Wes's Posts

Now nearly 4 years from my mitral valve replacement, and it's ticking along like a champ. I go in for an echo next month, and I expect good news as usual. While going through scans pre-surgery, I was found to have follicular lymphoma, an incurable but treatable blood cancer. The lymphoma has been quiet all this time, and I'm crossing the median point by which time most patients need treatment (still chemo for first-line, ugh, but new treatments are coming). I'm hoping that I either will never need treatment, or that if I do, by that time it will be something other than chemo. If it wasn't for heart surgery, I would still not have any clue that I have cancer! Anyway, I want to say thanks again to Adam Pick for helping me--and I mean personally helping me--make contact with the right folks at Mayo Phoenix, and to my brilliant surgeon there, Dr. Kristen Sell-Dottin, for the minimally invasive mitral valve replacement that gave me a new lease on life!

It's been a little over 14 months since my minimally-invasive mitral valve replacement (Dr. Sell-Dottin, Mayo Phoenix). On November 19 I rode the metric century, 63 miles, in El Tour de Tucson. The next day I went on a hike in Madera Canyon. To say the surgery was a success would be an understatement!