Teri's Posts

I had robotic Mitral Valve Repair surgery on March 18, 2024 with Dr. Robert Smith at the Plano Heart Hospital, and I haven't posted anything since. I watched so many videos here prior to my surgery, and I felt very prepared going into my surgery. I had convinced myself that it would be I fairly easy, and while it was not easy... it was so worth it! I felt great when I arrived because I was really asymptomatic. The surgery was long but went well. He repaired the valve and put in a ring and ten Gore-tex ropes. I don't recall having any real pain in my heart afterward, although I moved very gingerly. I did have some implanted temporary pacemaker wires, and several other lines attached to me. I ran into trouble when the top part of my heart was not syncing with the bottom part of my heart as the electrical part of my heart had been damaged temporarily during the surgery. That was the unexpected event that caused me the most concern because it caused a Mobitz 2 heart block. My 3-5 day stay turned into a 9-day stay in the hospital. I remember hearing murmurs of needing a pacemaker by a nurse one night, and I completely panicked. That night, I was in the hospital bed crying, and a sweet nurse came into the room and asked what was wrong. I told her, and she held my hand and said, "You have the best doctors watching you. You have people watching you from outside this room that you don't even realize are watching you constantly." "They are the best of the best, and you just have to trust them right now." I shared my concern with my doctor the next morning as I was not mentally expecting to leave with a pacemaker. He assured me that after any heart surgery, the heart is not happy with us... that we had made it mad... ;-)... and that he was not yet worried about that and thought it would get better as it began to heal. There were a few days when we were still very concerned but Dr. Smith, his nurse practitioners, the electrophysiologists, Dr. Mithani and Dr. Mandell, and certainly the fabulous nurses continued to watch my progress carefully as my blood pressure kept going very low at times... especially at night. Around Day 7 or 8, they started to see glimpses of progress and by Day 9, they felt I was well enough to go home. I will be honest about my recovery... it took longer than I anticipated to feel normal. However, after 4 weeks from surgery day, I returned to my full-time teaching position teaching an all-boy class of first-grade students. :-) I actually felt like returning to work and moving more often was key to my healing because I began to feel so much better! I did have to take metoprolol for a bit and I still take my bp each day. For quite a long time after I returned home, my heart would go into A-fib, which concerned me because I didn't have that prior to my surgery. However, eventually, it went back to normal. My cardiologist took me off the metoprolol after my follow-up with her because she didn't think I needed it anymore saying that sometimes when you don't need it anymore the metoprolol can cause a high heart rate because your heart is trying to compensate. Ever since then (June), I've been 100%! We go on long walks, and just yesterday, I had a big blood work up, and all of my levels were better than they had been in 20 years! I also can't say enough good things about everyone at The Heart Hospital in Plano, Texas because each person... from the custodians to the surgeons and everyone in between were just the most special and capable people. I had many different nurses, and I found myself attached to each one of them... it was such a beautiful display of humanity. People from all over the world and with all kinds of backgrounds, and yet each one showed me such care and kindness. If I asked to go on a walk around the hall, they would stop what they were doing right then and say, "Let's go!" As I asked them each about their lives, they shared so openly, and I just found them to be so delightful. I ended up caring about their son learning to read, a custodian whose sister lived across the street from an explosion in Russia, a lovely custodian who I connected with over our love for the Texas Rangers, a big burly male nurse who told me all about his son's birthday party, the darling, bubbly girl who came in to stick my finger all the time, the sweet x-ray guys and lady who came in and took an x-ray during the middle of the night every single night, etc. There were so many more lovely moments that they took the time to connect with me, but those are a few that stand out. It was just a wonderful experience through it all... and in the end, I am so grateful for their care and that I am now 100% better! Special thanks to my amazing surgeon and his staff, Dr. Robert Smith! (who has a mechanical valve replacement himself... so he's been through it!) Thanks for listening. I am forever grateful to this site also and to Adam because I went in very knowledgeable and knew what they were talking about during my stay because I watched so many of the wonderful videos on mitral valve repair, robotic surgery, and what to expect during recovery. XO!