AZHiker
New member
Hey everyone. It has been over 20 yrs since my AVR with a st jude mechanical valve in August of 1996 at the age of 19 at Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis.*Bicuspid Native Valve with Stenosis, and regurge since birth*** I am currently 40 years old now.. a HS Biology/science teacher living in Phoenix AZ and doing great since my AVR! Ive read alot of posts on here over the years so glad to finally post! I Just received the news that I will have to have surgery soon for my 5.5 cm ascending aortic aneurysm. Doc just gave me metropolol to keep my bp down. I still haven't met with a surgeon yet.. just got the news on 5/22 that my aneurysm had progressed from 4.9cm to 5.5 after 2 yrs.. so working on getting an appt with Cleveland clinic to see about getting my surgery done there. Where I will travel from Arizona back to Indiana where I'm from closer for the operation. When I talked with my cardiologist last week, he seemed unsure as to whether they would do a procedure, and replace my well functioning St Jude valve, and entire root, with a Composite Valve, and Tube graft, or whether they would excise only the aneurysm,*above the sinuses, * and leave my valve and sinus portion of the root, in tact. Which would be a much easier surgery as well. I had a cardiologist in Indiana tell me 5 years ago , that they would just ckeck my St Jude valve and leave it alone if fine.. As I believe they could last a lifetime, barring complications with it. Does anyone here have any insight into the protocol in this situation.. or any experience with it?? Thanks all - James