Daniel's Posts

I, like you, was all smiles when I woke up. I was thrilled that I made it, scar and tubes and all. Congratulations Daniel! You made it! We will be here to continue to support and encourage you if you need us. God bless you and continued recovery and good health.

Daniel - Like you, I searched for alternatives for my mitral valve entry. I ended up having a side incision mini-thoracotomy. Full robotic and the mini-thoracotomy do require another incision in the groin to connect to the bypass machine. As others have stated, robotic can greatly increase time on the pump. A very accomplished robotic surgeon told me, 'Sometimes we want to get in and get out.' (He was referring to sternotomy and mini-sternotomy.) He continued to say, 'In a month, it won't make any difference how the entry was done.' A short wait and minimal time on the pump is never a bad choice. You'll do just fine! All the best! ❤

Good for you, Daniel, the decision to go for it is half the battle. You'll have a short wait (and short worry) time and you will be on the road to recovery before you know it. My aortic valve replacement is on 1/15/21 so I'm looking forward to hearing from you once you're done and recovering!

It all depends upon your plan. I was able to go to Cleveland Clinic from Tucson. A lot of my pre-testing was done here. I was fortunate that I had family an hour and a half from Cleveland, but I would have gone anyway. I wanted robotic surgery and was a good candidate for it and Dr. Gillinov had agreed to do it. I hear a lot of negative things about the robotic surgery, but I was glad I had it. The initial pain after is severe, but medication took care of that and it didn't last long, except at night. I was driving short distances four weeks after surgery and was able to advance quickly with weights in cardiac rehab, which you have to take a bit slower when they enter through the sternum. Here is Tucson, there was no option for robotic, so I went to CC. My cardiologist at Banner and his assistant were fantastic with coordinating with Dr. Gillinov's team to make the process very smooth. Of course, travel and a stay at the Holiday Express on the campus of CC added to the cost of the surgery, but it worked for me. All the best going forward. It's scary as hell, but the stats are on your side, as you can see from the vast number of successful repairs documented on this site.

Daniel, I found the same, but hoped by now they had hired someone here. The have the equipment, but need to entice an experienced surgeon to this great state. I'm originally from NYC and guess I was a bit spoiled by the choices there. Whatever choice you make, I'm sure you'll do well. There are a lot of really great surgeons here, just not ones doing robotic mitral valve repair.