Recent content by PhillyJohn

As a purely anecdotal report, I consume marijuana regularly via a vape pen / cartridge, and it has not seemed to have any negative effects beyond some munchie-related weight gain. I do not notice any INR changes, and my cardiologist hasn't expressed concerns.

Sorry for the late reply! I'm probably no longer a good barometer for this question -- I experienced some relatively serious complications from my surgery which required a second surgery in January (just like Bill Clinton!). Even so, I probably could've managed to travel in February, but I...

I really prefer using the softclix device - other ones bruised the heck out of me for some reason, and are just less convenient to carry around. I finally found replacement coaguchek lancets on a Canadian site...

After 8 days in the hospital, I’m finally home resting. I had a bit of a bumpy landing - my first night in the Step Down ward, something caused a precipitous drop in my hemoglobin levels which required a couple of emergency blood infusions. Pretty scary. Once they got me full of blood I...

Hello from the other side. Pretty groggy but feeling good with the exception of if $$&! drain time tube. Thought you’d all get a kick of seeing the tattoo the surgeon had to cut through

Thanks for everyone's comments here. Heading into my surgery tomorrow morning bright and early. See y'all on the other side.

Sorry to hear about the complications, but glad to see you on the other side. I've got a date with my valve tomorrow morning!

I’m a week behind you - I’m 41 with a BAV (but apparently no other complications), and am having my mechanical valve installed on Nov 29. I can honestly say if not for this forum, I would be frankly freaking out, but reading all the stories here has calmed me down considerably. If you’d like to...

It's actually the other way around! My symptoms got a bit worse, so decided to move the surgery sooner - from March of next year to Nov of this year.

The word from the surgery was: given my age and overall health, it's likely that I'll by physically ok for the trip. Meaning the flight, etc. However, whether it's actually a good idea to go or not will depend on whether my INR has stabilized to a point where we feel confident that something...

I was originally scheduled for replacement of a bicuspid aortic valve in March 2024, but moved the surgery up to Nov ‘23 (next month). I’ve got a previously-scheduled trip at the end of Feb ‘24. Obviously I’ll speak with my surgeon and doctors, but I’m curious if any of you have experience...

I'm not huge either - 5'7" but pretty "broad" at 185lbs. My surgeon specifically said he sees issues with smaller women specifically - but I didn't press that point too hard since it apparently didn't apply to me. I suspect after reading a little about the "top hat" valve that the size issue has...

To that point, if my surgeon had suggested a St Jude's, I'd have been cool with that too. I don't plan on messing around with the lower INR guidelines of the OnX, although it was mentioned as a benefit. I didn't feel strongly between the two.

One interesting thing about my meeting - I expected, based on most of the threads here, to get some pushback when I asked about INR self-management, but my surgeon said that their practice strongly encourages self-management after the first few months. So maybe the tide is changing in that regard.

The short answer as to why I'm personally choosing that is because my surgeon recommended it, and I'm choosing to limit the number of decisions I'm making to some degree. But I did ask him why he recommended it over other valves in the first place, and if not for this forum (and mostly you, to...