Kathy's Journal

My 18-year old son was released from Cleveland Clinic today! Dr. Marc Gillinov performed his mitral valve repair surgery, and it went very well! Dr. Gillinov also performed mitral and tricuspid valve repair surgery for me in 2017. Not the mother/son bond I wanted, but here we are! Dr. Gillinov is amazing, as is the well-oiled machine here in Cleveland. We visited the clinic for his evaluation on March 9, the first day of my son's college spring break. We learned at this visit that his mitral valve needed to be repaired because he had 3+ regurgitation, and his left ventricle was somewhat enlarged. Never would we have dreamed that one week later the country would be on lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic!! My boy was quite through trooper through his quarantine with the parents and one friend who stayed with us for eight weeks at our lake home. He finished his semester online while we worked on renovation projects there. Then we waited for surgery day which was scheduled for May 27. Unfortunately, Dr. Gillinov had a family emergency, so our date was pushed back two weeks. Once again, my son took it in stride. The night before surgery, storms rolled through Cleveland followed by the most beautiful rainbow that appeared to end at the clinic. I truly felt like God had given me a sign that everything was going to be OK. And deep down, I knew it would be because I knew he was in the best of hands with Dr. Gillinov. He reassured us that he would take care of him just as he would his own child. Surgery went well. He had some rough nights right after surgery, but just a couple of days later, if you didn't now he had open heart surgery, you really wouldn't be able to tell by looking at him. Oh, the beauty of being 18!! My son also had the same nurse practitioner at discharge that I had during my stay. I can't say enough good things about her!! She's fabulous, and we discovered during my stay that we both had a connection to Missouri. It it so comforting to feel so at home with the same staff while being so far from home. Dr. Gillinov and Cleveland Clinic - you hold a special place in our now-repaired hearts!!!