About Me (In My Own Words)
My name is Manuel Barrientos, I am 39 years old from Los Angeles California. I had the aortic valve replacement on 2/23/10. When I was 13 years old I was hospitalized for another condition and the doctors discovered a heart murmur and told my parents I was going to need surgery in the future. I always had a good health but I visited cardialogist since young age to monitor my heart condition. I was told that some people don't have symptoms but I started to have symptoms six months ago. Before my symptoms started, two years ago my new cardiologist advised to visited him every six months to have an echo and later an angiogram , also called cardiac catheterization. He told me I had a bicuspid valve that needed to be replaced but until my early forties since the area of my oartic valve was 1.03 cm and the normal size should be 3.00 cm. He also said that I will have the same surgery like the one Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had like ten years ago. I was very concern about it and started to do my research. I was going to have a mechanical valve vs the animal tissue and two cardialogist advised me to have mechanical valve becuase it last longer and because of my age (at this point the area of my valve was .85 cm, so it was time for my surgery). The Doctors also said that with the mechanical valve I was going to use blood thinners. I decided to have the mechanical valve becuase it last longer until my surgeon advised me to have tissue valve (bovine) vs mechanical. I agreed with him because I did't want to use blood thinners. My surgeon also said that the bovine valve should last 20 years and no blood thinners needed. The only thing I'm not happy is that I ended up using Plavix. He told me to take it for one year or more or if I can he said take it for life along with an aspirin. I'm very happy with my surgeon since thanks to God he save my life. The only thing I don't understand is that I ended up using blood thinner (Plavix) which is less strong than comedin but it has a risk of bleeding. Please advised if anyone is in the same situation like me. I would like to say that blood thinners have small risk of bleeding but these medication also saves lifes, my mother takes comedin it helps her to have a healthier life with less risk of heart attach of strokes. I'm not recomending any medication I'm just sharing my personal story. I also want to say this webside is excellent and helped me in my research. Lastly, I would like to add that when I read the stories of those young people and everyone else (any age) that had or will have a heart surgery makes me feel that I'm not alone. Thank you for sharing your personal stories it helps me personally. I also want to order that book "The patient guide Heart Valve Surgery". I was going to ordered it before my surgery but I did'nt becuase got a lot of information from the internet. I believe this book guides the patients since the doctors some times don't explain the detail.
Thank you
Manuel
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Commerce, California
