What would you do without this site?

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kevin21

I know a lot about heart issues just from studying up on it but how great is this "community" for people with our issues?

I can't imagine just sitting in the "dark" worrying about this issue and others and having to talk about it to a spouse or parents or friends that have no freaking clue what you feel or have any knowledge on the subject. It is a lonley feeling when you know something is wrong with you. I don't know if a full day goes by that I don't think about my heart (even before the recent news). Of course I've had the problem my whole life but still...

Other than the occasional squabble in the valve selection (tastes great vs less filling) board this place is very helpful. You can get answers here 10 times faster than Google or your Cardio (err, my cardio). And you get emotional answers also. YOu can't get that crap in a text book or article online.

I'm just happy it exists and I will mention it to every doc/ surgeon/ patient I see for the rest of my life, or as long as the internet lasts (I hear that it is just a fad).
 
kevin21 said:
What would you do without this site?
Click to expand...

Thanks, Kevin, for asking the question.
Without this site, I would have been put in a loony bin back in 2004. I was just about to lose my mind when I stumbled upon it. I had just learned that I had aortic valve stenosis and OHS was in my near future. No one I knew had any real information concerning it, and my colleagues at work assumed that I would have surgery done one week and be back with them the next.

Today, although I rarely post about my heart, I am constantly reminded from new members' posts how fortunate I am to be alive, to offer advice, and to lend a helping hand when needed.
 
I had my valve replacement over 11 years before I stumbled upon this site in a Google search on Coumadin information. I had struggled with my valve problems for 4 years prior to my surgery. I had heard of others who had valve replacements, but only personally knew one - who didn't have the same issues I had prior to my surgery. Upon finding this place I instantly felt like I wasn't alone anymore in my heart issues. I was living a good life, happy with my replacement, raising my family, traveling, being healthy, but to find this great group of people who I shared a very important link with has meant the world to me. It truly has made me a better person.

This place was where I learned the lion's share of my Coumadin information through Al Lodwick (and his wonderful site), and other members just directing me to information I would not have found otherwise. Now I stick around because, hey - you're all family (and yes, families do squabble sometimes - I certainly don't agree with my husband 100% of the time and I love him! I'll love him even more when he admits I'm always right!:D ) I also feel like I owe it to new Coumadin users to help the same way I was helped by the people here.
 
I agree, Kevin. Even though it was my husband not me that had the valve replacement, I have derived so much from participating in this forum. I've made great friends, feel reassured that whenever a question comes up in regard to Dick's health, I have the best source for good advice and have derived much pleasure from helping others over the mountain in any way I can.
 
This site is an amazing resource. I was fortunate to have found literate and considerate help from the folks at another Internet community prior to my surgeries, but they were limited in their information about and experience with valve disease. In the big picture, we are rare birds indeed.

It is so encouraging to share the joys of recovery with other people who've been exactly where you're sitting. The assurance of our "normalness" is welcome and always available here on this forum. When I speak of "death dreams" and heart flutters here, I don't have the sensation of people looking at me as if I'm an alien being or something. It's heartwarming and a relief you can't find any place else.

I am glad to be able to offer a post or two that may lift the darkness from someone in the waiting room, if even for an instant; that could be all that's needed to extend a helping hand to someone recovering; and to be here as an example that as long as there is breath, there is hope that wonders exist.

VR.com,

Thanks for being here.​
 
I am a pessimist when it comes to my health so if I didn't have this site I would have been an absolute basket case while waiting around for my surgery. This site has so many stories of people that have successfully climbed the mountain that I think - WOW! Maybe there is a chance for me after all :D

It's also such a great source of advice for other issues - Due to great advice from members here I had different gyno surgery than that I was initially going to have. And that has been a real blessing too.

It's amazing how attached you get to people you have never met and that live across the other side of the world. And when I tell people that I will be thinking of them during their surgeries I genuinely mean it and always check in to see how they've gone.

Basically VR.com rocks :)
 
I don't want to even think about not having this site. It has helped me many times and I also mean it when I say you're in my thoughts and prayers. I remember all of you in my prayers and I too always try to check on those having surgery to see how they're doing. I always look for their post after their surgery. Sometimes especially in the beginning I'd think "they are going to think this is a stupid question" however no one ever made me feel that way and I always get many answers.
Thank you VR.Com
Earline
 
Wow!

Wow!

Wow?I?ve been a member here for 7 years!!! I found this place about a month or so before my surgery through Al Lodwick?s site www.warfarinfo.com. I can?t imagine going through all of this without the great members here. Thanks to Hank, Nancy, Ann, Blanche, Al Lodwick, Marty, Christina, Joann, Ben, Missy and many others who were here way back then. I was at least informed going into surgery, and for the recovery period later.

I stayed because I wanted to help the new, the misinformed, and the scared. I still learn things too.

Hank and Ross?thank you so much for this marvelous community. All of us are much better because of this wonderful site.
 
I think it helps my mind coming and seeing success and not a bunch of doom and gloom, which is what I am good at....

Looks like I am in the waiting room "for reals." The doc and RN are supposed to call tomorrow.

This blows....
 
I'd be beyond a basket case if it weren't for this site!!!!!
Seriously......I may not be here.

I found this site 3 1/2 months after surgery, oh how I wish I had the time to find it before surgery, then perhaps my depression and weakness after surgery wouldn't have been so bad.

