chest cracking. techniques get better and medicare is great insurance. i looked at ross and Arnold had one and well i was concerned with the complications he had and not a lot of drs do them and nobody was recomending them. i guess it for those who want something different. no guarantee with that upside wise and lots of potential downsides with the procedure. Tissue was the right decision for me and currently i am on ZERO heart meds. I take a baby aspirin plus some statins ( crestor and zetia) and recently jardiance and more recently trulicity. both diabetes oriented but also great for heart health. my weight is 175. best in decades. I stopped running after surgery. it just didn't feel good. but i do high intensity road bike rides and outrigger canoe and snowboarding and yoga. plus golf. not all at the same yime but all with a simile.

Harry, I was a little older (63) when I got the news. Depending who I talked to I had moderate/severe or simply severe. One man OI total trusted said I could go up to two years before it became necessary. I chose not to wait but that was my personal decision. Make the decision you are comfortable with.