Renee's Guestbook

Praying for you tomorrow. I'm so glad I looked at your post today. My surgery is on Thursday and with all the preparation, I forgot about the nose ointment. Put it in before I finished reading your post. Know all about the nervous energy. Just finished cleaning the kitchen and going through paperwork. Oh, that's right...that's something I try to do everyday LOL

You're in my thoughts Renee. We have a similar diagnosis, I will be having my surgery on May the 12th at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Hope all goes as smoothly as possible for you. Relax as much as you're able, you'll be fine. Look forward to reading about your recovery. Good luck Renee !

Renee, Good questions to ask the surgeon. I had the exact same diagnosis you have! You are one of 2 people who have the same diagnosis and same surgery as me in this community. you can go to my journal, story and read about my surgery last Oct.8. The surgeon was able to save my BAV and just fix my aneurysm. He said my BAV would be good for another 15-20 years! It was such good news. I'm doing great! My incision is 8 in. surgeon repaired aneurysm with a Dacron graft. They will have you walking in the hospital hallways as soon as you are out of ICU. I walked so much that they took me off blood thinner 2 days early because I was so active. Before surgery I worked out a lot: trainer 2x a week, walking, and swimming. Because of the upper body surgery it does take awhile to get back to one's regular exercise. I did do cadio rehab even though my health ins. wouldnt cover it. Cadio rehab gave me a good rate and it was worth it to gain confidence. After 3 months I am back with my trainer 2x a week but not back to my weights before surgery. As far as swimming I use a paddle board but still can't do breaststroke or the freestyle. They took me off atenolol after surgery. I hope this info helps you. I look forward to following your journal.

Dear Renee, Welcome to this Community. You are at the right place to get lots of good information. Take sometime to browse through other Journals and through Adam's blogs. You are not alone because we all have some sort of heart valve issue or aneurysm type issue. I am pre-op and BVA with some mitral valve regurgitation. When I see my cardio in March I believe he will want to take the next which is further test ( I have already had a TEE) . Some patients are like me and pre-op, some are in surgery or hospital and others are post-op and recovering. Take a deep breath and things will fall into place for you and your family. Do keep us posted as you progress along.