John & I met Tuesday with Gregory Matter (my surgeon) at Baylor in Dallas for about 90 minutes. Ordinarily, he doesn't have office hours on Tuesday, and he had had at least 2 maybe 3 surgeries that day, so we were very pleased to get a 3 p.m. appointment.
After looking through John's test results & viewing the heart cath & TEE, he said he believed there was an 80% chance of repairing the mitral valve. (He would also repair the tricuspid too.)
If the repair didn't hold on the OR table, he'd replace the valve. His choice was a mechanical because of John's age, 61, and because that's John's choice. He favors St. Jude Regent, but said he would implant an On-X, if that's John's choice. BTW, Dr. Matter has no experience with On-X, but one of his colleagues does. He was familiar with the valve, because he mentioned its design which reduces hemolysis.
He has done the thorocotomy (port-acess) incision, but no longer uses it. Prefers sternotomy. But he said he would do the other if that's what John wants.
We discussed anticoagulation, since I am on warfarin. He sees no difference between Coumadin and warfarin, and I said there was no difference when I switched. Also talked about home-testing, since I have a ProTime 3.
We have an appointment with William Ryan at Presbyterian in Dallas on 4/16. More valve surgeries are done at Baylor than Presbyterian; no perceptible difference in cost at either; so it will get down to which surgeon we believe is the best.
After looking through John's test results & viewing the heart cath & TEE, he said he believed there was an 80% chance of repairing the mitral valve. (He would also repair the tricuspid too.)
If the repair didn't hold on the OR table, he'd replace the valve. His choice was a mechanical because of John's age, 61, and because that's John's choice. He favors St. Jude Regent, but said he would implant an On-X, if that's John's choice. BTW, Dr. Matter has no experience with On-X, but one of his colleagues does. He was familiar with the valve, because he mentioned its design which reduces hemolysis.
He has done the thorocotomy (port-acess) incision, but no longer uses it. Prefers sternotomy. But he said he would do the other if that's what John wants.
We discussed anticoagulation, since I am on warfarin. He sees no difference between Coumadin and warfarin, and I said there was no difference when I switched. Also talked about home-testing, since I have a ProTime 3.
We have an appointment with William Ryan at Presbyterian in Dallas on 4/16. More valve surgeries are done at Baylor than Presbyterian; no perceptible difference in cost at either; so it will get down to which surgeon we believe is the best.
Naturally, every person's case is different, but I think I would question the surgeon on that aspect. To me, the fact that he was able to repair the valve is worth a lot!!
