Linda's Journal

Finally scheduled for open heart mitral valve (and possible tricuspid valve) repair along with a maze ablation procedure with Dr J. Michael Smith (recently returned to Cincinnati after a year in Kettering, OH to fulfill terms of a non-compete agreement with TriHealth) at Christ Hospital. '18. Was diagnosed in November of 2018 with AFib, after nearly drowning during a snorkeling excursion on a small ship cruise in the Caribbean. Was hospitalized in the British Virgin Islands for 3 days then released and had to return home early after 5 days of our 14 day cruise. Since then have been on medications for aFib but didn't like the effects of them and continued to feel out of breath and unable (at 71) to be active at the pace I had formerly maintained. Have an aversion to blood thinners and was hospitalized locally for 3 days for urinary bleeding from Xaralto, so have not taken any prescription blood thinners since then. Due to that and comparatively poor longterm outcomes for catheter ablations, I decided to have a thoroscopic minimaze ablation procedure done, but neither of the doctors I (for what I've learned is a specialized procedure not offered in many places) was in-network with my insurance so after being denied several appeals I ultimately changed my insurance during the annual enrollment period to one that would cover Dr John Sirak (now in Lima, OH) to do the minimaze after Jan 1. Unfortunately, an updated endoscopic echocardiogram in December showed valve regurgitation that had progressed during the 13 month period from "trace" to "moderate-to-severe", and also mild tricuspid valve regurgitation. So now Dr Sirak, Dr Smith and one other cardiothoracic surgeon all agreed that an open heart procedure (rather than the minimally-invasive minimaze) would be necessary to adequately address the valve and aFib issues in a combination valve repair, Cox maze and left trial appendage occlusion surgery. Dr Sirak stated that the advantages of his more thorough ablation procedure would be negligible in my case (aFib diagnosis of only 14 months and paroxymal, not constant) compared to staying close to home and having Dr Smith (whom he has high regard for) do the surgery. So I will be having the 4-hour surgery at Christ Hospital on Feb 14, estimated full recovery time 6-12 weeks, after which I will hopfully be able to return with renewed vigor to my active life of cycling, hiking, adventure travel (including RV camping trips with my husband in North America, and international trips of 6 weeks duration) and playing with our 16 month old baby granddaughter.