Chemo after AVR

[lynn]

I don't want to hi-jack Arnold's thread anymore so I'll start a new one.

I'm still debating tissue vs. mechanical and a tiny thought crossed my mind this morning. What if my breast cancer comes back (God forbid), it's something we survivors think about all the time. If so, I wonder which would be the best valve to have implanted now.

When I went through chemo 3 years ago I knew I had the BAV and we went with an old chemo that they used years ago, not the hard stuff they use these days as it is very hard on the heart. What if I have to do chemo again?? I'm pretty sure a tissue would be handled the same way as my mangled one, does a mechanical act any differently with chemo??

 

[Mary]

One of our members had a porcine valve implanted due to her ongoing battle with CML. She has stated that her oncologist felt that the drugs being used to treat it would react unfavorably with the coumadin. Glenda had breast and kidney cancer before the advent of the CML . . . you might want to look at some of her previous threads dealing with her situation.

 

[tobagotwo]

It's a quandary.

If surgery were involved, Coumadin would be a complicating factor. I don't know any implications chemically between warfarin and chemotherapy chemicals, but Al Lodwick's website (www.warfarininfo.com) might speak to those chemicals.

However, a tissue valve would likely be more vulnerable to chemotherapy chemicals and perhaps radiation therapy than a natural valve would be.

This should generate some discussion and things to consider.

For you, Lynn, I sincerely hope this will turn out to be strictly an intellectual exercise.

Best wishes,

 

[tobagotwo]

Glenda is certainly a prime example of someone who is dealing with cancers and a new valve - and now, a new knee. She also came down with the intestinal flu as she woke up from her AVR surgey.

Sometimes I think that Glenda was put on this earth to make me feel like the luckiest SOB who ever lived. She's an incredibly strong, resilient, and positive lady.

Best wishes,

 

[lynn]

I will search her threads, thank you for leading me there!

I also need to look at coumadin and chemo, since chemo messes up your blood counts....hmmmmm

Sometimes I hate being a *think ahead kind of girl* But, I will tell you when I had my reconstruction done I had saline implants put in instead of silicone. Only because I had a nightmare that in when I eventually had to have AVR that they would pop them The surgeon said it had happened twice, they just need to know the size ahead of time so they can fix it while I'm out!! Sometimes ya just gotta laugh at all of this!

 

[Lynlw]

I wonder if the problem with chemo and coumaden has to do with the not being able to each much /consistantly, because of nausea, then the food cravings during steroid,. would proably make it hard to keep your INR constant,

 

[Karlynn]

MarciaB has a mechanical valve and is now going through chemo for breast cancer. When I thought of her I realized that we haven't seen her in a while, so I sent off a quick PM to her. I hope she's just been too busy to pop on here.