Recent content by CazicT

Well, its something to definitely bring up to your doctor. What was weird about the beating? Was it fast? Or weird rhythmically? Or harder? Maybe skipped a beat? Normally it should be a regular string of 1/4 notes like in music, measure after measure. If it skips, there will be like rest...

Weird that Thrombotest is the absolute bottom of the range for the 1st and 3rd measurement, but it is towards the top for the second one. Looks like Neoplastin plus gives the most consistent down the middle readings and Innovin is consistently high. Generally Coaguchek seems "lowish". Is...

I was there two months ago, I felt the same way you do now. It was amazing that I don't remember being in the OR at all, though I was supposedly awake going in. I think whatever they gave me had a little amnesia effect on it because I don't remember anything past the prep room. I just...

I am about 10 weeks post-op myself and my heart rate is still elevated (for me anyway). Pre-Op I would routinely have a resting heart rate in the low 50s or even less sometimes. Post-Op I am mostly in the 70s, sometimes the 80s, sometimes I dip into the 60s. I am also on half a tab of...

Yes that is what I meant. I was told to drink it following my surgery for healing. I ran out and didn't get any more. I don't particularly want to keep drinking it forever since it has a decent amount of calories and is fairly expensive, so I switched to a protein powder drink that contains...

So I am still relatively new to the Coumadin Clinic. I'm a little over 2 months post surgery. I started out getting tested via a visiting nurse who would report my number to a clinic would call with my dosing instructions. Eventually I transitioned out of that and started going to a different...

Well I think someone finally listened to me, the clinic called back after initially giving me A 2.5MG DOSE to switch it to 5mg... after a 1.8 i.n.r. this seems like they want to push me above 2. it was a lot harder than I would have thought to get this worked out, but at my follow up with the...

Thanks Pell, I'll be compiling this data into a spreadsheet and will take you up on the offer for help soon. Thanks by the way for all your contributions to this forum. Your posts are always very informative and well thought out. I definitely see your point about there being no real benefit...

Just to be clear, I'm not managing myself... yet. I figured I'd let things get settled first before getting my self tester and taking more control... but I'm thinking I might want to start looking into it closer... so I didn't set that range myself. I've started calling around to try to...

So I made it through surgery last week and am the proud owner of a new On-x mechanical valve. very happy with it so far and I've been starting my Coumadin therapy this week for it with a goal INR of 1.5 - 2.0 looking at the cryolife web site though, I see a statement that says this is the goal...

Thanks for the info, I go in tomorrow (about 13 hours, yikes).. Pretty similar case here, 41, mild stenosis, moderate insufficiency, fairly big aneurysm (forget exact size), starting to develop pulmonary hypertension, etc. Good to hear things went mostly well for you. Didn't know a block was...

"...Among patients who underwent aortic-valve replacement, receipt of a biologic prosthesis was associated with significantly higher 15-year mortality than receipt of a mechanical prosthesis among patients 45 to 54 years of age (30.6% vs. 26.4% at 15 years; hazard ratio, 1.23; 95% confidence...

Thanks again for your replies, it's nice to be able to get input from people who have gone through this. I am a week away from surgery and I think i'm pretty cool going mechanical... My wife will of course support anything I decide, but I think she doesn't quite see the downsides of the tissue...

Interesting, but the article doesn't give a ton of detail. I couldn't find the full study on nejm.

Does anyone know why TAVR isn't recommended for "Low Risk" patients? I've tried to resarch this.. It seems like there are a few complications with TAVR like possible leaking around the valve and risk of heart block (requiring a pacemaker). And that the valves they put in degrade quicker than...