Bob Collins I had my aortic valve replaced with a mechanical valve on November 24, 1974. I jokingly asked my Doct ... Read more
Bob Collins I had my aortic valve replaced with a mechanical valve on November 24, 1974. I jokingly asked my Doctor haw long it would last. He jokingly answered “It should last at least 50 years” ! We’re getting close to that!
Happy 12th anniversary and wishing you many many more in good health. You look healthy and happy. Con ... Read more
Happy 12th anniversary and wishing you many many more in good health. You look healthy and happy. Congratulations
Rose Madura Wow! It's very encouraging to hear from you guys! May you have many more years
Susan Lynn Terry and Bob - you are total rock stars! We love great success stories! Continued good health to ... Read more
Susan Lynn Terry and Bob - you are total rock stars! We love great success stories! Continued good health to you, both! ❤
Karen Marvenko Very encouraging!! Thanks so much for posting, you’re an inspiration.
Louise Moore Thank you, Terry for dropping in as it's so great for us to hear this good news, so reassuring, here' ... Read more
Louise Moore Thank you, Terry for dropping in as it's so great for us to hear this good news, so reassuring, here's to the next 12 years!
I just dropped in to see how everyone is doing and to give encouragement. My surgery was September 24, 2010. I feel great and bless day I had the surgery.
Coming up on my 8th surgery anniversary. Thank God for good medical care.
patrizia cioffi I'm eight weeks in from mitral and aortic valve surgery. I'm doing very well physically, getting bac ... Read more
patrizia cioffi I'm eight weeks in from mitral and aortic valve surgery. I'm doing very well physically, getting back my energy, not so out of breath and waiting for a cardiac rehab appointment.
I'm not sleeping and have had three nights up til 4 AM. Has anyone gone through this? I wonder if its biochemical or just normal stress. I've made an appointment with my cardiologist to discuss it. Could be my meds? Anyone been through this?
Marie Myers Congratulations, Terry, on your valve-versary!
Susan Lynn Happy 8th Anniversary! Cheers to you, Terry! 🍾🥂
Tomorrow is the 6th anniversary of my aortic valve replacement surgery. I find it amazing not to have to think about my heart at all. My cardiologist said ...Read more
Tomorrow is the 6th anniversary of my aortic valve replacement surgery. I find it amazing not to have to think about my heart at all. My cardiologist said that the thickening caused by the faulty valve is lessening each year. In other words my heart is slowly healing. My stress test was excellent. I am thankful for each day I have as a gift from my heart valve surgery. I am 77 this year.
Ellen Leng Congratulations! that's great news for those of us just getting prepared for surgery. Thanks for chec ... Read more
Ellen Leng Congratulations! that's great news for those of us just getting prepared for surgery. Thanks for checking in :)
Sophia Ridley Congratulations! Good to hear from those a few years out.
Lilly Black You are giving us hope, Terry. Congratulations! May I ask, what type of valve do you have now? I read ... Read more
Lilly Black You are giving us hope, Terry. Congratulations! May I ask, what type of valve do you have now? I read your journals and story and unless I missed it, I did not see any valve type mentioned.
Time goes by so fast I have trouble remembering what year I had my aortic heart vale replaced. Had to come to the forum to check.
It was five years ago on ...Read more
Time goes by so fast I have trouble remembering what year I had my aortic heart vale replaced. Had to come to the forum to check.
It was five years ago on September 24th, and I am grateful to be here, be healthy, and enjoying the life I would not have had without my surgery. Best of luck to all of you going through this now. Hard to believe, but someday it will be so far in the background, like me, you will have trouble remembering the date.
Terrie Syvertsen Hello Terry. It is nice to read a post by another female Terrie here in our community especially a He ... Read more
Terrie Syvertsen Hello Terry. It is nice to read a post by another female Terrie here in our community especially a Heart Sister who is enjoying life and grateful as am I to have this opportunity to still be here due to having had the exact same surgery on Aug. 20th of 2014. Funny that you had trouble remembering what year but totally understandable! After surgery you get back into the rhythm of life if you are one of the many fortunate ones and time just seems to fly.....When we get away from enough time too from the healing and recovery it is a time of transition with an awareness of life and how special this extension is(as many of us are older, I'm 66 and are keenly aware of how fast the years come and go! You keep on enjoying yourself and I will happily think of you out there doing just what I am doing as I
keep moving forward with my mended heart too. Love your photo. Great grey hair and happy smile! Take care Heart Sister and I look forward to
seeing your post next year!(If you remember!) Terrie from California.
