Mike's Journal

Mike Mo  UPDATE. I am now 51, moved to Arizona with my family on 7/3/24. Found out first week after move that I need a Re Do aortic valve and also aneurysms repaired. Surgery on 11/12 with Dr. Sell-Dottin from Mayo Phoenix. 


I have not decided on tissue or mechanical valve yet! Any suggestions would be helpful. I hate the idea of being on blood thinners. I currently have a porcine tissue valve.  I have zero symptoms and go 15,000 steps a day

Robert Miller  I have gone through that (mitral valve). At 50 years it's a difficult decision. I didn't really want another open heart surgery in my 70s as it's harder to recover. I was heavily leaning towards a mechanical valve. I wasn't too concerned about Warfarin despite me probably more at risk of hurting myself than many others just because of the things I do. But at the end I decided to get a tissue valve if I needed a replacement (I did not). It should last you probably 15 years. Then they can put another valve over that without open heart surgery. Give that another 10 years. So 25 years. Don't take my word on the years... And in 25 years medicine probably made a lot of advances that you might still be able to avoid another open heart surgery. Also check out the learning center (scroll to the bottom).
https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/learning-center.php

Mike Mo  Thank you Robert!  That is very helpful advice.  Much appreciated.



I am very worried about being on Warfarin.  If anyone has advice on how Warfarin makes you feel I would really appreciate it!

Richard Munson  I cannot comment on whether you should get a tissue or mechanical because my valve was repaired and i was 79 at the time. I could however see that warfarin over an extended period of time would get old, especially at 51. However, with the advancements in heart surgery and valves in particular since my surgery, it would appear that in 10 years or whatever the tissue valve life is , that things in the heart surgery world will be radically different than they are today. I wish you the best of luck choosing. Whatever you choose, it sounds like its required to improve your quality of life in the future. I also had no symptoms, but wanted to have surgery before i did. 

Barry Brasseaux  Mike.  I had my Aortic Valve replaced with a St. Jude valve at JHH in Jan 1988 and have been on Warfarin since that time.  I am now 62 and have not had any major issues.  I am active in order to keep up with my High School sophomore who runs cross country.  I am happy to answer any questions you have regarding the mechanical valve and warfarin since I have been on it for close to 40 years.  I know it is a difficult decision.  

Richard Munson  Barry, what an inspiration you are. Plus you are still a young man ( in my eyes).  You have a great attitude and that is a big deal. At 82, my running days are behind me but walking the dog 4 miles a day is vital for my heart health. 

Rose Madura  Mike, you have a beautiful family!  I got a tissue valve at age 59 because I didn't want to be on warfarin. It's definitely a tough decision. But once you make up your mind, go with it and don't second guess the decision. It will be the right one for you. 👍

Rita Savelis  I've been on warfarin for 9 years after double valve replacement when I was 53. I've had no problems with anticoagulants. One has to get used to being on a new drug but I haven't changed anything I eat or my lifestyle. I'm sorry that you have to go through this in your 50's because that is young (in the cardiac world). My heart valves were calcified because of childhood radiation for cancer, so it wasn't advised for me to have more surgery. Whatever choice you make will be the right one for you. Trust your instincts and your surgeon. There are positives and negatives for any choice but you and your heart are singular and not like anyone else. Take care.

Pamela Gregory  What a beautiful family! It is a really tough and personal choice. I chose tissue valve at 55 because of the blood thinner and ticking but there are many on this site that have had a lot of success with mechanical. I pray that they will have major advances in how long TAVR will last in the near future 

Mike Mo  Thank you Pamela.  I am leaning towards tissue.  Pre op is in 10 days.  My current tissue valve lasted 8 years.

Mike Mo  Thank you Rita and Rose.



These are helping my decision.

Mike Mo  thank you max.  Leaning towards tissue.  pre op is today and will make final decision then.  Thank you

Elaine Cutri  It sounds scary, but glad to hear you're feeling better! Best wishes for a smooth recovery from here.

Denise Campbell  I did have a freezing spell similar to that. Mine wasn't as severe. I didn't call doc. It also happened when I had my hysterectomy. I do think it's your body out of whack. It hasn't happened again.

Mike Mo  Hi Bob, feeling great. Better then before surgery already. Still bruised and sore, but not to bad. Had a few dizzy spells, other than that, I feel great. Walking 1-3 miles a day. Rehab starts next week! Thank you, good luck to you Bob

Bob Fessler  Well Mike, are you still feeling great? It's been awhile since I checked in with you. Are you going to rehab? Any more dizzy spells. I hope you are doing fantastic and feeling a lot better than before surgery.

