Sobhan's Journal

Tyler Corkum  Congrats on getting through surgery! And good for you for training for a half marathon! I can tell you’re doing great now, but I have a question. Did you have a reduced capacity for exercise before you had surgery because of your heart valve condition?

Sobhan Dutta  Preparing for Half Marathon | Two Months After Open Heart Surgery | Heart, Valve & Surgery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzUvbZ81dHM&t=284s

Cheryl Capps  Sobhan, thanks so much for sharing your experience.  Inspirational.  And helpful to me for my upcoming surgery in less than two weeks.  

Daneen Douglas  Thank you for this inspiring video.  I appreciate your honesty and thoughtful words!  You are doing fantastic!

Nancy Bukowski  Very inspiring! Thank you, Sobhan. My surgery is tomorrow afternoon and this is helpful and encouraging.

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Cheryl, I wish you all the best with your surgery and recovery. I am glad to know that this video was helpful to you. 

Sobhan Dutta  Hi, Nancy Bukowshy; I hope you had a successful surgery and are doing well towards your recovery.  It may take a few days, but things will go better from here based on my experience. Take care. 

Nancy Bukowski  Hi Sobhan, my surgery was successful!  The biggest hurdle I had was getting off of the ventilator.  I was in the hospital for 4 days and am now back home continuing to get stronger each day.  Thanks again for your helpful tips😀.

Daneen Douglas  Very well done.  I enjoyed watching your video and you were definitely spot on with your information.  Thank you for taking your time to educate and give back to others facing this life changing event.  

Robert Miller  Thanks for the video. Out of curiosity, is that initial picture of the video of you? Why are there 3 large ~1" wide incisions below the main incisions? I have only one for the drainage pipe. And why are there scars on the left and right of the main incision? Are they related to the surgery or something else? 

Sobhan Dutta  @ Robert, I am in the video and had my surgery on Feb 29th. The 3 holes are from three drainage tubes that were inserted in me. I had three tubes and never asked why :) Also, I only noticed other scares after coming home, so I did not have a chance to ask the reason. 

Sobhan Dutta  @Daneen, Thanks for watching. It is good to know that this information will be helpful to those facing the surgery.  

Nancy Bukowski  Thank you, Sue!  I see that you are right behind me, so well wishes are headed your way too.  Ugh - let’s just get on the other side already.  

Sobhan Dutta  I wish you a successful surgery and recovery, Nancy Bukowski, It's good to know this video was helpful.

Valerie Allen  I will be interested in what your cardiologist says about shortness of breath while walking. I get that too, 3 weeks out of surgery. Or was this in the past for you?

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Valerie, sorry for the late reply. I had some issues with breathing while going uphill, but it became better (or gone) after a month. 

Robert Miller  It looks like you are are close to where I am and had surgery with Dr. Woo. I talked to him as I considered him for my second surgery. I am sure he is good but I perceived him as very impersonal, hiding behind his credentials and the scientific studies he quoted while avoiding answering many of my questions (which other surgeons did answer). I guess you had a different experience. 

nml hats  He mentioned that one of the docs was more matter of fact and one was more personable so maybe Dr.Woo was the former. 😂

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Robert, I was very hesitant to pick Dr. Woo as my surgeon because we had only two-minute conversations in our meeting, and he is not a great talker. But then, my experience was excellent after surgery. He even did the valve repair, which was not a plan, and he went the extra mile to do it. I am so grateful to him. 

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Nml,
Dr Woo does not like to talk much or be personable, and it is very easy to misunderstand him. But he is a great person actually, based on my wife's opinion. I only had the chance to meet him for a total of 5 minutes in the entire process.

Robert Miller  You only talked to your surgeon for 5 minutes total for such a significant procedure? It actually kind of matches my impression and my brother-in-law (a surgeon) was glad to hear I went with someone else. Especially my second surgeon took all the time I needed before the surgery, came by multiple times after surgery, I had a follow up visit with him, etc. I went to the initial consultation with a list of question printed on paper. It was a kind of open discussion and at the end the surgeon asked if he could look at the list and go point-by-point to make sure everything was indeed addressed. And he said if I had other questions we can talk/meet again.

Anyways, I am glad you had a great experience with Dr. Woo. Btw, you said "He even did the valve repair, which was not the plan". So was the plan that someone else does the repair? That's actually another concern my BIL had, i.e. at these famous hospitals it's often new surgeons that do the surgery supervised by the famous doctors. But I guess the new surgeons have to learn it somewhere.

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Robert Miller, Sorry for my late reply. I visited two surgeons before the surgery, and the surgeon I packed was not a very people person and chair of the cardiac department. But one nurse coordinator was there to answer any question I had, and I had a lot of questions. My surgeon was there with another surgical resident in the surgery, so between two probably did the surgery. Even though my surgery went well, I was hesitant and anxious about the surgeon. I would recommend getting a surgeon who will be there to answer all the questions and have the time when a patient is needed.

Robert Miller  @Sobhan Dutta, that's exactly why I didn't chose Dr. Woo, he didn't answer any of my question and always just said it's a matter of research. But I have to say, the nurse that I saw before meeting Dr. Woo for a few minutes was very nice, very knowledgeable, took her time, answered all my questions except the ones she wasn't sure about, etc. So big thumbs up for the nurse...

Sobhan Dutta  Here are some of the comments from my last post that I accidentally deleted. Which I don't want to lose.

Mike Jackson  Thank you for your video documentation and sharing of your pre and post operative surgery experience for Bicuspid Aortic Valve Stenosis, Regurgitation and more. Congratulations on courageously working through the process. Your video has directly helped me tremendously to understand what I will be facing in the future. You have helped me close the gap of understanding to questions I didn't even know I had. Thank you again and congratulations and I wish you a speedy recovery. 

Lynne Anderson  Thank you for your videos. My surgery is scheduled for 5/6 at Stanford and I've been feeling quite anxious since my pre-op appointment this week. Your videos provided great information as to what to expect.

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Lynne, I hope your surgery went well, and you are recovering fast. I had an excellent experience from Standford, and I am sure it will be the same for you too.

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Mike, I am glad to know this recording gave you an idea of how the surgery is going for me. I was very anxious when I was learning about the surgery, so I wanted to document it so someone could get some help from my experience. I wish you a successful surgery and a speedy recovery. 

Sobhan Dutta  Hi Kevin, I was looking for some fun when there was not much great about the journey ;) Rocky was my favorite movie, too.