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My heart valve choice
Hi! My name is Daniel. I'm 34 years old, and just had a valve replacement surgery done at the VA hospital in Miami.(I've been out of the hospital for 3 days now.) My condition was a regurgitating bicuspid aortic valve, a birth defect that until now was undetected. I just wanted to let everyone in this forum know how much I struggled with the two valve options, and what my decision was. I opted finally (at the last second, practically) for the natural valve. Everything I had researched on Coumadin was disturbing, and I did a LOT of research in the 7 months before my surgery. As far as I could see, the only benefit to a mechanical valve was no second surgery, but I finally felt that the drawbacks to taking this medication far outweighed the one advantage. How ironic would it be if I got the mechanical valve, only to have my life shortened anyway by getting into a serious accident and bleeding to death, hitting my head and hemmorraging, etc... My surgeons said that I could expect a good 12 to 15 years out of my natural valve, and quite possibly never need to have it replaced at all. My surgeons initially made a good case for the mechanical valve, but, after speaking with them, and presenting my research findings to them, concluded that the natural valve indeed had many advantages over the mechanical valve that needed to be taken into consideration. The one thing they did agree on, is that if I did have a second surgery, it would be more complicated, and recovery would be longer, than the first surgery. I'm willing to take that risk.
Thanks so much for all of your stories and information. I am a 40 year old male who needs to have my Mitral and Aortic valves replaced. I just found out a few days ago that my doctors want to do this in the near future. I am in good health with minimal symptoms but they want to do the procedure while i am still "healthy". I became concerned after looking into my valve choices. My doctor suggests the mechanical valve but after reading the stories about Coumadin and the side affects of that it scares the hell out of me. I am very active and want to stay that way. I don't want to have to worry about blood clots and strokes. Also i am a professional meatcutter and get cut from time to time and worry about bleeding. I don't want to have the surgery more than once but i want to live as normal life as i can have. I have read about the minimal invasive surgery. Do any of you have comments about that? Also what are the side affects if any of the natural valve? Thanks in advance for your help, Jed Davis...Maryland
Dan - It is amazing how close our situations are. I am 38 and on Jan 7, 2004 go in for an Aortic Valve replacement and to replace a section of my ascending aorta which has developed an aneurysm(5.4cm). The bi-cuspid valve is congentinal, so my dad had his replaced 8 years ago (St. Jude Mechanical) and 4 months ago had an aortic aneurysm fixed (now dacron tubing).
I am close to deciding for a tissue valve, as one of my hobbies is cycling ( Many MS150 rides, and a 7 day ride across texas). Even though there are people around, many time you are remote and if you fall/bleed, a hospital may not be close (or anyone for that matter, particularly on training rides).
Keep us posted on your progress. Although I know what Is going to happen, still a nervous time.
Jim in Houston
I am close to deciding for a tissue valve, as one of my hobbies is cycling ( Many MS150 rides, and a 7 day ride across texas). Even though there are people around, many time you are remote and if you fall/bleed, a hospital may not be close (or anyone for that matter, particularly on training rides).
Keep us posted on your progress. Although I know what Is going to happen, still a nervous time.
Jim in Houston
Hi Steve- sorry it took me a few days to get back to this site. I am very pleased with my decision to get the tissue valve. I feel a great peace of mind knowing that I made the right decision for me. My doctors were really pushing for the mechanical valve, the only advantage being that I wouldn't need a second surgery. Taking the coumadin, however, seemed to present more risks than undergoing a second surgery. I thought of it like this: If I undergo a second surgery, at least it will be in a controlled environment, being performed by professionals. If, however, I hurt myself in some remote area and bleed too much, that will defeat the purpose of getting the mechanical valve in the first place, which was to extend my life.
To answer your question about what to expect during surgery, I have to tell you that it wasn't at all as bad as I had built it up in my mind to be. Surprisingly, the majority of the pain seemed to be concentrated in my back and shoulders. I expected there to be constant, excruciating pain in my chest, but that was not the case. The only time my chest hurt badly was when I coughed, and that pain goes away after about a week. Right now, two weeks after surgery, I have no pain. There are two times after surgery when felt acute pain in the front of my body. One time was right after surgery, when they used my breathing tube to suction out mucus from my lungs before they removed the tube. That makes you cough, and it hurts for a second. The other time was when they removed my chest tube. That wasn't so much pain as it was uncomfortable pressure located in my upper stomach. They gave me morphine before that, so it wasn't that bad. I hope I answered some of your questions, and helped you become clearer as to which valve you'll choose. Get back to me!