I can honestly say that this site saved my life, only because members knew where I was coming from - when no else did. Without hesitation members here, through their words give advice, encouragement and in their own way compassion and love. One cannot help but get attached to those who have open their hearts (sorry no pun intended) to help another.

For everyone here at vr.com Thank-you.

Thank-You Hank for coming up with this idea and expanding to
what it is today.
And to Ross, without you this site would be a mess and I would miss your "dry" humor;)
 
most of y'all know that I don't even belong here. I didn't have valve replacement, but quad bypass. I was trying to find out what had happened to me and what it all meant when I happened upon this site. never having heard of valve replacement, but reading what everyone was saying about surgery, meds, etc. I figured I had found the right place. Eventually figured it out but by then it was just too late. I was entrenched so the membership adopted me about 8 yrs ago. Thanks, y'all.

And the foresight of Hank and several of the oldies to come up with this idea of a site for valve replacement patients was to our benefit. We must thank them over and over again. Would you believe VR began as e-mail with only a few members!!!!
 
I am so grateful to this site. I honestly don't know how I would have made those oh so hard valve/surgeon/hospital choices, learned what I needed to understand and gotten through my second OHS without all of you. I found you a bit after my bypass surgery and about the time my doctors first started mentioning a murmer. I didn't even know what that was when the first doctor told me she heard it. Of course she explained but that made me realize I had a lot of learning to do and I found VR.com THANKFULLY. At the time of my bypass surgery, I did not know any women who had undergone that....only a few men. Well, er, ah....men and women simply are not the same!! :) I needed to hear from women who had survived OHS and this is where I met those wonderful women. And then I needed to hear from people who had undergone TwO OHS and survived and thrived. I didn't think it possible.

You held my hand through my surgery going on two weeks ago and boosted me when none of my family or friends could understand the way I was thinking and feeling while waiting a month for my surgery. They love me and tried but only those who have been there (or anticipate being there) can really get it.

My most sincere thank you. You are a very special group of people and I, for one, am extremely grateful to you.

As I recover, I won't feel silly asking the 'stupid' question. You always answer with grace and good sense and excellent advice.

I know from time to time the question is asked about comparison between bypass surgery and valve surgery. I'm not sure that many here have undergone both so maybe someday I will be able to help with that question and will do so with a sense of 'carrying it forward'.....trying to help someone else the way I have been helped. I did not need bypass my second surgery; only valve replacement.


Thank you.
 
I had never met or talked to anyone that had valve surgery when I learned I needed such surgery.Had I not found this site prior to surgery and heard the good as well as the bad about such surgery I would not have had as positive outlook.This site educated me so that I knew the questions to ask and was as prepared as possible for my "mountain climb".

On this site I found brave individuals willing to share their worst fears, lowest moments and greatest successes. Here I found a family that squabbles, is honest and caring. Here I learned there is hope. Here I went from preparing for the worst to being eager to start my recovery. The posts encouraged and strengthened me.
 
Wonderful Topic

Wonderful Topic

Kevin, Thanks for the thread! I think I found this place in the fall of '05, so I haven't been here long. That was 21 years after my surgery. I still had/have a lot of issues this place has been invaluable for. I would probably not be home testing my INR if not for this site. I feel certain that information here saves lives. I'm not a gambler, but I'd put money on that! I'm not one to post a lot. I am so pressed for time these days, that I usually don't log in. I think the longest I've stayed away is a little over a week. Frequently there is someone I have come to care about, and I am compelled to check in. There are many here that routinely make a difference in my life. Sometimes it is hearing what they are going through, that puts my complaints in perspective. Sometimes it is simply reading posts of bright, competent, caring people that is such a treasured reassurance in this mad world. Sometimes it is for laughs, and others to share joy,(Granbonny's grandkids, Dennis' pics, Mary's son home for a holiday...) I am blessed with a lot of good friends, but they don't have the shared experience to really understand some things. That is why you are all so important to me. Thanks, Brian Mc PS: Ann, don't you ever think you don't belong! I've grown dependent on your posts! Some of the mothers and wives of valvers are truly invaluable here too( Nancy, Paula, Lynn...)!
 
Thanks for starting this thread, Kevin. This site has been a blessing in more ways than one. It's a source for information, advice, support, and camaraderie. I was stumbling around, second guessing my recovery, post-op and this site helped me understand that what I was going through was normal. Today, I'm well passed recovery and this community still helps me with bumps in the road, even those not heart related.
 
I think that my head would still be spinning without these wonderful people. You have all helped me get through so much. - THANK YOU!!!!
 
Around this time in 1996 I was looking for any info regarding valve replacement. The only stuff I could find was way out dated,but I had no way of knowing that back then. I went into surgery assuming I had only a 50/50 chance of survival. It was pretty scary. Thankfully everything went just fine and I realized all that old info was ready for the trash.
Because of that I decided to try and help others facing the same thing.
I joined a Canadian heart web-site where I met some of our current members and hopefully helped a few of them. Then I was directed to a small group of our current members and we e-mailed each other daily. Not too long after that Hank came up with our current web-site and I beleive it is a blessing for each and every one who visits it. Due to some very serious health problems my wife had in 2002, I didn't join the site right away like a lot of our old e-mail group did.
But after that was behind us I still wanted to help anyone and everone I could so I joined up as soon as possible.
There is not a greater feeling then to know you have helped someone facing this ordeal.
Rich
 
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