I had my first meeting with my surgeon on Wednesday, Dr. Hilton Ling of the St. Paul's Hospital heart team. He was recommended to me by a good friend who used to be an OR nurse on the heart team at St. Paul's and had scrubbed with Dr. Ling on numerous occasions. Dr. Ling is a very nice guy with good "bedside" manner and a wry sense of humour that helped break the ice. St. Paul's is one of the best cardio hospitals in Canada and has a research centre that has done a number of "firsts" in the field, so I am very confidant that they will do a fine job on such an "open and shut case" as mine - bad pun
!
Dr. Ling basically confirmed everything that I had already read on the web and on this forum, which was comforting. As both my parents lived to be 79 and my Grannies to 84 and 85 before them, we both agreed that a mechanical valve replacement is probably the best from a longevity standpoint. They use three different valves in St. Pauls, one is the On-X, another the Carpentier-Edwards - can't recall the last one, but they all look much the same. (If anyone has any info on pros and cons of a particular manufacturer it would be appreciated). Again, having him say the valve types and already having seen the names and had that information from the forum was positive reinforcement.
For some reason I have never been worried about the Warfarin regime and, again, Dr. Ling confirmed what Ross has been saying - live your life and work the Warfarin around your lifestyle and not the other way. Don't focus on the very unlikely possibility of bleeding out - if your injuries are that bad you would be in trouble Warfarin or not! He also mentioned that home testing is possible and available - not yet covered under our Provincial Heath Care but he recommended it as a way to have better control. I also just found this article (I used Google and the search string Home INR Monitoring)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...120?hub=Health
that indicates that people doing home testing have lower % of problems, the reson still as yet undetermined.
""Wells analyzed the results of 16 previous studies of home-based INR testing and found that the patients had fewer blood clots, fewer strokes and heart attacks -- and fewer deaths. the results are published in the Canadian medical journal, Open Medicine.""
I understand the machines, that are like blood monitors for diabetis, cost CAD$800-900. I definitely will be investing in one.
All in all I think both my wife and I were very pleased with our visit to Dr. Ling and the confidence that we got from him that we were on the right track. Now we have to have the surgery scheduled, which will probably be in the early new year. The next step will be when I am called in for a pre-surgery class in which they go over the entire process and show movies of the OR, ICU and recovery etc. to help you understand exactly what will happen. About a week after that I will be called in for the surgery.
Dr. Ling advised us that my actual surgery would only last a couple of hours, about 4 hours until I wake up, then 1-2 days in ICU then another 5-7 in recovery. By the end of the hospital stay I will be mobile and able to do ligh dusting but no vacuuming!
In all of this experience to date I have to admire those of you in the US who have the additional worry about insurance coverage etc. Whatever you think about the Health Service in Canada, it definitely removes a major source of stress knowing that there will be no financial burden due to the bad luck of having drawn a dicky valve!
! Dr. Ling basically confirmed everything that I had already read on the web and on this forum, which was comforting. As both my parents lived to be 79 and my Grannies to 84 and 85 before them, we both agreed that a mechanical valve replacement is probably the best from a longevity standpoint. They use three different valves in St. Pauls, one is the On-X, another the Carpentier-Edwards - can't recall the last one, but they all look much the same. (If anyone has any info on pros and cons of a particular manufacturer it would be appreciated). Again, having him say the valve types and already having seen the names and had that information from the forum was positive reinforcement.
For some reason I have never been worried about the Warfarin regime and, again, Dr. Ling confirmed what Ross has been saying - live your life and work the Warfarin around your lifestyle and not the other way. Don't focus on the very unlikely possibility of bleeding out - if your injuries are that bad you would be in trouble Warfarin or not! He also mentioned that home testing is possible and available - not yet covered under our Provincial Heath Care but he recommended it as a way to have better control. I also just found this article (I used Google and the search string Home INR Monitoring)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...120?hub=Health
that indicates that people doing home testing have lower % of problems, the reson still as yet undetermined.
""Wells analyzed the results of 16 previous studies of home-based INR testing and found that the patients had fewer blood clots, fewer strokes and heart attacks -- and fewer deaths. the results are published in the Canadian medical journal, Open Medicine.""
I understand the machines, that are like blood monitors for diabetis, cost CAD$800-900. I definitely will be investing in one.
All in all I think both my wife and I were very pleased with our visit to Dr. Ling and the confidence that we got from him that we were on the right track. Now we have to have the surgery scheduled, which will probably be in the early new year. The next step will be when I am called in for a pre-surgery class in which they go over the entire process and show movies of the OR, ICU and recovery etc. to help you understand exactly what will happen. About a week after that I will be called in for the surgery.
Dr. Ling advised us that my actual surgery would only last a couple of hours, about 4 hours until I wake up, then 1-2 days in ICU then another 5-7 in recovery. By the end of the hospital stay I will be mobile and able to do ligh dusting but no vacuuming
!In all of this experience to date I have to admire those of you in the US who have the additional worry about insurance coverage etc. Whatever you think about the Health Service in Canada, it definitely removes a major source of stress knowing that there will be no financial burden due to the bad luck of having drawn a dicky valve!