Steven A Husted i am sure i may have a time remembering dates when i am 5 years out to so you will not be alone
Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of my heart valve surgery. I'm 75 now and the memory fades each year so that I had to get on this web site to remind myself ...Read more
Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of my heart valve surgery. I'm 75 now and the memory fades each year so that I had to get on this web site to remind myself when it was. I go to the cardiologist twice a year. Last series of tests showed the heart muscle returning to normal size. Thank God.
Ernie Keen Congrats on the 4 year anniversary. Keep up the good work.
Adam Pick Fantastic update Terry! So great to hear that you are doing so well -- especially the heart muscle re ... Read more
Adam Pick Fantastic update Terry! So great to hear that you are doing so well -- especially the heart muscle returning to normal size!
Mary Myers Great news! Congratulations on your 4 year anniversary. Thank you for taking time to write your heart ... Read more
Mary Myers Great news! Congratulations on your 4 year anniversary. Thank you for taking time to write your heart family. It is much appreciated. I am eight week post op and doing well.
Just touching base to let all of you who are anticipating heart valve surgery or who have gone through it. It\'s two years for me now, and it has turned out ...Read more
Just touching base to let all of you who are anticipating heart valve surgery or who have gone through it. It\'s two years for me now, and it has turned out to be the best health decision I (and my doctors) could have made. Except for the fading scar, I can just about forget it. I\'m now 73 and glad to be alive. I have way more energy than 5 years ago and no residual side effects.
Best of luck to all.
A quick visit to encourage those of you out there who are still worrying either pre-surgery or just having had surgery. It gets better all the time. It\'s ...Read more
A quick visit to encourage those of you out there who are still worrying either pre-surgery or just having had surgery. It gets better all the time. It\'s now 17 months for me, and I seldom think about it anymore. I never though that at age 72 I could regain so much energy, but the surgery did that for me. It wasn\'t immediate. It was gradulal, but someone commented to me the other day, \"Where do you get all that energy?\" I hadn\'t thought about it, but the comment was accurate. My energy had been decreasing for years, and now I am going gangbusters.
I only have had one reminder of the surgery. A few days ago I overdid typing on the computer while sitting in the same position and got a backache. Then it seemed like my arthritis kicked up, so I did something I hadn\'t done in a year. I took a pain pill. The next day I had an ocular migraine. I\'m sure it was an aftereffect of the pain pill. That made me wonder if the reason so many of us got ocular migraines in the few months after surgery was aftereffects from having taken pain pills.
Any information on that?
Well, it\'s actually 52 weeks today and not a year until tomorrow. What can I say except that I thank God every day for my life\'s having been saved with this ...Read more
Well, it\'s actually 52 weeks today and not a year until tomorrow. What can I say except that I thank God every day for my life\'s having been saved with this remarkable surgery. The sternotomy scar has faded except for the small section below my bra which developed a touch of keloid. The part that shows has almost faded completely. I am in no pain, have tons of energy, and am doing more than I could dream of before this surgery.
To those of you considering a sternotomy, don\'t fear it. It ends up not being a big deal, and within a short time causes no pain. As Ruth Howell said in her recent post, the backache that we all get is worse. It\'s also unavoidable since to operate on your heart they have to pin you to a table for hours. But since they let you have painkillers for it, and it stops completely soon enough, so it\'s well worth the occasional killer backache to have a new life.
We just came back from my 55th HS reunion. Each year they read the people who have died since the last reunion. About 25% of my class has passed on since we graduated, and I sure was glad not to be on that list.
Aortal valve replaced 9/24/10 at Florida Hospital South in Orlando, FL. Surgery by Nayer Khouzam. What a wonderful surgeon. Cardiologist Robert Boswell. An even more wonderful doctor.
Best of luck to all of you. God bless and hope that your surgery is as successful as mine.
Terry
Here it is, 7 months after surgery and a week after my 72nd birthday. I am so glad I had a full sternotomy right off the bat at my local heart center. The ...Read more
Here it is, 7 months after surgery and a week after my 72nd birthday. I am so glad I had a full sternotomy right off the bat at my local heart center. The full sternotomy gives the surgeon a good view of everything, and the healing process really isn\'t onerous. I know several people in the \"zipper club\" and the incision is something you don\'t thnk about after about 3 months.
If it weren\'t for the updates I get on everyone who\'s still recovering, I wouldn\'t think about the heart surgery at all. Those of you who worry about the size of the incision, as long as you\'re in a good surgeon\'s hands, it\'s a not-to-worry item.
Best of luck to all of you in recovery, and prayers and positive thoughts to Ruth. Oh heavens. Of all people to have to go through complications. Although I know all of you just from the web site, I feel close to you and worry about you all. Ruth\'s story is devastating. I know she\'s not religious, but I for one, am praying hard for her. Please, God, help this woman through this.
