Rick's Profile

Confirmed to have severe aortic valve stenosis on July 29, 2022. I'm currently waiting for my aortic valve replacement surgery. I will have surgery on October 10th 2022. Right now I'm more or less asymptomatic, no significant symptoms. Update: I had my aortic valve replacement surgery as scheduled. I spent 7 days in the cardiac intensive care unit post surgery. For the first 4 days post surgery I had "pump head", meaning I didn't know where I was or when it was… didn't even know why I was in the hospital. Then by day 5-6 I started getting my memory back. It was bizarre. After 7 days on CICU, I was transferred to a different unit for more recovery therapy. Clinical blood test showed my hemoglobin level had dropped to 6 (13 and above is normal). More tests, CT scan was normal, had a scan of my stomach by the gastroenterology department. They found a bleeding ulcer in my duodenum that was causing the low hemoglobin and hematocrit. Had to have 3 blood transfusions day 10-14 while in th hospital. I spent 17 days in the hospital post surgery. It was brutal and by far the worst thing I every went through. The date is now January 22, 2023 and I just finished my 10th of 13 weeks of cardiac rehabilitation. Echocardiogram 2 days ago shows my heart and new aortic valve appears to be functioning normally. One other thing, watch out for the Lasix loop diuretic (furosemide). Apparently, it's ototoxican and I lost most of my hearing in my right ear and about half my hearing in my left ear. I'm a musician who has been plays piano, guitar and vocals for about 50 years, I've recorded 3 music CDs. It's a tragedy that I can't hear well any more. This all happened while the doctors had me on furosemide diuretic post surgery. Before the surgery my hearing was fairly normal.