Recent content by marc_kowal

12 years ago I had my AVR surgery and aside from a few little bumps here and there, life has been great! if it wasn’t for that surgery, I wouldn’t be here watching my boys growing up or celebrating my 22nd wedding anniversary with my wife, who is my rock. Hope everyone is doing well, I’m...

Hi Farid, I wouldn’t be too worried about bridging. A couple of years after I had my mechanical valve surgery, my doctor wanted me to have colonoscopy done after I had about a diverticulitis, to make sure nothing else was going on. I was 46 at the time. I was apprehensive myself about going...

Greetings all, Next month I need to have an outpatient procedure done and when my Gastro received the cardiac clearance from my cardiologist, the instructions were to stop my warfarin 3 days prior to the procedure, no bridging mentioned. I sent my cardio a message asking about that and that...

I had an Aortic Valve Replacement/Bentall procedure. I have a nice mechanical valve now that should outlast me!

Guess I need to update my profile 😊, we relocated to NC about 5 years ago. We were living in Hatfield, which is close to Doylestown. But no matter where I live, I’ll always be a Jersey boy at heart!

It’s been a while since I’ve been on the boards, but I figured I would post since this past Saturday was my 10 year anniversary. I can happily say that there have been more ups than downs since my surgery. I guess Joe Walsh sang it best, “Life‘s been good to me so far!”

I was wondering if anyone ever had Schatzki Ring treatment while on warfarin and if they had any issues with their procedure. Schatzki Ring is basically a narrowing of the esophagus before the stomach. This sometimes causes food to become “stuck “until it passes it through this narrow section...

I have an Apple Watch, and I can share some info with you as well. Question- since everyone’s metabolic rate is unique to themself, how are you going to make the correlation between activity and INR if there’s always a varying factor between each person? Just a thought.

Thanks for the info Pellicle!

Hi Everyone! With my new job, I have a name tag that I wear when meeting new clients or hosting open houses. Instead of a clip-on or pin type name tag, this one is a two piece (one part is the magnet and the other is the name tag). It doesn't seem like the company offers any non-magnet name...

Happy 50th Dick and heres to another 50!!!

Hey guys and gals! Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and ticking. Things have been pretty busy since we relocated to North Carolina this past spring! The weather is sooo much better than the North East. My wife and kids also love it down here, it was definitely a good choice...

5 years ago today I became cyborg. Looking forward to many, many more years to come.

Glad the results came back ok MrsBray!

45 year old somewhat active male. 2.5 - 3.5 is my target INR 4.5 mgs every day except 6 mgs Tues and Thurs Eat about 90 mgs of Vitamin K foods daily. Self test once a week