Yumi Yim  that is great news, congrats again, I am so happy for you. My husband is having his valve surgery tomorrow in UK, I hope he can recover with same speed as you.

Kate Watson  That is so great to hear especially since I'll be there next week! Hope you continue to have a smooth recovery process.

Linda Yaff  Wow Mike. So good to hear. I am scared to death - I need an aortic valve and ventricle septa defect corrected in June. Did you do the invasive or non invasive? Bovine ot mechanical? Thanks in advance and your posts have been very helpful. Good luck.

Bob Fessler  Great post Mike. I'm going to have the same surgeon as you so it is more than encouraging to hear your thoughts on Swedish.

Mike Mo  Bob, the staff was so great. I told the nurses about this site and how great a resource it has been. Best care I could have ever hoped for!

Mike Mo  Linda, the waiting was awful for me as well. I was so scared. I got some therapy at the reccomendation of my primary care doctor and it really helped me deal with the whole thing. The tools I learned have helped me with recovery immensly. The therapy has made me very optimistic about recovery and thankful for the surgery. The recovery has been HARD, but I am so thankful for the opportunity to do it. I never would have felt like that w/o some therapy. Best of luck to you!

David Alejandro  Great Mike, praying for your prompt recovery!
I'm already moving around like nothing happened.
Best regards, Jesus bless!

Barbara Laurie  I expect constipation to be "horrific ", so now you have me worried! 😑 Thank you for 1-3 very real. ❤️

Tina Maroon  My constipation wasn't something I was even concerned about till it hit me after surgery. What a surprise that was!!! It was much worse than I can say.

Mike Mo  Took a combination of medicine that looked like Skittles last night. Let's just say I'm all better. I learned a lesson....speak up for all types of pain. You'll do great Barbara!

Petey Bello  Thanks for your update Mike. I am praying for you & all our heart family as they prepare, enter & recovery from surgery. I hope you get some sleep & have a speedy recovery!

Sophia Ridley  ;) I remember that! I reckoned they gave me meds that worked quickly to see how fast I could get out of bed as I was struggling with the walking!
Best wishes for a smooth recovery!

Christine Oliva  Mike, congratulations you have made through step . Glad the pain is bearable and it will slowly get better. I wish you peace and strength in the coming weeks. Hands up to your caregivers tooo!!!

Meredith Bray  YES! Stand up straight when you get the chance. Your back will feel loads better when the tubes come out. Deep breaths!

Wanda Mroz  Great news. Glad to hear things went well. You should improve little by little everyday. You are doing great.

Tina Maroon  So very happy for you Mike. Happy that things are going ok. Keep improving and hope you do well with recovery.

Whitney Nelson  I have an aneurysm and take a beta blocker as well and my bp runs around 130/80 and resting pulse in usually in the 80s. I freak out almost daily about that and I have had called my surgeon to get a reality check about the situation. You just have to trust your team to know what's right for you and tell you when they think it's time for surgery. However I would voice your concerns with your surgeon. As far as telling your kids, I have a 9 year old son and I just told him I have to have surgery to fix a problem with my heart so that I can feel better and keep up with him. He doesn't really understand the fact that it's a major surgery and I'm glad about that. He is mostly just excited he will get to stay with a friend for the 5 days I'm in the hospital. Not sure how much what I've said has helped. Lol but good luck and keep us posted!

Robert Osmachenko  Hi Mike, welcome to the site. I had an aortic valve change 17 months ago but did not have to do anything to the ascending aorta.
There are measures of a normal sized aorta vs. an enlarged aorta on this site. Do you know what your numbers are?
What is your opening size? Aortic valve.
Pressures at your valve site?
Ejection Fraction? This tells you how well your heart is pumping and expelling blood.
This site is the best and you can get a "make" on where you sit in the scheme of things by reading other journals. Please look at the video section and educate yourself on what heart surgery means.
Be careful with clonazepam as this drug can be habit forming.
Take care and let us know what you find out when you sit down with the doctor.

Clare Auten  I don't know much about the medication you are on but I know that some medicines work better for me than others. I was on lisinipril and metroprolol but have been switched to ramipril and bystolic. My BP is much better controlled.
My surgery was 2 years ago, 1/9/14, and my kids were 13,7,and 4. My husband had previous surgery for a shoulder injury. Grandma had knee surgery, etc, all outpatient. I just told them surgery for my heart, going to sleep at the hospital a few days. They each handled things a bit different. My husband was able to have his mom come stay at our house to manage kids so he could come and go as he needed. I wrote the kids notes for while I was gone. We chose not to bring the kids up the first day when I had too many tubes and scary things. It was hard for me, i wanted to see them, but worth it not to freak them out. My email is autenclare @gmail.com. if you or your wife have other questions.

