Tandy's Guestbook

Tandy, best of luck with your procedure tomorrow. I'm five weeks on the other side of a mitral valve repair, and I start cardiac rehab on Friday. It only gets better from here.

Tandy: Good luck with your surgery. You are in good hands with the UofM cardio team. I had a successful ablation procedure in October 2017 after being told by my previous electrophysiologist that I had no viable options to address a condition that had digressed to bigemy. The biggest risk factor was a 30-year-old mechanic aortic heart valve. AVR technology and techniques have improved tremendously and UofM is leading the way. There is no reason you can't resume an active life. Case in point: last month I celebrated my 65th birthday by riding my bicycle 65 miles. Today I celebrated Labor Day by riding 48 miles. Again, good luck.

Thinking of you Tandy as the days approach for your surgery. You will be fine. Take lots of deep breaths, be gentle with yourself and allow yourself to heal at your own pace. You’ve got this!! Louanna

Hi Tandy, sending you best wishes for a successful surgery and a smooth recovery. I am not too far behind you with surgery on 9/18 for aortic aneurysm repair. Best of luck to you.

Tandy, I am 74 and had the same thing...aortic stenosis, thoracic aneurysm and bicuspid aortic valve. I was always worried about the aneurysm but was told the valve would go way before the aneurysm, and it did. This time the doctor said the valve was severely calcified and I had no options or I would eventually go into cardiac arrest and instant death. I had no choice but to schedule surgery. After blood work, angiogram and carotid artery ultrasound I had my surgery two months later. I won’t lie to you, it’s not a piece of cake, but certainly not as bad as I thought it would be. Follow your doctors orders, get plenty of rest and before you know it you’ll be looking back saying, “that wasn’t so bad”. Good luck, you’ll do great!!

I don't think there's anything strange about wanting to meet other people going through this. I met with one woman here in Tucson before her surgery and was able to visit her after her surgery. I then ran into another person while at the hotel waiting for surgery. She had complications and had to stay a few more days. Another person from this site was having surgery at the same time as me and sent a message with the nurse. And another person from here was going for testing and stopped by my hospital room to say hi. Since then, I'm having lunch tomorrow with someone from Tucson who asked to meet before she went to Cleveland to have surgery with the same surgeon. In cardiac rehab, there were several people who had been through valve surgery. Our families and friends get tired of hearing about it all and, let's face it, really can't fully understand, so those connections are extremely to our mental health. All the best with your tests and surgery! Phyllis