J's Journal

Wow! Has it been one year already? It\'s hard to believe that one year ago today I was having every hair on my body (including my nether regions) shaved by a large Jamaican man as I prepared to have my sternum sawed in half for heart valve surgery. My particular surgery was to correct a birth defect of the pulmonary valve. I now have an Edwards Lifesciences Bovine (that\'s a cow) Valve in the pulmonary position. The only major side effect that I\'ve noticed is that I start crying inconsolably every time I eat a hamburger. 6 weeks after my surgery, I did a cardiac rehab at a local hospital. The rehab program was great, by the time i finished the program I could beat 95% of the women in the program in the 85-90yr-old category in an arm wrestling match (except for Gertrude, that lady is strong. I think she may have been \"juicing\"). Unfortunately, my graduation from the cardio rehab program coincided with the start of the Girl Scout Cookie season, so I ended up gaining about 15 pounds around March. I gained so much so fast that I went to the doc to see if it was fluid build up. He said no, the X-rays just showed Tagalong cookie remnants floating around in peanut butter (their X-ray machine is very advanced). So around April I started hitting the gym, and when I say \"hitting\", I mean literally. I would actually pound my fists on the walls of the gym. After I realized that this was ineffective, I began working out and I haven\'t stopped since. I work out at Planet Fitness (about 10 light years away from Uranus) at least 4-5 times per week. I also just started taking Gracie Jiujitsu twice a week and am loving it. I am probably in the best shape of my life right now. I am on level 10 (there is no 11) on the Cybex Arc Trainer for at least 20 minutes per day. I use the Cybex circuit machines for the rest of my workout. I am almost completely off all meds except for low dose aspirin, 12.5mg of beta blockers, and my nightly dose of peanut butter Snickers. I am back to my pre-surgery weight and trying to lower it, but I\'ve kind of hit a plateau. My biggest pet peeve right now is that I still feel the sternum wires. I have about 5 of them. They look like bread twist ties on my chest X-Rays. I feel them during my workouts and mainly any time I\'m lying down. They are extremely annoying, I wish I could have them removed and made in to a key chain or something. Minor gripes aside, I\'m so glad I went ahead with the surgery. I could have put it off and lived with the increased risks, but I didn\'t want to wait until things got bad. My surgeon, Dr. Kirkland from UAB is a rock star. If anyone is considering this surgery I would highly recommend him. To the folks who are having this surgery soon, my advice: get yourself a power recliner to sleep in, trust me, you won\'t be able to lie flat on a bed for about a month. Get a spirometer and use it for a couple of weeks before surgery and use it after as much as they tell you to (read about my spirometer experiment in my earlier blog entries for details). Walk, walk, walk, as soon as they will let you. It will help you heal faster than sitting around will. Also that cough pillow stuff is for real, always keep it close by. A sense of humor will also help immensely. I\'ll write again after my next checkup in a few months. I pray for all those about to go through this surgery, you will be stronger for having gone through this and you will likely feel much better than you do now. Good luck and best wishes.

