Doug's Profile

Around thanksgiving of 2024, I noticed my heart seemed to be beating harder at night than usual. I thought I had a respiratory infection of some kind because I could hear a slight crunch at the top of my inhalation. I'm 56, run a few businesses, and operate at a high "energy" level. No family heart issues, parents still alive, non smoker, no cocaine ever, etc….Went into my doctor, who is both my primary care doctor and and my flight doctor. She sees me yearly for my flight physicals so knows my systems well. She wasn't in, but her PA was. She listened to my heart and immediately said "this murmur is new and loud". I agreed, and had an echo the next day. Like many Iowans with good insurance, I went straight to Rochester within a day or two. Had the bevy of testing mayo does and got a diagnosis of severe mitral regurgitation due to a p2 flail and likely cordae rupture. No addtl heart damage yet, and the rest of my circ system is in excellent shape. Just a mechanical problem. My fraction was 65%, and aside from the night thumping I was functioning fine. My profile pic is from a jobsite 5 days before my surgery. Regardless, needed fixed. Well, shit. I didn't see that one coming. I expected to have several months of wait time pre surgery, so I kept on working and listening to my new murmuring friend, Steve (we named him, the miserable prick). Abject terror? Absolutely. I'm good at compartmentalizing things, but at 3 am it was a scary place. But, I got lucky- Mayo got me in within 3 weeks with Dr. Daly for robotic repair. He's done over a thousand, plus every other heart surgery known to mankind. A good, kind person, too. His partner was Dr. Arman Arghami. Daly was chest-side, and Arghami ran the Davinci. They are both incredibly qualified. My surgery was a week ago tomorrow (Feb 17). I was at mayo three days, and now home for 4. I have no frame of reference for any of this, as until last week I'd never even spent the night in a hospital. My right chest has three stab wounds that hurt, but not too badly. My heart feels good and isn't gurgling anymore. I hate taking any medication, and I'm on a bunch. We are incredibly lucky in that both my wife and I are able to take all the time off we need. My team is running business things in my absence, prob better than I do. My wife is a great caretaker, and I'm trying to not be a difficult patient. I've spent 35 years going 100 miles an hour, and slowing down to recover properly isn't optional. I'm happy to answer any questions. I remember pretty much everything from my morning shaving to waking up to yanking the chest tubes out. Mayo is amazing on so many levels, but the key is their people. I was cared about, and I was listened to.