I would only like to report that I'm still alive and doing really well heart wise. I had AVR with a mechanical valve in 2005 and joined this forum in 2006. I had really bad heart failure at the time of my surgery and still had heart failure a few years after my surgery but since then my heart has fully recovered to normal heart funtion. I have not had any real problems yet with my antcoagulation theraphy. I'm 42 now and it looks like that I will be alive for quite some time yet.