Hey everybody, it\'s been like forever since I updated this journal. Before my surgery I wrote every couple days, then it was every couple of weeks and now six months after surgery. I haven\'t written anything in like 3 months. It\'s not that I\'m lazy or don\'t appreciate everyone on here, I just feel like I\'m trying to not dwell on heart related stuff and just live my life. Anyway here\'s my update: I would say I\'m about 100% back to normal. My incision no longer hurts at all, I don\'t feel the wires when I turn over in bed anymore and I generally feel great. I am no longer on ACE inhibitors, and I only take a very low dose beta blocker once a day + a low dose Aspirin. The scars look ugly as hell. The tube scars are like ugly red dimples and the main incision is wide and red. I assume they will fade to white over time. One minor gripe is that I still have a piece of suture material that the skin grew over, so I guess I\'m gonna have that little bit of yarn under my skin for life. These are all very minor annoyances, and I don\'t know why I even bother mentioning them. I\'m just so very thankful that I\'m alive and seemingly healthy. I\'ve had no luck in my weight loss quest. I was down for awhile during cardiac rehab but went right back to my pre surgery weight and haven\'t been back down since. My advice to all the people out there who have to have the full-on open heart surgery: 1. When this experience is in your rear view mirror you will feel so much better as time goes by, until finally you don\'t even think about it. Right now your dwelling on all the little things, just focus on the big things like finding a surgeon and a medical center. 2. If you have to have full open heart like I did it\'s not the end of the world, in fact it\'s probably better that they have plenty of elbow room so they can work without being too constrained. 3. Get a Lane Power Recliner. Get the one that goes as flat as possible. Worth every penny. I don\'t know what I would have done without mine. Don\'t get one that lifts you out of the chair, you need to build up your muscles for standing from a sitting position and the standing-assist ones won\'t help you build up your muscles. You will probably be sleeping in your recliner for about the first 3-4 weeks after you get home. 4. Buy a spirometer on Amazon and use it for at least two weeks BEFORE your surgery and keep doing it afterwards even when you get home. Read the rest of my entries for information on my spirometer experiment. I didn\'t get pneumonia so I think it helped (at least in my case). 5. Get your ass out of your hospital bed and start walking as soon as possible and as much as they will let you. It helps all your systems to get back online and helps you heal much quicker, and helps with digestion and pain. Walk around your house when you get home. Use a pedometer and keep your chest pillow nearby. 6. Stay positive. It gets better day by day and week by week. You will feel better, the pain will go away. 7. Other than this site, stay the hell away from the internet medical sites and quit Googling stuff before your surgery No good will come of it, and you will just scare the crap out of yourself for no good reason. You don\'t need the added anxiety and half of the internet BS out there is wrong anyway. Lastly, One of my favorite songs that I would listen to while I was recovering after surgery was a song by a band named Metric. The song is called \"Help, I\'m Alive\". The main verse \"Help I\'m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer. Hard to be soft, tough to be tender. Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runway train. Help I\'m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer. If I\'m still alive, my regrets are few, If my life is mine, what shouldn\'t I do\" When I first heard this song I actually cried, for real. This song really meant something to me and motivated me to work extra hard and do everything I could to speed my recovery. Give it a listen, maybe it will inspire you as well. Best wishes to everyone beginning their journey or starting on the road to recovery. Take care and keep those hearts beating like a hammer. -J. O.

Sorry I haven\'t written in awhile. It\'s been 3 months since my valve replacement and I thought I would give everyone an update. I would say that I am about 99% back to normal. I graduate from cardiac rehab next week. I\'ve been going for about the last 7 weeks, 3 times a week. It has gotten progressively more challenging as they have steadily ramped up the workout intensity. I thought the weight would be melting off by now, but I haven\'t lost a pound. I\'m going with the ol\' \"muscle weighs more than fat\" excuse as to why I haven\'t dropped any pounds. I went back to work full time about a month ago. Was glad to get out of the house as the dogs and cats don\'t offer much in the way of social contact. I feel great. Everyone says my \"color\" is a lot better now than it used to be. This confuses me a little because I always have been and am still about as pale as pale can get. The only pain I still have is sternum-related. I feel like I can still feel the wires every once in awhile, and sometime I feel like I can feel the stent inside my heart. Maybe this is all in my head, but I swear that sometimes those wires are poking me. I\'m going to start the Medifast diet in a couple of weeks. One of my friends cardiologist put them on the diet and they are doing really with it so I thought I would give it a shot. I\'m down to one aspirin and one beta blocker a day. Pretty amazed to be off all other meds. Nice not to have to take the 20 pills a day I had to when I first got home from the hospital. I\'ll write again after my 6 month echo. Good luck to everyone who is about to have surgery or has just had one. You are in my prayers. Big thanks to all those on here who provided such great advice and encouragement.

It\'s been 7 weeks since my surgery and It seems like forever ago. I\'m in my 3rd week of cardiac rehab and I am totally dominating everyone in the class in terms of treadmill times and whatnot. Of course all of the people in my class are about two to three times my age and half are on Oxygen, but it still feels good to win. There\'s still one lady that beats me on the arm ergometer though, but I think she\'s rigged her machine somehow or she\'s blood doping. I wanted to take a quick poll of all the bovine-valve recipients to see if anyone else has experienced this one strange side effect: Every time I eat a hamburger or a steak I start crying uncontrollably. Has anyone else experienced this? But seriously, if you told me 7 weeks ago that I would feel this good by post-surgery week 7, I would have punched you in the face and called you Shirley. I really do feel a lot better, however, I feel like I can feel the sternum wires and perhaps the stent in my heart, mainly when getting out of bed in the morning or arm wrestling old ladies at cardiac rehab.