Sincerely,
Dan
To answer your question about what to expect during surgery, I have to tell you that it wasn't at all as bad as I had built it up in my mind to be. Surprisingly, the majority of the pain seemed to be concentrated in my back and shoulders. I expected there to be constant, excruciating pain in my chest, but that was not the case. The only time my chest hurt badly was when I coughed, and that pain goes away after about a week. Right now, two weeks after surgery, I have no pain. There are two times after surgery when felt acute pain in the front of my body. One time was right after surgery, when they used my breathing tube to suction out mucus from my lungs before they removed the tube. That makes you cough, and it hurts for a second. The other time was when they removed my chest tube. That wasn't so much pain as it was uncomfortable pressure located in my upper stomach. They gave me morphine before that, so it wasn't that bad. I hope I answered some of your questions, and helped you become clearer as to which valve you'll choose. Get back to me!
Sincerely,
Dan
You, I, Steve, and Champion are in extremely similar situations. I'm glad I have a chance to talk to you and Steve before you go into surgery. My only wish is that I had had someone to talk to like this before I went in! You might want to take a look at the comment I just posted for Steve, because it addresses some of your concerns, such as valve choice and what to expect during surgery. My greatest worry about the surgery was that I would make a choice that I would later regret. Making a decision that I feel good about made everything easier, trust me.
It seems disturbing to me that your doctors did not completely inform you as to the advantages and disadvantages of both valve types. Taking coumadin is serious business, and I'm bewildered as to why they didn't completely fill you in as to what to expect. I'm very sorry to hear about the difficulties that you are experiencing, and I hope you'll get get back to me with more information, such as exactly what the doctors told you about coumadin, mechanical valves, and how exactly the local doctors managed to give you the wrong dosages. It sounds like you might have a case for malpractice.
Since I seem to have trouble remembering the correct diagnoses I will describe it in laymen's terms. 1.One of the three leaves on my aortic valve is almost non-existent, causing regurgitation. 2. The opening past the valve is closed of by a membrane that should not be there. (The surgeon compared it to squeezing a garden hose, my heart sounds more like a gurgle than a beat)
I was actually diagnosed with MVP as a child and thought this is what I had all these years. My surgeon told me this was a common mistake in the past.
As far as symptoms I have none! I saw a cardiologist when I was 18 and he wanted to see me every two years for a checkup. I didn't see him again until 1995 when I needed clearance for back surgery ( Which I ended up not doing because I wanted to wait until after hunting season, and my pain nearly disappeared by the end of it). He still said I should see him every two years to keep an eye on my condition.
Because I had no symptoms it was easy to ignore this however, and I didn't see him at all since then. In August of this year I went to my doctor for another problem and thought I might as well schedule an appointment to see the cardiologist again. Unfortunately he retired and I had to see a new guy who said it was time to fix this problem. I was shocked to say the least and thought the guy was nuts! He referred me to a surgeon and he agreed however. He told me that my heart was enlarged to 53 centimeters (35 - 45 is normal) and that sooner or later it would give out. (He said maybe 5 - 15 years) He said he would rather work on a healthy heart than a failing one, and so here I am.
It is very tempting to put this off, but all of this happened right after John Ritter's unfortunate death and my wife is scared to death I am going to keel over any minute!
Hope this helps!
Steve
I was actually diagnosed with MVP as a child and thought this is what I had all these years. My surgeon told me this was a common mistake in the past.
As far as symptoms I have none! I saw a cardiologist when I was 18 and he wanted to see me every two years for a checkup. I didn't see him again until 1995 when I needed clearance for back surgery ( Which I ended up not doing because I wanted to wait until after hunting season, and my pain nearly disappeared by the end of it). He still said I should see him every two years to keep an eye on my condition.
Because I had no symptoms it was easy to ignore this however, and I didn't see him at all since then. In August of this year I went to my doctor for another problem and thought I might as well schedule an appointment to see the cardiologist again. Unfortunately he retired and I had to see a new guy who said it was time to fix this problem. I was shocked to say the least and thought the guy was nuts! He referred me to a surgeon and he agreed however. He told me that my heart was enlarged to 53 centimeters (35 - 45 is normal) and that sooner or later it would give out. (He said maybe 5 - 15 years) He said he would rather work on a healthy heart than a failing one, and so here I am.
It is very tempting to put this off, but all of this happened right after John Ritter's unfortunate death and my wife is scared to death I am going to keel over any minute!
Hope this helps!
Steve
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