Ed Miskovic  Your question about whether or not (or when, or how) to tell the kids about your up-coming surgery is no easy one. If it were me, I would seek the advice from a Health Psychologist who specializes in Cardiac Diseases. The hospital where the surgery will be done, very likely has one on staff or can refer you to one. That's the professional who may be able to help you sort through various options you have. The best to you & yours.

John Murray  Mike, I had a BAV with an aneurysm in my ascending aorta. I felt like it was a ticking time bomb. I almost messed my pants every time I sneezed!!! I would freeze and wait for any indication that my aneurysm had just blown. So, I know how you must feel right now.

Your systolic number isn't great, but your diastolic # and pulse look okay. The BAV/aneurysm issue isn't so much of a blood pressure issue. The aneurysm is generally formed by the way your blood is leaving the heart. The BAV can cause the blood to be driven into the walls of the aorta instead of going straight up the pipe. This is called eccentric flow. I don't want to freak you out any more than you already are, but BAV caused aneurysms are more dangerous than an aneurysm caused by high blood pressure. Don't get me wrong...you need to keep your blood pressure down. You don't need the added pressure on the aneurysm. Surgeons prefer to treat a BAV caused aneurysm sooner rather than later. My surgeon told me not to let it go past 5cm.

I know I probably just freaked you totally out, but stay calm... your doctors will get a better look at it with the TEE and then be able to put together a plan of action. You'll end up being fine. Take it from someone who just went through BAVR & aortic graft surgery. Best of luck Mike. Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask! I'll try to be a little less stressful than this when I answer next.

Sophia Ridley  I can't address the first two, but can the third...

Ed's advice is spot on re telling children. I sought advice from a psychologist and also this site.

I have a 3yr and 6yr, please see my journals for the advice I received. I am also aware that I wanted them to have a positive experience of operations / hospitals / recovery in case they have to face surgery themselves (my condition is genetic). So many reactions are caused by childhood memories so I wanted this to be as positive as possible. I informed their schools too just in case there was additional support needed.

I gently built up that I wasn't well, they were aware that I was unwell after some procedures (allergy not heart) and then I sat down with them, talked about the heart and lungs function, I drew the heart anatomically correct (not to associate the common heart symbol with my op) and then highlighted the valve and said mummy's was like a floppy banana skin and the doctor was going to make it better. It was also advised to draw a line in red pen on my chest as that's what they'll see. (When I did this, it was more of a shock to me!) I rubbed it off to show that it will fade. I also bought a flap book of the human body.

I have been guided by them and have continued to answer questions truthfully but without scaring them. They have both been a wonderful tonic during my recovery.

Michael Meyer  Mike:

My children were a little bit older but I did have a conversation with them about why I was going into the hospital. There are some great children's books at the library that talk about the heart. I started with these books when I first learned about my MVP. I think at 9 and 5 it is a natural question to know where Dad is? There is also a good suggestion to get some other counsel.

Mike Mo  Thank you for these answers everyone. Very helpful. My BP was normal today. I will review the numbers on my echo and consult my dr for aneurism. Still unsure about when to tell kids, but will work with my surgeon for guidance within hospital. Thank you

Sophia Ridley  I didn't tell them the fuller story until few weeks before, I told their schools first in case they reacted badly. There is a counsellor at the school who meets with my older daughter and they chat while making things. She's been a great support. My parents came to visit for 3wks post op so I always finished whatever I said with the fact Nana and Granddad were coming to stay... OHS practically became a side event :) if you can end each time you speak to them on a high note then that's helps everyone.

Catrina Glover  I have a daughter 9 and was going to wait to tell her (surgery is March 4th) but my husband and I were concerned she'd hear us talking about it with others which we have been a lot. Also, my emotions are very up and down with it coming up. She sees me crying more than I want her to, so we thought it was best to go ahead and tell her. It gives them the opportunity to ask questions as well. I've already contacted her teacher as well.

Kate Watson  Where are you having your surgery, Mike? I'm having mine at Swedish in a few weeks. As for the kids, I would personally be upfront about it. I think it's important to prepare them- but obviously limit how much you tell them. I told my 6 1/2 year old step daughter recently about my upcoming surgery, we were just really positive about it, and talked about the doctor is going to fix my heart because it's a little sick. And we talked about how I won't be able to do some things for a little while after, but that I'll be better soon. Mostly I think she is just excited that her grandparents are going to be coming in to help out! Best of luck to you.

Mike Mo  Hi Kate, I'm having minimally invasive on Monday at Swedish with Dr Glenn Barnhardt. We broke the news to the kids last night. They were concerned but excited Grandma was coming for a while. Good luck on your surgery. I'll check in when I'm out of icu! Thanks