So today is 5 weeks since my surgery. I\'ve been telecommuting for the last 2 1/2 weeks and will finally be returning to my work site on Friday. I\'m looking forward to getting back into my office chair after sitting at the dining room table for the last couple weeks. I\'ve started driving around town again, still putting my pillow under my seat belt like a dork. Cardiac rehab started today. It\'s ok, but they don\'t give you but 5 minutes on each machine and the machines are nothing special. I think I was on about 4 different styles of bikes, an arm ergometer and a treadmill. 5 minutes just doesn\'t seem long enough, maybe I\'ll feel different when they start cranking up the resistance. I\'ve had some sharp chest pains today but nothing registered on the EKG at rehab so I think it maybe is muscular / skeletal type pain from my sternum healing. Maybe it\'s the wires. I have an echo next Monday so hopefully my cardiologist can take a look and ease my fears. I pray it\'s nothing valve related. Still finding new tape residue every day. Stuff is like concrete.

Hey everyone. Well it\'s officially been one month since my surgery. I just uploaded a comparison of my scar at 2 weeks vs. 4 weeks. I think it\'s looking a lot better. Let me know what you think.

Hey folks. Sorry it\'s been so long. Just wanted to give an update on my progress at the 3 week since surgery mark. I am doing excellent. I walk at the park about 1.5 miles each day before the sun comes up and makes it too hot to walk. My appetite is 100%. I am off my blood pressure meds completely. Docs said my BP was too low so no more ACE inhibitors. A side effect of this is that my taste buds are now back to normal. ACE inhibitors made everything bland to me so I would have to use hot sauce to compensate. Now I don\'t need it at all. My scar is looking a lot better since all the glue / tape is coming off of it now. Still a lot of tape residue elsewhere. I find a new patch every day it seems. I still have a good bit of sternum pain, I guess it\'s still fusing. The hardest thing is not being able to sleep in a bed yet. I am still in my power recliner. Thank GOD for that thing. I would be lost without it. I don\'t know when I\'ll ever be able to sleep in a bed again. I hope soon, because it\'s starting to depress me a little and the recliner is getting not so comfortable. I\'m a side / stomach sleeper so it may be awhile before I can get back to normal. Any other stomach sleepers out there, how long before you were able to get some decent stomach sleep? Anyway, I thank god everyday that he has blessed me with an excellent recovery. I started working full time from home last Thursday. The first few days sitting at a computer desk was awfull, but it is starting to get easier. Spirometer experiment results: If you followed my pre-op spirometer experiment then here is an update for you. I am still doing the spirometer. I had no pneumonia or lung collapses in the hospital and I am now able to inhale almost 2700 ML which is about 300 more ML than I could pre-op so I would call it a success. It also makes me think that my new valve has made me even stronger than I was before the operation. My friends and family have been great. I\'ve had an excellent support system during the whole process. I start cardiac rehab in about two weeks and go for my 1 month echo. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying that I stay on the right track to recovery.

Sorry for lack of updates but sitting at the computer is not comfortable for me yet so this will probably be short. I feel a lot better now than I did a week ago. Energy level is returning to semi-normal. I\'ve been walking many laps around our first floor. Using a pedometer to track my distance. I go about a mile a day total. Very boring walk but it beats the 95 degree heat and humidity of outside. Wish I had a treadmill. My appetite is 100% back to normal. I weigh about 8 pounds less than pre surgery and appeared to have leveled off in that department. I had a lot of trouble getting my bladder back to normal up until about the last 2 days. I think the catheter was to blame. The pain comes and goes. The back and shoulder pain is the worst of it. I\'ve been sleeping in my power recliner ever since I\'ve been home. Thank god we purchased that. I don\'t know what I would do without it. I wake up very stiff necked, but at least I am able to sleep through the night for the most part. Showers are my least favorite part of the day. I am usually freezing during them and after and all muscles get stiff afterwards for awhile. I think it\'s nerve related or something. I get my sutures out in two days. Can\'t wait for that. I\'m hoping that it really helps with all the itching. My back is starting to hurt from sitting at this computer so I\'m going to sign off. All in all this is so much better than I thought it would be. My biggest hope is that I can lay flat in bed again soon without 100 pillows.

