Kristie's Journal

Has anyone had their Tricuspid valve replaced with a mechanical or tissue valve? Just going in to fix only the Tricuspid. This is my 3rd valvular open heart surgery and this one scares me. The research i've done is not very hopeful. I asked my cardiologist about the chances of making it off the table and he kind of had this grimace and nodded his head side to side and said that they were less than two mitral valve surgeries. WHAT????

Ugh! Reading those words scare me so bad. My third surgery is coming up soon. I meet with the surgeon tomorrow to discuss a date. In 2009, I was diagnosed with Mitral Regurgitation and Stenosis and had the Da Vinci robot surgery to repair my valve; performed by Dr. Douglas Murphy. In 2017, I was diagnosed with my Mitral Valve regurgitation again and had to have a mechanical heart valve and tricuspid anuloplasty, performed by Dr. Richard Harvey. I had to have the full sternotomy this time. The Da Vinci was a picnic compared as it was performed through arthroscopic holes. When I came out of surgery in 2017, I was taken off the vent the next day. I was, however, in a catatonic state for three days. I never spoke, only could recognize a couple of people. They put me in the step down unit when I started speaking again. It took till day 5 to put a sentence together without large gaps. Days 6 & 7 were better but on day 8 I had ICU psychosis. I did not know that was a thing, but evidently I had the highest Ammonia levels of anyone the doctors knew of still living, the lowest B12 level they had ever seen along with very low Thiamine levels. The 8th day I only remember in bits and pieces that seem like a dream. On day 11, I was finally able to go home. This was the beginning of the end of my marriage. He never could get past the sternotomy scar and the things I said during the psychosis. We had been married 26 years. Fast forward to 2018, I was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension caused by the mitral valve disease. It is incurable. So even though I had good oxygen saturation, it felt like I was smothering to death. Over the course of the next six months and struggles with the insurance company, I had tests that showed that my tricuspid now had severe regurgitation and my aortic valve has mild stenosis. I heard the dreaded words "You need another open heart surgery." Well upon researching the subject, I found out that it is a relatively new valve to work on. You usually had to go to an interventional cardiologist. They did a left right heart catheterization that made my arm swell to gross proportions. They did the cath over 2 hours with me wide awake and crying and begging for them to stop. So, I discarded that hospital and went back to Douglas Murphy. During the last year, the good news is I met the most wonderful man and we married on August 1st. I never believed in fairy tales but he is my Prince Charming. I have had two cardiologists tell me that mechanical valves placed in the tricuspid was bad since there was a strong possibility of clotting. I am on Coumadin (do not even get me started on the evils of this medication lol). So tomorrow I want to tell him that I want a tissue valve. He is doing a sternotomy again. I have read lots of medical journals that scare me to no end. There are supposedly three things near that valve that if they touch it I die on the table. They do not consider the surgery a success until after 6 months as most of this is trial and hopefully not error. I looked at one study that states that if you are still alive in thirty days it is counted as a milestone because many don't with this type of surgery. I can tell you that with the other two I was not really scared. Apprehensive as you would be with any surgery but this one I do not see a good outcome. I have never met anyone who has had just there triscuspid replaced, an anuloplasty while doing the mitral is the most I have heard of. Part of me just wants to live till my heart gives out instead of risking it in a few weeks. I don't know....