Laurent's Journal

Hello everyone ! I hope you are well.

Today is my 6 month anniversary after mitral valve repair complicated by myocardial infarction. I still have PAC & PVCs and feel sometimes lightheaded because of low BP (~100/70), but apart from that everything is ok.
My medication is aspirin + ramipril ACEI + bisoprolol BB.

Good luck to all !
L.

Hello dear fellow heart warriors. Here is an update for those on the waiting room.

I am now 3 months post mitral valve repair, done by minimally invasive procedure (not robotic)

So far, I have completed 25 rehab sessions without pain.
Last week, I played tennis with my 15 yo son, and wasn't that ridiculous. And while I'm writing this, the rest of the family is still on the slopes, but could ski with them a few hours.

If I was told in November, I would'nt have believed it. Thanks God and Medicine !

The only thing i'm still worrying about is my high level of irregular heartbeats, both PAC and PVC, because I have to get rid of them to be able to get my job back. I have the feeling they are decreasing these days, so keep my fingers crossed 🤞 I'll meet an electrophysiologist in march to check the opportunity of an ablation procedure.

Many thanks again to all the saints on this forum for their invaluable support

Hello everyone ! Today is my first monthvalversary and I wanted to thank you all again for your support and all informations given in those hard times.

I am still recovering as good as possible. A little bit tired sometime, probably because I had to increase beta-blockers : my HR is still quite high, around 85, with numerous PVC, which is not as bad as AFib. I don't feel them at all, and live normally. I just hope that with time I'll get back to where I was before the surgery, which is not guaranteed due to the simili-infarctus I got after intervention 🤞

I attend 3 rehab sessions a week, each of one hour, and clearly see the improvement. 

Good luck to all those in the waiting room, and Merry Christmas to you all !

Hello !

Here is an update as I am already 2 weeks post-op :-)

I stayed 9 days at the hospital, of which 3.5 in ICU. Although the mitral valve repair was a success with no remaining leak, I had to have a stent inserted on circumflex coronary in emergency : stressfull and fascinating at the same time.

During my stay, pain was really manageable and completely disappeared after drain tubes removal. From that moment, I only got 2 paracetamol for light headache.

Back home after 9 days, the 2 first nights were quite bad. I assume it was because I had anti-inflammatory pills at the hospital only. I don't know if pain was due to the liver or the ribs.

Apart from that, I can now live normally, without any pain, and if I had an office job would go to work. Only restriction is I'm short of breath when I try to run. Walk and cycle are ok. I started rehab yesterday.

I'm feeling very thankfull to this community : your help and feedback made me confident enough to show up that day. And that was a challenge :-)

If anyone has questions, don't hesitate I'll do my best

Hi everyone !

A little update regarding my mitral valve repair done 11/21, 5 days ago :

The repair in my case was quite challenging (bivalvular barlow leaflets + annulus disjunction), but was a success after roughly 2h on pump via a right thoracotomy.

I had one complication the next day : a stich too close to a coronary artery resulted in a nearly infarctus solved by stent, but with no symptoms (only detected by blood sample anomaly - troponine).

Your tips for the luggage were very usefull, thanks again 
No memories of the breathing tube :-) Even if the nurses were positive I didnt like it !
ICU is definitely tiring because of noises, bad sleep, bad food and all those wires and tests, but overall didnt suffer much.
As soon as the last tube is out, piece of cake 😅

Now is time for full recovery in the next months I Hope 🤞

Again THANK YOU ALL for your help, the waiting is really the nightmare

Hi everyone !

As I have to prepare my luggage for my f*** leaky mitral valve operation on tuesday 11/21, would you please have any tip or advice ? I noted the earplugs already :-)

Many thanks to this community for info and support. My next post possibly at the beginning of remontada . Bisous 😗