Just wanted to let you know that I\'m out of the hospital. 80 hours from pre op to discharge. Surgery was a success. I now have a pulmonary valve where there wasn\'t one before. Glad to be out of the hospital. The worst part was my right hand being numb for three days, like it went to sleep and wouldn\'t wake up. The second worst part was waking up on the breathing tube, and having to wait for a blood gas test before they would remove it. I have been walking around the house as much as I can. My one concern is my post op echo reported that my ejection fraction went down from 65% to 45%. I would like to know if this happen to anyone else and if so, did it come back up. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and support. J

This past week has flown by. I am now officially off from work for 3 weeks (I\'ll work from home for an additional 3 weeks after I run out of leave, if I\'m up to it). The wife and I just got back from a Wounded Warrior Project fundraiser dinner at a local pizza place. It was Jimmy Buffet themed and the local parrot heads were out in full force. It was a nice night out to relax with the wife and enjoy some music and good food. At the fundraiser I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow Tetralogy of Falot survivor. My wife\'s boss\' wife has ToF and is the only other person I have ever met with the same condition I have. It\'s like a one in 400,000 people have this birth defect. She has not had to have valve replacement yet, but I think it is on her radar for something she will have in the future. It was comforting to finally meet someone who I could identify with. I am in that nervous time, where I\'m not sleeping all that great, and I feel like I could cry like a big baby at just some random time. I\'m thankful that I never ended up crying at work. That would have been awkward for everyone. My boss has been a saint, she is very caring and has gone out of her way to encourage me and make things easy for me during all this surgery preparation. I\'ve never had a boss do that and I appreciate her for that. My wife is my rock. She has been such a blessing and I love her with all my heart (yes, even the defective valve loves her) She\'s always there when I need her. I really hope that she doesn\'t get too stressed when she has to take care of me along with getting the kids back to school, scouts, football practice, and all that stuff. My mom and dad and the rest of my family and my wife\'s family have been very supportive as well. We would not be able to do this without their help with the kids and everything else they\'ve done. I appreciate all of the bloggers on here. Reading your stories has helped me grasp at least some of what is to come. I hope I can be as tough and have as good an attitude as HVJ\'er Mark R. He seems like he breezed through with flying colors and a great attitude. Hell, the guy was playing football with his son after like 3 weeks for crying out loud, how badass is that? His biggest complain was tape residue. I will strive to be like Mark. Here are some of the things that I\'m going to tell the nurses in my attempt to stay positive and be a tough guy: 1. \"Could you please insert a larger gauge chest tube? These two are entirely too comfortable Let\'s just put 2 more in for good measure.\" 2. \"Why are you taking the breathing tube out? I was just starting to relax and enjoy it. \" 3. \"If your having trouble finding a vein, just take your time and wiggle the needle around for while, I don\'t mind, Let\'s bring that trainee in here and let her try, a few times, she needs some practice.\" 4. \"Forget this spirometer, what I need is a leaf blower. Just aim it at my face.\" Seriously though, I am probably going to be a complete mess when they wheel me away from my family and into the OR, but I have faith that the lord will get me through this. The whole reason I\'m doing this is so that I can keep myself healthy so that I can be here for my kids and my wife for as long as possible. That is my goal for all of this. I pray that the lord will see me through this and give me the strength to get through any pain and setbacks that I might encounter along the way.. I\'m probably about to hit the word limit soon so I better close this entry. I doubt I will post again before the surgery. I\'m not good typing on my phone so that\'s my excuse. I will try and have my wife post when she can after the surgery. Thanks again to all of you for all your support. Let\'s do this thing!!

