Recent content by pnarciso

Just to add here, for me it's 25 mg a week. 3.75 Mon-Sat, 2.5 on Sunday. I test regularly (coagucheck xs), and have not noticed any abnormal change due to the special Sunday value. I do tend to eat less greens on the weekends, so maybe that's it. My goal is to keep my INR between 2 and 3 (St...

My surgeon commented at the time that sparing the root (I had to replace AV and ascending aorta) would be advantageous because he did not have to implant back the coronary arteries. That saved some time on the artificial heart lung machine, always a plus. My root was spared and after the surgery...

34 months after surgery and I'm still experiencing a higher heart rate than I used to while exercising. I do not feel like I am pushing extremely hard, and still my HR will go above 180; realistically I do not think it will go back to normal, ever. Glad to be alive, for sure, but a little bit...

Each person is different (obviously), but I chose mechanical and am very happy. I test and adjust my dose myself (started doing that 6 weeks after surgery), never had my INR go very wild, although sometimes it goes out of range (should be 2.0-3.0, has been between 1.8 and 3.9). I usually test...

I am VERY ticklish, and shaving was probably when I suffered the most while in the hospital. Two ladies came in the night before surgery, and my wife had to help one of them hold me (they were both basically sitting on top of me to hold me still, or trying to), while the other lady used her...

I got in the night before too, and was told the same about blood (no need). So, here in Brazil, seems to be the same

Exactly one year ago I was leaving the OR with a new valve to replace my BAV. Before getting there I had been waiting for 24 years, since diagnosed, for the day when surgery would come. All went well, after all, and recovery was better than expected. Having found this site before the surgery...

The BAV was too bad for me to run or do any aerobic workout, not bad enough to send me to the OR yet. When the aorta started to grow in diameter at a consistent rate, then I was bad enough to get surgery. 16 months between the two events, then shopping for a surgeon and setting everything up...

I thought I was back running pretty quick with 6 weeks, but you beat me by miles (I did have a full sternotomy, though). My HR used to be high before surgery, I would run 15 km above 175, all the time, feeling Ok. I always blamed it on my BAV. A year after surgery, surprise: nothing changed, I...

No blood required in my surgery either No blood required in my surgery either The surgeon told me it is very rare that blood is needed. I tried to do an auto donation, but he said it was not necessary (and he was right).

I totally agree that skipping the lab is worth the $. Between leaving for the lab, being registered in their system, waiting to have your sample taken, going back wherever you were, and later checking the result on-line will take around an hour; self testing takes less than 5 minutes, and I can...

Never ran a marathon before the surgery, only a half marathon (1h50m) and many 8-15K mostly "off road". I was told not to do any high HR exercise due to valve condition about 18 monhs before my surgery, which happened in June 1st, 2011 (AVR+Dacron tube), so I lost probably most of my...

Just to add to the statistics of those who never had a problem with their wires, mine cannot be seen except on X-Rays, but they can be felt when I touch the sternum where they are. No pain or discomfort, though.

I really do not think I am depressed at all. Sometimes, specially with music, I cry because it is just "too beautiful or significant not to cry". It is weird, I know, that is why I am sharing it anyways...

I am 9 months past my OHS, everything went great. I do not notice any pump head effect on memory or mental abilities. But can I cry now... I was taught growing up as a boy in Brazil that boys don't cry, and I never did. I am extremely rational on everything I do, and proud of being like that...