Gene's Journal

On September 21st, 2015, Dr Eric Roselli and the Cleveland Clinic team of professionals performed open heart surgery to repair my aortic valve and ascending aorta. He said there was an 80% chance that he could repair the valve rather than replace it. After opening my chest cavity and bypassing cardiopulmonary function with the heart-lung machine, my heart was stopped and my lungs were deflated. He cut into my heart and aorta to examine the actual gross pathology. What he found was that my aorta had an extremely large anyeurism, and was badly in need of repair. The look on his face seemed to indicate that I was extremely lucky to have this done now. What I thought would be a timely preventative, was actually a life threatening intervention. My 3 valve leaflets were intact but not functioning well. One of the leaflets had an unusual and assymetrical size and shape. He re-suspended each leaflet and together with a Dacron graft for the ascending aorta, he was able to close the heart and aortic artery back. However, the irregularity of one natural valve caused the repair to fail. He reopened the aorta, and surgically corrected the defective valve and then re-closed the aorta. Dr Roselli said the repair was technically very challenging. Coming from a heart surgeon who has performed more than 3500 open heart surgeries, I tend to believe my repair was very challenging, and not for a rookie surgeon. After 4-5 hours, they closed me back up, and pulled the breathing tube. I could not catch my breath for what seemed like an eternity, but I was alright. I had three chest tubes, two pacer lines, a foley catheter, a central line in my jugular vein, two IV lines, and oxygen. I spent the next several days pushing the PCA pump and frequently requesting the lines out. On the second day, I was reading a text from my wife, and asked her why she was typing gibberish. She read the text, and saw that something was wrong with my reading. She made me re-read the text out loud, and it became apparent that I was not reading correctly. Less than five minutes later, the neurology team descended on us, and I had a stat CT of the brain. The extensive neurological examination showed essentially no motor defecit, but the CT had an opacity of the visual processing region. The next day, the neurology resident discussed the findings, which showed a non-dominant L occipital and L temporal lobe opacity, as well as a small cerebellar opacity. She said the findings were 100 % resolvable, and that my reading deficit was confounded by the "pump-head" side effect that people get after having the heart-lung machine. My mentation and reading was expected to return to normal. For the most part, the doctors, nurses and medical staff were excellent. One by one, the lines came out, and my appetite improved. Physical Therapy evaluated for rehab, but I busted through the gate, and zipped right up the steps with no problem. No home PT was necessary. I am back in Virginia Beach now , and I feel pretty good. I have no irreversible damage to my heart, and have 100 per-cent neurological function. I'm still in pain, and I cannot lift more than ten pounds. I cannot drive, and frequently need to take a break, but each day I feel a little better. I am scheduled to retrun to work on November 9th, and I am so glad this is nearly behind me. It's great to be alive.