One week away from surgery. I get a lot of comments from some of my friends at work. The women are always very reassuring. Some of the guys are as well, but there are always a few folks that have no good advice or any idea what to say to a person about to go for major surgery. Here are a couple of the things said by a few of my friends / coworkers regarding my upcoming surgery: \"Dude, you know you\'re gonna be in some major pain right?\" \"That\'s crazy that they\'re going to crack you open like that. It\'s like something out of a movie\" \"That sucks that you can\'t drink for 6 weeks\" I know they mean well, bless their hearts, they just have no idea what to say. I just smile and nod. This is also day 7 of my preoperative spirometer experiment. After improving almost daily I seem to have hit a wall of 2400ml inspired volume. Still not the 3000 I want to get to before next Tuesday, but at least I know about where I am before surgery so I have a mental target for after surgery.

Today is day 4 of my preoperative spirometer experiment. (See previous couple of journal entries for details). I have been charting my progress using the little paper chart that came with the spirometer. Amazingly, each day I have been able to raise the level. I started out at around 2000 ml inspired volume and today I am able to get about 2400 ml. This seems like a big improvement to me over just a 4 day period. In addition to the spirometer, I am getting on the elliptical trainer for 20 minutes each night just going slowly. I was doing this before the experiment so I don\'t know if it has influenced the results or not. I do the spirometer about 5-10 times an hour during the day at work. I don\'t do it at all during the evening. If you\'re a guy and you want to try this experiment make sure you get a spirometer with a 5000ml capacity. We had an old one from a surgery my wife had and it only went up to 2500ml which is fine for women because their average target is about 2000-2500 ml, but for men the average target is 3000-3500ml (depending on height and age) so the 2500ml model is too small. I got mine on amazon (search for \"voldyne 5000\" and paid about $13 which I\'m sure is a lot cheaper than medical supply places. Got my neck pillow in the mail today so I think I\'ve about got everything that most of you valve vets have said helped. I think the only thing I haven\'t got yet is the chapstick. Did anyone get the Incision Shield that Adam mentions on the site? If you didn\'t, what did you do to keep your incision from getting hung on your clothes? Seems like that would hurt.

If you read my last post you know I\'m doing a self-imposed experiment to see if using a spirometer a couple of weeks before the operation helps prevent pneumonia. I am supposed to have about 3000 ml inspired volume according to the instructions but I only was able to get to 2000 ml on the first day.Today is day two and I think I was able to get it up to around 2200 a couple of times. I\'m hoping I\'ll get it higher each day. I also got on our elliptical trainer today for about 25 minutes. I know I won\'t be able to use it for rehab because all the twisting and arm moving would be hell on my sternum after the surgery. For a long time I thought my surgery would never get here, but now that it\'s only a week and a half away, the days seem to be flying by as we try and get things prepared. Currently trying to figure out what to do with the kids, dogs, and cats while we\'re at the hospital for a week. Grandparents will take the kids, but no one wants our stinky dogs and cats (I don\'t blame them).

So I read this article: http://cirugiadetorax.org/2011/06/08/pre-operative-incentive-spirometry-for-pneumonia-prevention/ about using a incentive spirometer for 2 weeks before your heart surgery. It indicated that it may improve your chances of not getting pneumonia by up to 3 times. Not being a fan of pneumonia, I decided what the hell, I\'ll give it a try. I logged into amazon and bought a $15 incentive spirometer with a 5000 ml capacity. (http://www.amazon.com/Respiratory-Care-Volumetric-Incentive-Spirometer/dp/B00091S3RC) The spirometer arrived today so I gave it a whirl. I did as the instructions said and found out that I have the lung capacity of an 80 year old man. Very depressing. The spirometer comes with this chart where you can look to see what the average capacity by height, weight, sex. For someone my age I should be at about 3100 ml. I am just barely getting 2000. That\'s a pretty big difference. Well at least I know what my baseline is so I can strive to improve it before surgery, but I doubt I\'ll get close to 3100. Anyone have any suggestions? Did anyone else try this before surgery. How much did surgery lower your capacity? Were you able to bring it back up to normal?

