Kristin's Journal

Surgery was one week and one day ago and recovery at home is going great. Except starting last night the area right around my incision has started to itch like crazy. The area from my previous surgery's chest tubes itches the most, ironically they are almost 8 years healed over and about half inch to an inch from all my new insisions, so I don't know why they would start itching. I still have a few stitches so I think it's too soon to put anything on it but I have tried rubbing coconut oil around the incision but have found no relief. I'm wondering if I need to try and get more of the glue and tape off or if anyone has any ideas on how to get some relief. Thank you!

On Friday August 18th Surgeon Crestenallo with OSU successfuly removed a membrane that was creating a 50% blockage In my aortic outflow tract. He said my aortic valve still looked good (I had the Ross proceedure done about 8 years ago) so he didn't replace it which is good because the less you mess with the valve area the less scar tissue. My goal was to be home in 7 days or less and I was able to come home yesterday (5 days after open heart surgery, so I even beat my own goals. I am truly amazed at how well recovery is going considering this was third timey chest has been cracked open. I can already tell the difference when I walk bc I'm not getting nearly as short of breath as before not do I have the tightness in my chest. My only issues (which aren't really issues) I have been having is a cough (which they say is normal) and just the healing is the incision just the normal healing of a cut it's tight feeling and a little sore. Here is to hoping I continue on a speedy recovery! Thank you all for your support!

Just my luck surgery is a week away and I am on my second week of fighting bronchitis. For the last two weeks I have had a terrible cough, Thankfully no other symptoms and I just finished a ten day antibiotic, but very nervous that the hospital will delay my surgery since the cough hasn't improved. I placed a call to the surgeons office and am now just waiting to hear back. I'm hoping the cough goes away in the next day or so, bc I'm ready to get this surgery over with it. Having already had two surgeries I know that coughing and laughing hurt so bad after surgery that the last thing I need is to have surgery with a pre-existing cough.

Surgery is set for August 14, 2017 at OSU in Columbus. The surgeon intends to remove the membrane creating obstruction in the aortic outflow tract and if needed replace the aortic valve (my last surgery was the ross procedure where my aortic was replaced). He said I have up until the morning of surgery to decide if I want a mechanical valve or tissue valve. There are obvious pro's and con's to each, but seeing how my husband and I are still very anxious to start a family we both agree that a tissue valve seems to be the best option. This is going to be my third open heart surgery and the surgeon seemed to put a lot of emphasis on the fact that with a tissue valve a fourth surgery would be inevitable, and that it would likely not be as easy because of all the scar tissue. At thirty I hate the idea of having a fourth surgery looming ahead especially as it will likely be a lot more complicated or high risk, however I'm not sure I'm ready for a life time of being on blood thinners either. Has anyone experienced a fourth surgery or more and what issue did you face if any? And on a more personal level, can anyone advise how soon after surgery you were allowed to begin trying to conceive? My doctor advised three months if I proceed with the tissue valve but I'm not entirely sure why I would need to wait so long ( of course this is assuming I felt up to it lol)

My husband and I are anxious to start a family (We had a miscarriage a few months ago and I am almost 30 so I feel a little bit of time crunch) but I know I likely need open heart surgery first to remove some scar tissue from my previous surgeries, and depending on what they find once they open me up they may replace my valves (I had the Ross procedure done about 9 years ago) with tissue valves too. My questions is how long after surgery were you told to wait before trying to conceive? My cardiologist said likely 3 months due to having to be on blood thinners for that long, but I'm wondering if I did heparin if I could maybe move that date up sooner?