Guy's Posts

First of all you may not be a candidate for minimally invasive surgery. My surgeon had planned to do one but I woke up with ended up a full sternotomy based on the anatomy of my heart which is small and have a small chest (really not that bad). Trust me don't do this alone you need your family and support. Prepare yourself for recovery as well as surgery

Thanks Peggy for sharing. That must have been hard in you to have discovered that. I just keep thinking that this should have been known from the start. I will be getting a second snd possibly third opinion on minimally invasive as what I'm learning is that not all surgeons are truly comfortable with it unless they themselves actually practice this frequently or daily over many years. There is so much to learn here from each other and I will post more as I do my research. I wasn't told that the reason was about the size of the heart but that a bypass is involved that would not enable me to have the minimally invasive surgery. I talked to another surgeon's office that actually does both AVR and single bypass 90% of the time...as there are so many cases like that. He operates daily. Of course I have not had an appointnent with him yet but I will see soon what the final decision really will be. Thus it is important to get many opinions if possible!

Joanna - my surgeon is the top leading surgeon for SSM Heart hospitals in St Louis MO and very experienced in minimally invasion also does robotic surgery as well. I was pleased with him and would go back again to him if needed. He has an excellent video you can watch, Google on, "learn about aortic valve stenosis by Dr David Theodoro." He has other videos as well. I love this man he saved my life