Linda's Guestbook

Hi Linda - I had the same procedure, same doc and same hospital on March 17. The healing process takes weeks but I have no regrets at all. Good news is I "lost" 30 pounds and have more stamina following weeks of exercise. Wishing you the very best for a speedy recovery. Send along  my best wishes to Doc G!

Best of luck tomorrow Linda! I watched an interview of your surgeon and he is amazing and very caring. I know you are in capable hands! 

Terry T.
Boca Raton. Fla. 

Hello Linda.  You made a great choice in selecting Dr Gillinov at The Cleveland Clinic.  Dr. Gillinov was able to repair instead of replace my mitral and tricuspid valves 5 months ago.  He and everyone at the clinic are amazing.  You will be well cared for and do very well.

Hi Linda and welcome to the site. I had mitral and tricuspid repair and a Maze procedure done by Dr. Gillinov 6 months ago. He is an amazing surgeon and such a kind person. You will be very pleased with your care at CC from the moment you check in until the day you leave. My return home to Texas and my recovery was right on track with no issues and I'm feeling back to normal now. I wrote a detailed journal of my heart surgery experience that I would be happy to email to you if it would be helpful (my email is ginnyturner@hotmail.com). Since your surgery is next week, you are probably already at the hospital doing all the pre surgery tests. You can rest easy knowing you are in the best hands! Wishing you well and looking forward to welcoming you to recovery.

Hi Linda. You have made an excellent decision by choosing the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Gillinov. He repaired my mitral and tricuspid valves last November. I could not have been happier with the care I received at the CC and the results of my surgery. My recovery was very quick, uneventful, and quite comfortable. The support you can get from this community here is fantastic.  Good luck!

Best of luck to you, I'm sure you will come out fine.  Your story is similar to mine.  First, I noticed my heart racing a bit to about 140.  This ended up with a trip to the ED where I was told it was anxiety and to knock off the caffeine.  It seemed under control after that, then about 6 months later I started having strange anxiety attacks along with the heart races again.  This led to another trip to the ED with PVCs.  Once again, I was told anxiety but this time I also got a halter monitor and found that I was getting about 5,000 PVCs a day and some non-sustained SVT.  


At this point I got a new cardiologist who literally diagnosed it right there.  However, a couple of months went by until we got a stress echo, a TEE and a left and right catheterization.  Once I got that diagnosis, I moved fast found an excellent surgeon and had the surgery one month later. 


 Ironically, what I learned is that the feelings in my heart were driving the anxiety, not the other way around as I was being told.  I'm in recovery now and getting better every day and you will be here before you know it.