Age 28. Bought first house. While hanging curtains noticed windows needed cleaning. Cleaned every window in the house inside and out even climbing ladder ...Read more
Age 28. Bought first house. While hanging curtains noticed windows needed cleaning. Cleaned every window in the house inside and out even climbing ladder to get 2nd story windows. While cleaning noticed that the wood frames around the windows needed repainting inside. Bought paint and did every window in the house.
Age 40. Relocated to a different state and bought house. While hanging curtains noticed windows needed cleaning. Cleaned every window in the house inside and out. Noticed widow frames needed painting. Bought paint. Told hubby to paint them. He didn\'t. Hired a painter. Eventually they got done.
Age 60. Finally could afford dream house. On huge protected lot, so no curtains needed on windows, but noticed windows needed cleaning. Cleaned all inside windows. Hired someone to clean outside.
Age 72. Downsided to more manageable property when widowed a few years ago. Today changed curtains only in bedroom and bathroom which have french doors (tiny panes of glass). Washed curtains, dried them and while re-hanging them noticed windows needed cleaning. Got through one door. Noticed they needed repainting. Gave up after one door. Put note up for cleaning woman to wash other two french doors. Called handyman to paint doors.
Ah, how times have changed....me.
Today is the 6 month anniversary of my surgery. I wish for all of you that are waiting that you may have successful surgeries soon, and for all of you who ...Read more
Today is the 6 month anniversary of my surgery. I wish for all of you that are waiting that you may have successful surgeries soon, and for all of you who are just starting to recover, that you may soon reach the 6 month mark and begin to not think about it anymore since life becomes so normal.
Fifth anniversary of aortic valve surgery today. Got blood test results. All great except vitamin D (and I live in the Sunshine state) so have to take 2000 ...Read more
Fifth anniversary of aortic valve surgery today. Got blood test results. All great except vitamin D (and I live in the Sunshine state) so have to take 2000 iu a day.
Feeling is returning to my toes due to the renewed blood flow to the whole body, so peripheral neuropathy has improved as a result of the surgery.
Re-joined the Y to get it further moving. They were happy to see me back.
Onward and upward we fly!
It\'s almost 5 months since my aortal heart valve was replaced. Saw the cardiologist today and he said, \"I now declare you normal.\" Good. I was worried ...Read more
It\'s almost 5 months since my aortal heart valve was replaced. Saw the cardiologist today and he said, \"I now declare you normal.\" Good. I was worried I\'d be classified as abnormal.
Kidding aside, he said all my tests are now normal. My heartbeat is solid and steady, all peripheral symptoms are gone, my blood pressure is 120/65, etc.
On the other hand he also said this: the EKG does not change quickly after heart surgery. It takes 5 years for the heart to repair itself and the EKG will change only very gradually each year.
Scar therapy. He said to use a steroid cream on the scar to prevent the scar tissue from building up. He suggested a cortizone cream that you can buy in any drugstore. (Servant Girl and Patient, please note).
He also said that people who\'ve had their hearts repaired should see their cardiologists every 4 months even if they have been declared \"normal.\"
Happy healing everyone. This was good news to get on Valentine\'s Day, and I hope everyone on this list is declared \"normal\" in the months to come.
There are a lot of people who report difficult times after surgery. We all have our stories, I as well as everyone else, but here\'s how I put it all into ...Read more
There are a lot of people who report difficult times after surgery. We all have our stories, I as well as everyone else, but here\'s how I put it all into perspective.
Three years ago, being widowed, I met and married a widower. He had been in Vietnam in the full battle part of the war during 1968 and 1969. A lot of people don\'t realize that Air Force people are not all pilots, and many of them are on the ground during the war and facing the enemy. My husband was one of those. He was an AF major responsible for other lives as well as his own.
A week after we were married, I woke to hear my husband shouting in his sleep, \"Close the gap, close the gap! Watch the machine gun!\" I woke him up and asked what was wrong. He mumbled something, shook his head and went back to sleep, tossing and turning.
In the morning I asked what it meant. He said that on that day his group was overrun and a lot of his men were lost. Later in that the long battle, my husband was also hit and spent months in the hospital having his body rebuilt. Yet, when he has one of those nightmares, it\'s not the hospital stay, not the pain of the surgeries, not the pain of the skin grafts, and not the the pain of the injuries that cause it. It\'s the horror of the war.
Has there ever been anyone going through heart valve surgery who says, \"It was so awful I wake up having nightmares reliving it.\" The answer is \"no.\" Yet many war vets have recurring nightmares the rest of their lives.
