Hi Judy. I have a mechanical mitral valve, its been just over a year since my surgery. My surgeon also suggested a tissue valve when we meet, but gave me the final choice. My cardiologists (I have 2 one local and one at my surgical hospital) both felt mechanical was a better choice due to my cardiac and surgical history. I didn't want to deal with coumadin and I also can't stand a ticking clock. On the other hand I was going into surgery #3 and tissue mitral valves don't have a long life expectancy in younger females, I'm 44, and who knows what the future will be for mitral valves. Also even if in the future I could get a valve replacement via catheter my cardiologist pointed out you can only have so many valves placed inside a valve before the opening becomes too small and it's not an option anymore. So since I'm still young and have already had 2 open heart surgeries I had to follow my gut and go with a mechanical.
One year post op I have found that coumadin is not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I home test weekly and do pretty well managing my dose with little help from my cardiologist. I pretty much eat what I want and have a drink or two from time to time, I'm even going ziplining next month. As far as the ticking I hear it from time to time and some days are worse than others. It mostly bothers me at night when I'm trying to fall asleep. It's annoying and I really don't like it, but it is what it is. My cardiologist once said, we knew there wasn't a perfect option so we had to just go with we we thought would be the better of the 2 choices.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Good luck with your decision and your upcoming surgery.