So after much internal debate I went ahead and did the blood self-donation. I gave one pint of blood to myself. I didn\'t realize how much that was until I looked at a Coke bottle and notices that it is exactly a pint. They checked my hemoglobin before I donated it and it was 16.4 which the nurse said is great. She said my body has \"plenty of reserve\" and that I shouldn\'t need to worry about being anemic before surgery. I wish I could give more, but surgery is two weeks away so I\'m not going to chance another round. I feel fine, thought I would be light-headed or something but had no problems. They\'ll ship my blood (and my wife\'s) to the hospital where I\'ll have the surgery so it will be waiting if I need it. If I don\'t need it I guess they give it to someone who does. They gave me a cool T-shirt but I kind of feel like I should give it back since I really didn\'t donate to anyone but myself. I felt a little selfish next to all the people at the donation center that were donating out of the kindness of their hearts. Maybe I\'ll donate for real someday when I\'m all healed up. I\'ve been having trouble sleeping the last few nights, mind racing with thoughts of everything heart-related. I wish I could just relax, but it ain\'t happening. I do appreciate all the reassuring words everyone has posted. My biggest feat now is that I\'ll catch something before my surgery and will get bumped to a later date or I\'ll get sick between my pre-op and surgery appointment and they won\'t realize it and they\'ll do surgery on me while I\'m sick.

The days keep slipping away, just 18 left until I become a human / cow hybrid. I\'m thinking about changing my middle name to \"Bovine\" after the surgery, I think it has a very southern gentlemen sound to it don\'t you think? The other choices on my list were \"Perrycardium\", \"Porcine\", \"or \"Contegra\". I think I\'ll stick with \"Bovine\" for now, although Contegra does have a nice Latin flavor to it \"Senior J. Contegra O\'Donnell\" yeah, I kind of like the sound of that. As you can see I\'ve done a little bit of research on valves. It is very strange going on the internet to look at glossy digital brochures for something that is going to be put inside your heart. Does anyone else find this strange? I find myself looking at the valve features much like I\'m comparing specs between HD TVs at my local Best Buy store. \"This one has a stent-less design, but I really like the tri-fold leaflet design of this valve, and it\'s made from a Black Angus cow, but this one says it\'s iPhone compatible, wait what??\" I think I\'m better off letting my surgeon do the valve shopping. I just know I want a bio-valve as I don\'t want to take blood thinners for the rest of my life. My surgeon also told me that he will actually do the surgery while my heart is still beating. I\'ll be on the heart lung machine, but my heart will still be beating. I asked him several times to make sure I was hearing him right. Has anyone heard of this? This freaks me out a little. I picture him trying to cut my heart in time with the beats kind of like when you\'re trying to jump in for your turn in double-dutch jump rope. \"One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, cut\". Either that, or I picture them putting my heart in a vice to keep it still so he can make the cut. Either way it kind of makes me a little uneasy. They say he\'s one of the best, so I trust him, but I\'m still a little weirded out by it.

So today we setup appointments for my wife and I to donate blood to me via the Red Cross. The surgeon said that I might need up to 4 units of blood depending on how everything goes. I\'m still not sure I will donate to myself because I\'ve heard mixed things about self-donation this close to surgery. They say something like 50% of people who donate to themselves will end up needing a transfusion because they were anemic after surgery because they gave blood (or something like that). My wife is going to give blood in a directed donation for me. She is O negative so she can donate to anyone. She would probably give me a kidney if I needed one, but I hope I\'ll never have to ask that of her. She is a saint and I love her very much. I\'ve warned my wife that I will probably be a big grumpy A-hole after the surgery due to the pain, tubes, lack of sleep, etc. I hope that I\'m not too much of a jerk. We\'ll just have to wait and see. So here\'s a list of my biggest fears so far about the surgery in order of most scary to least scary: 1. Not making it thru the surgery. 2. Infections / complications (collapsed lung, embolism, stroke, etc) 3. Waking up or being self-aware while under anesthesia 4. Freaking out when I wake up and still have the vent tube down my throat (which my doc says it will probably still be in for a little while after I wake up) 5. Pain from the surgery 6. Depression / Addiction to pain killers when I get home. 7 The surgery failing to do what it\'s supposed to do 8. Being different or dumber from \"pump head\" caused by the heart lung machine. Other than that stuff, I feel pretty good about it.