So I reason that the experience of heart surgery is not so bad as to give one nightmares. Sure it\'s no walk in the park, but it\'s not war. It makes our lives better. It doesn\'t give us recurring nightmares with the horror of it.
So take heart. (pun intended) Heart valve surgery is no picnic, but it\'s the kind of painful experience that fades with time. Sort of like the pain of childbirth but with no baby to bring home. :-)
Hope this helps some of you still worried about the surgery and others who are on the mend. Happy HEART DAY (Valentine\'s) to everyone.
Terry C.
I just got this note from a friend of mine. It involves an experimental heart valve and a procedure developed in Europe and being tested in the US. When this ...Read more
I just got this note from a friend of mine. It involves an experimental heart valve and a procedure developed in Europe and being tested in the US. When this is perfected, very few people will ever have to have sternotomies again. The valve is inserted into the heart through the same process as cardiac catherization. Right now the procedure is only being done on very high risk patients. There are many other procedures they\'re experimenting with which were developed all over the world and are being tested here.
Here\'s my friend\'s note:
\"From Sally: My 92 year old dad came home from the hospital Tues. night - just 5 days after experimental heart valve replacement. He\'s almost back to his old self.\"
What\'s remarkable about Sally\'s dad\'s surgery is that it\'s being done on people who are way too risky for normal heart surgery. It\'s truly an amazing process.
Interestingly, Sally\'s going to need aortal valve surgery herself and will have to go through the full procedure we all had to go through because she\'s not at risk enough for this trial program.
Anyone interested in learning more about this clinical trial can check out the Edwards Lifesiences website.
Here\'s the main Edwards website: http://www.edwards.com/default.htm
And here\'s the partner trial web site:
http://www.edwards.com/products/transcathetervalves/sapienthv.htm
Here it is, 4 months since surgery, and I can\'t say just how normal I feel--totally--as the kids would say. No restrictions, no fatigue, no pain, and a remarkable ...Read more
Here it is, 4 months since surgery, and I can\'t say just how normal I feel--totally--as the kids would say. No restrictions, no fatigue, no pain, and a remarkable new feel about life.
Before I had the surgery if I thought of something new that needed doing, I\'d avoid it. Now it\'s gangbuster and let\'s get it done.
Also, I\'m having a ball with my new iPhone. I don\'t make a lot of calls, but I love all the other things it can do like keep my to-do lists, shopping lists, calendar, check email, etc. It\'s a hoot!
Hope you all are doing as well.
Terry C.
Well, gang, it has taken me a few days but I\'ve found this encouraging piece on the internet. It\'s from Duke Medical Center, so I think it\'s trustworthy. ...Read more
Well, gang, it has taken me a few days but I\'ve found this encouraging piece on the internet. It\'s from Duke Medical Center, so I think it\'s trustworthy.
\"the researchers said, since one out of every 12 patients who undergo heart surgery suffers serious kidney impairment. While most cases of this kidney injury are transient...\"
In other words, yes, it\'s possible to suffer kidney damage during heart surgery, but for most people it goes away. It also seems (long article version) as if those who will have the most serious problems do so before leaving the hospital, so I conclude that I\'m OK and things will get better as time goes on. Will update everyone after specialist visit on Monday.
I lost a kidney to a giant tumor 29 years ago. As recently as this past summer my kidney function was better than just good. The doctors all said they\'d ...Read more
I lost a kidney to a giant tumor 29 years ago. As recently as this past summer my kidney function was better than just good. The doctors all said they\'d like their patients with 2 kidneys to have such good creatinine levels.
Today I went for an MRI because my cardiologist was concerned that I had a lot of blood in the urine for the short time I was on coumadin (3 weeks).
I\'ve had microscopic blood in the urine ever since I lost that kidney and they never could figure out what caused it.
OK, now what happened today. The technician said she couldn\'t do the part of the test with contrast because my creatinine was 1.8. Last summer it was .74 and the cutoff line for contrast is 1.6. I was stunned to say the least.
So, my question is, does anyone else out there have one kidney, and was their kidney function messed up 3 1/2 months after the surgery?
I\'m guessing it\'s all the post-surgical meds they have me on until the heart stabilizes, but I won\'t know for sure till I see the kidney doctor next week.
Anyone else who\'s had to deal with one kidney through this, please let me know.
My brother was 78 yesterday--same day my granddaughter was 12. My sister-in-law provided us with this great picture of the two of us. Just wanted you all to ...Read more
My brother was 78 yesterday--same day my granddaughter was 12. My sister-in-law provided us with this great picture of the two of us. Just wanted you all to see it.