About Me (In My Own Words)
It all started in Feb of 2006 when I was driving with friends and I laughed really hard at a joke. I was 54 years old at the time. Then my vision went out on me for about 5 seconds and I quit laughing immediately, and my vision came back. I went to a cardiologist who performed various tests and said I had aortic valve stenosis. Apparently, due to lack of health insurance, I held off dealing with this situation until I had insurance. In 2015, I was very low on energy and could not figure out what was wrong. I went to my primary physician who referred me to a cardiologist. Again, I went to a different cardiologist, and he performed some tests, and he asked me how soon can I go to the hospital. I told him today, and he sent me to the hospital and set me up for surgery for valve replacement.
The surgery consisted of making a horizontal incision on the right side of my chest to replace the heart valve. After surgery, the surgeon told my wife that I was functioning off of 1 valve and without surgery, I would be dead within a week. In addition, the surgery was difficult due to a lot of calcification. All my life I knew I had a heart murmur, but, found out I was born bicuspid.
A few days after recuperating, I left the hospital and within 30 days I was back in the hospital because blood was leaking into the heart sac. Apparently, prior to leaving the hospital they detached me from all the attachments. In the process there were internal wires that sliced my heart.
I was back in the hospital in 30 days and this time they cut me vertically through the sternum and stitched up my heart. Following all this, I was in an assisted living center for 10 days.
In May of 2017, I had addiitonal heart issues due to the surgery and scarring of the heart. This time they installed a pacemaker. In November of 2017, the heart valve they replaced in 2015 was defective, and the Doctor performed a TAVR procedure on me. Since then, I have been on a whole food plant based diet, lost 70lbs and walk 2.5 to 4 miles a day. I feel really great.
Unknown to me at that time, in 2017, I had an ascending aortic aneurysm and was not informed until 2019. It is currently at 4.9 cm and my cardiologist does not want to perform surgery on me to repair the aneurysm until I have to replace my TAVR in about 2025. I am open to input from anyone who has similar experience and advice they can give me.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Fleming Island
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My surgery date is:
April 30, 2015
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I was diagnosed with:
Aortic Stenosis
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My surgery was:
Aortic Valve Replacement
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My surgeon is:
Dr. Mark Mostovych