As Tom Petty sings \"The waiting is the hardest part\". I find this to be true. I called the Surgery schedule lady today to see if there were any earlier openings and she managed to move me up to 2 days earlier than my original date. So now it will be on July 31st instead of August 2nd. The scary part is that now in my MS Outlook Calendar at work I can actually see the surgery date without scrolling down. It\'s starting to feel a lot more real to me now that the date is staring me in the face now. With the surgery date looming, I\'ve had to cut myself off from the booze. This last weekend was my last hurrah. Over the last several weeks I had been on my \"summer tour of hard ciders.\" Those days are over for awhile. Incidentally my favorite hard ciders in order of best to worst are 1. Strongbow English Cider, 2. Woodchuck Belgian White Cider 3. Hornsby\'s 4. Angy Orchard Crisp Apple, 5. Woodchuck Amber. Alas I didn\'t get to try Crispin, or Magner\'s yet so I\'ll have to save those for sometime in the doctor recommended \"return to drinking as normal\" time frame. Anyway, 21 days left till the big opening of the sternum. I watched Alien with Sigorney Weaver the other night, probably not the best idea. I\'ll have to add it to my new list of movies not to watch before heart surgery. Incidentally, the rest of the that list would include: Aliens 2, Prometheus, Dr. Giggles, and pretty much any episode of ER, or House. I\'m really ready to get this thing done so that I can move on with life and quit dwelling on myself and all this medical type stuff. I would much rather be worrying about my kids, taxes, SEC football, and all that day-to-day stuff that we take for granted rather than researching whether I want to have a Cow, Pig, or Panda Bear valve sewn into my heart. Anyone else have any good hard cider recommendations?

I know I have yet to comment on all the kind words and advice given by so many in my guestbook, but I did want everyone to know how thankful I am for everyone who has responded. It\'s nice to get questions answered by people who have been through all of this stuff already. I am amazed by the sense of community and compassion of everyone on here. To me, my questions seem petty, but everyone here takes them serious and I realy do appreciate that. Another question for anyone listening. I\'ve heard mixed things about donating your own blood for surgery. I\'ve heard that giving your own blood prior to surgery may actually increase the risk of you needing a transfusion because it reduces your blood volume which might not get back up to normal by the time you have surgery. Anyone have any thoughts on this? -J.

My surgery is scheduled for exactly one month from now. The reality of it is really starting to set in now. I think my greatest fear other than infection and other complications is just the whole sternum being completely cut in half thing. I had it done when I was little, so I know I\'ve been through it before, but I just don\'t see how it will heal since I\'ll be moving during recovery, how will the bone fuse if I\'m not stil? They cast broken arms and stuff so you won\'t move them so that they can heal. How does this work for the sternum? I just don\'t see wires being all that stabilizing. Another worry is that I\'m a stomach sleeper, and I obviously won\'t be able to do that any longer until much later in the recovery process. How am I going to get any rest? I know these are petty issues, but this is the kind of crap that I think about all the time now. I guess it\'s better to worry about this kind of stuff than the other much scarier questions that I probably should be asking myself. Here\'s a question I have for the surgery vets out there. What kind of soap did you use on your inscision after the surgery when showering? did you actually let it get wet during your showers the first few weeks? -J

