Paul's Journal

Has anyone here had heart surgery at the Mayo clinic Rochester in the last few years? I'd asked, in a previous post, if anyone had any experience with a specific Mayo surgeon but got no hits. So I'm now interested in general about any comments, experiences, issues people may have about Mayo heart surgery in general. thanks and best wishes - Paul

hi guys, I have a bioprosthetic tricuspid valve installed in 2017. I've had problems since installation and following a bunch of tests at the Mayo clinic it turns out that my new valve doesn't open properly (stenosis). I Visited with one of their surgeons this week and he wants to do corrective surgery. This guy is Sertac Cicek MD and I was wondering if any of you guys had any info or experience with him. thanks - Paul

Hi guys, Back in October 2017 I had my tricuspid valve replaced. Six months later I was still suffering from shortness of breath and reduced exercise capacity. After an extensive diagnostic journey, initially focused on suspected phrenic nerve damage, I ended up at the Mayo clinic. Two weeks ago they inserted a bunch a pressure sensors into my heart, did some specialized echo tests, and concluded that my relatively new replacement valve was restricting blood flow through my heart. I was wondering if anyone else on this forum has experienced a replacement valve failure like this. Please let me know if you have. Best wishes - Paul

Guys I'm wondering if any of you experienced phrenic nerve trauma post valve surgery. After my surgery I had major pleural effusion problems which are now resolved but I'm still suffering from serious breathing restrictions. I suspect that my right diaphragm isn't working properly and that this my be due to phrenic nerve damage during my valve surgery. I had a bunch of tests yesterday and should know for sure when I see my pulmonologist Friday. Anyone out there had this type of problem?

I almost died. Last time I posted here was prior to my valve surgery 10/19/17. Since then I’ve been in and out of hospital (mostly in). I thought that I’d update my story FYI but unfortunately I can’t give you any reasons for my complications that would help you to avoid them. Anyway here’s the short version of the story. 10/19/17 – Valve surgery with Dr. McCarthy in Chicago. Tricuspid valve replaced with bovine bioprosthetic (one of the original leaflets destroyed by my ventricular pacemaker lead), mitral valve repaired, plus cryomaze to fix some recurrent AFIB. Everything went well. Spent 6 days in NW hospital, was released 10/26/17 and flew back home to Cedar Rapids Iowa 10/27/17. 11/3/17 – Getting ready for bed when I became short of breath. My wife drove me the local ER where they diagnosed plural effusion. The membranes that line the chest cavity were leaking fluid and as the cavity filled with liquid my lungs were being compressed. I was admitted to the ICU and had a bilateral thoracentesis – catheters were inserted through my back into both sides of my chest cavity to drain the fluid. They collected a total of 3 liters. I was finally released from hospital 11/8/17 and seemed to be on the road to recovery. 11/11/17 – Sitting at my computer I noticed that I was short of breath again. Back to the ER. The x-ray showed more fluid in the chest cavity plus my right lung was almost full of fluid. Back to the ICU I was placed in an induced coma, intubated and connected to a respirator. A few seconds (from my perspective) after I fell asleep in the ICU I woke up and my wife told me that four days had elapsed and that the medical personnel had prepared her for my death. I was grief stricken thinking of what she must have gone though. I recovered slowly and was finally discharged 11/22/17. 12/6/17 – I’d been tracking my exercise tolerance and had been making daily improvements until now. I noticed increasing shortness of breath with normal activity. So back to the ER. This time it turned out that my right chest cavity was filling with fluid. The fluid turned out to be mostly congealed blood with pockets of liquid. This could not be removed via catheter so I was admitted and on 12/11/17 had a VATS (video assisted thoracic surgery) procedure using endoscopic instruments to remove the crud from my right chest. They got most of it and I was discharged 12/13/17. 12/20/17 – that’s today as I write this. I’ve lost 20 lbs and feel quite weak butI really do seem to be recovering this time. I have my fingers crossed. None of the medical people treating me had a good theory to explain why this happened. I do know that my case is extremely unusual so please don’t let this worry you as you approach your valve surgery. I guess the moral is that if you get unusually short of breath after surgery get medical help immediately. Merry Christmas to all - Paul

We just had dinner and my wife said “I don’t know what you’ll be getting next Thursday evening but it’ll definitely be through a drip” Just one week to go before my triple valve repair in Chicago. I’ll fly out to Chicago next Wednesday, get my blood typed, and hopefully have a good dinner before my pre-surgery fast. I’ve had open heart surgery before which raises my negative outcome risk to 2% - way more risky than bungee jumping or sky diving. I got tee shirts for those but I only get a cushion for this if I make it. Not that I’ll use it, I’m all set with my Heart Hugger thanks to helpful tips from this forum. No worries though I’ve got a great surgeon at a top notch heart center so I’m expecting a great result. Thanks to all here for sharing their stories I’ve gotten a lot of information and inspiration here. More later - Paul

Had my pre-surgery coronary angiogram yesterday. They threaded the catheter through my right wrist and without sedation recovery was fast, uneventful, and I could drive home. Way better than my previous CA in 2001 when they went in through the groin. The coronary arteries were clear so nothing to add to my October surgery to do list.

I've been so busy reading everyone else's fascinating posts that I've neglected to make any entries in my own journal. So here goes. My running picture is kind of aspirational right now. That was 2016. This year a couple of things happened that curtailed my running activities. First I had both of my hips resurfaced. Unlike a replacement the resurfacing preserves all the bone but lines the joint in metal. The advantage is that I'll be able to run again but only after a six-month hiatus which in my case means December 2017. This is my left hip video and you'll see why I needed to do this before I had my chest opened. https://youtu.be/QyXs8AewmUw Also it turned out that I now have three leaky valves and afib. Hopefully this will be addressed by my October 2017 surgery in Chicago. This week I'll be having my presurgery cardiac catheterization to check for atherosclerosis and hopefully will complete all the presurgical clearance activities. My goal is to be running again in December. I'll update the journal if anything interesting happens but I expect that major updates will wait until nearer my surgery date. Thanks to everyone here for posting their experiences. Even though I've had open heart surgery before I've learned a lot from my brief time reading this forum.