Michael John's Guestbook

Michael John Smith  Still waiting to hear from my cardiologist, sorry to say. Unless things are really urgent, everything takes such a long time here because Slovenia has a severe shortage of medical specialists of every kind. 

Michael John Smith  I appreciate your concern Fidel. Yes you are right, I am still waiting to see my cardiologist. Unfortunately I doubt if the delay is really avoidable, as every specialist here in Slovenia is overloaded with patients, but I am certain if it was really that urgent I would be seen to quicker. My only symptoms so far are very ocasional shortage of breath with tightness in the chest under exertion and feeling tired in the afternoon. i also suffer from anemia but it is very mild and am otherwise in good health.  

I am still hoping to be offered TAVI/TAVR and have been looking into the possibilities of redoing TAVI/TAVR with a second TAVI/TAVR should I outlive my valve replacement.  I am also looking into the possibility of a right anterior minithoracotomy (RAT) surgery, which is far less invasive than open heart surgery.  

Fidel Martínez Ruiz  Hey Michael, if you have access to a good surgeon with experience, from my point of view, I think the choice between O.S. or TAVR is not the end of the world. I think aortic re- replacement is possible with both procedures. Unfortunately, not so easy for mitral re-replacement, in which open surgery was needed. But it´s not your case. 

Janet Gaffney  Hi Michael, I thought TAVR, mini-thoracotomy…and now I’m having a Ross procedure. My thought on this completely evolved as I learned more and spoke with my surgeon. 

It took me forever to get diagnosed. 
I’d not been feeling well since last January; had to change medical venues to get the attention my heart needed (previous doc told me it was all in my head) - thank God the docs at Northwest Medicine took me seriously! 
Advocate for yourself as much as you need to! 

My symptoms sound very similar to yours - I’m looking forward to getting some stamina back! 

I hope you keep posting, I’m very interested in how this all turns out for you. 

Michael John Smith  Thank you for your advice Janet. I think I would also consider the Ross procedure if I were 10 years younger and there was a possibility of it getting done here, which I don't think there is. Wishing you all the best with your op, and yes I'll be posting again as soon as I know something more about my situation. I have been reading a review of the last 500 TAVI/TAVR operations carried out by our heart centre here and it is very impressive. There were only just over 1% fatalities, only 2 patients had to undergo OHS due to complications and just 7% needed permanent pacemakers. 99%  were accessed through their femoral artery and most patients got the Metronic Evolut valve with the rest getting the Edwards Sapien 3 valve. A small minority were having their valve replaced for the second time.    

Janet Gaffney  All the best to you, Michael, and I’ll be looking forward to your posts! The MOST important is that you’ve done your research and you sound confidant! That’s great! Be well. 

Michael John Smith  Thank you Fidel. You are absolutely right. I shall probably wait another three weeks or so and then try to get some answers. My experience with the health system in Slovenia has been that unless something is deemed urgent, then sorry to say we have to wait. But I have found if there is a real urgency, then they tend to move extremely fast and very efficiently. Slovenia has some of the most experienced heart surgeons in the world with I believe a record number of heart transplants and other open heart surgeries being undertaken relative to our small population. They are also pretty experienced with TAVI procedures, so whichever method they end up using on me, I am quite sure I'll be OK.