My wife and I are blessed with two wonderful children. Before they were born I remember all the planning that went into getting their nurseries ready for them to come home. Supposedly this is related to women\'s nesting instincts or something. Apparentlyl, my wife thinks that me having surgery is akin to having another baby in a way because we have gone about turning our spare bedroom on the first floor of our house into a pseudo hospital recovery room for me. I guess I will be somewhat helpless like a baby and I\'m sure I\'ll be whiney like a baby so it really makes sense when you think about it. Based on Adam\'s book and suggestions from people in the forums here we have purchased some things to try to make my upcoming recovery a little easier. Here\'s what we bought: 1. Lane Power Recliner - it was cheaper than a lift chair and i can just push a button to raise or lower it. I didn\'t think I could push or pull a regular recliner lever with my sternum being broken. Plus this lets me choose any sub-position I feel comfortable in. Regular recliners are either all up or all down. The power feature let\'s me stop it anywhere in between. You can find them on Craigslist for $300-$500. They run about $700 new. 2. Hoover Air Purifier - I\'m naturally a germ phobe and this was the highest rated air cleaner on Amazon. It has a U/V C light (like the hospitals use) in it that is supposed to kill cold / flu viruses and also has a HEPA filter for dust and pollen. I don\'t know if it will help prevent infection or not, but I don\'t think it will hurt. It is also does not produce ozone which some models do. Ozone irritates the lungs. 3. OMRON HEM-780 Blood Pressure Monitor - This is supposedly one of the few FDA approved models on the market. Found it for $60 on amazon 4. ISO Cool Pillow - I have a naturally hot head, and this pillow keeps me from sweating thru my pillow. I hear that you do that a lot after surgery due to meds and whatnot.$20 on amazon. A couple of other med related items we bought was an ear thermometer, a pulse ox sensor ($20), and some hand sanitizer. We also bought a TV for the bedroom since we didn\'t have one in prior. Not sure what else we need to make the recovery process easier. Please feel free to make suggestions in my guestbook. I\'m sure I\'ve gone way overboard as it is, but it makes me feel better knowing that I\'ll have a nice environment to come home to after I get out of the hospital. Any suggetions you have are appreciated. -J

Met with my surgeon the other day. He is Dr. Kirklin at UAB. He was in Adam\'s book on the short list of valve surgeons. His dad was a pioneer in the heart surgery field. Anyway, before I met with the doctor I met with his nurse practitioner. She was a very nice lady who seemed to really know her stuff. She looked over my scars from my previous operation (ToF repair when I was 4) and inspected them closely and made notes. I had my shirt off so she could check them out. Then she asked \"do you have any more scars anywhere else\". I hesitated and said \"I\'m not sure\" to which she replied \"if you don\'t know, then I\'m going to have to check\". I looked over to my wife who gave and approving glance and then I undid my belt and proceeded to \"drop trou\" as we say in the south. The nurse practitioner looked a little shocked and jumped back slightly. My wife also had a strange look on her face. I didn\'t think much of it until the NP left the room and my wife said \"You could have left your underwear on she just needed to check the inside of your legs\". Boy was my face red. I don\'t think I made eye contact with anyone else in the doctor\'s office for the remainder of the visit.

Well I\'ve officially got a date for my Surgery. Aug 2nd at UAB. I\'m nervous and scared. I haven\'t been a patient in a hospital since I had surgery when I was 4 years old. I remember it being not so fun, so I can\'t say that I\'m looking forward to it. I will be getting a Bovine Pericardium Valve from Edwards to replace the pulmonary valve that was removed as part of my ToF repair when I was 4. I had my ToF repair by the incredible Dr. Frank Midgley of Children\'s Hospital in DC. He is a rockstar of a surgeon. Anyone who has done an echo on me says that all the various stuff in the heart looks amazing for a ToF repair done in the late 70s given the tech they had back then. The fact that I have never had any additional surgeries needed until now speaks volumes of Dr. Midgley\'s skill. I think he retired a couple of years ago or I would totally have him do the valve replacement. I fought to try to be a candidate for the transcatheter Melody valve, but am not a candidate because they don\'t make a large enough valve for my size and the procedure is not yet approved for \"native outflow tracts\". Minimally invasive surgery is not an option either due to previous scar tissue. Looks like I\'ve got to go \"Full Monty\" as they say. So anyway, I\'ve googled way too much stuff and am freaking out about things like waking up in anesthesia, waking up in recovery while intubated, worrying about infections and all that fun stuff. I know the odds favor good outcomes, but I am a prepare-fo-the-worst type person so my mind races and I do stupid stuff like look up things on Google. I know I need to just be thankful if/when I wake up in recovery. I will try to take comfort in that moment and forget all the rest of my worrying. I\'ve got a great support system. My wife is a saint, and my family and friends are all praying for me. I am blessed to be surrounded by people who truly care about me. Enough rambling for now. I\'ll write more later.