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A tad late... but Congratulations to Hannah, and to you! I hope everyone is doing well!

An inspiration for sure. If Skyler gets 45 years from his valve, that will get him to 57. That's pretty respectable! +14 would only get him to 38. As others have said, your experience certainly helps others realize that surviving heart surgery is not the the goal, it's the many years of...

Skyler just had his "1 year" appointment about 2 months late. He's gained 30 pounds since his surgery, but only 2 inches. He's finally got some meat on his bones, and not the smallest in his grade. His feet have grown about 3 sizes! And he's almost 14! OY! His doctors say he is doing great, but...

I got one of those for my step-son and all the people at the hospital thought it was REALLY cool! It was huge when I got it for him after his surgery, but now that he's 1.5 times what he weighed a year and 3 months ago, it looks tight! Amazing what surgery can do!

Congrats! Another 1 yearer! So good to hear everything is going great! Glad Izzy has her mom too!

Congrats! Give the wife and kids an extra hug for putting up with you! ;)

Congrats!!!! I haven\t been here for a while, but I'm glad to see you are kicking, and hope for many, many more and better years to come!

You know, it never occurred to me that people would be upset about age comments. Things just happen to people, and age is an easy thing to look at. Some things people should never have to deal with, but it's the (bad) luck of the draw that sticks you with it, whether it's replaced heart valves...

Skyler gets about 150mg in his multivitamin in the mornings.. then on top of that whatever is in his diet which varies depending on the day. He usually needs to be coerced into eating greens of any quantity so I'm sure it's around tha 150-200 mark daily!

That's what I read too - but Skyler's cardiologist will not give MRIs to patients with prosthetic valves. He says that there's "metal beneath the outer carbon"

Welcome! My step son had his aortic and mitral valves replaced, along with his ascending aorta. Considering you have the graft, you may want to consider what that would mean in terms of warfarin/coumadin use. If you wil have to be on warfarin anyway, I would go for the mechanical valves. My...

Glad to hear you are out. My step son had an infection, but of the incision, not in the valve. They did go in and re-operate, though, to clean him out, and then he was on intravenous antibiotice for 6 weeks... not exactly a cup of tea for a 13yo, but better than being in the hospital! Hope...

Judging by Skyler's doctor's refusal to take his blood pressure (taken at the office) as typical, I think that it is very typical for anyone to be either excited or nervous (or paranoid) about appointments. Skyler's doctor, I guess, will typically give a 24h blood pressure monitor rather than...

Thanks for sharing! I love hearing updates from people who have had surgery. Thanks for keeping us updated! And, I'm glad to hear you are doing great! How's your baby?

HUGS! Keep your head up! and make an offering to the Clot Gods!!! I think they need to be appeased! Don't get drawn down, and thank you so much for sharing.

Oh he's eating all right! His appetite isn't that much bigger than pre-surgery, however... I think it's a lot to do with the fact that he had a 17mm valve pre-surgery, and now his valves are adult-sized, effectively 3x the orifice size, so his heart isn't working as hard, and he's just got WAY...

Glad yoru dad is doing great and that he had a successful operation. Hope he continues to improve!

Just thought I’d update – it’s been a while. Skyler had his 6 month post-surgery check-up. Actually, it was more like 7.5mo. He’s doing GREAT! He’s grown 1”, but gained 14lbs (went in at 67lbs and is now 81!). He’s still skinny, but it just puts into perspective HOW skinny he was pre-surgery...

We self-monitor and dose. Skyler loves V8 (surprisingly) – particularly as clamato. We’ve never noticed any change in INR. In fact, we don’t worry too much about diet because it’s relatively consistent. The only time we find INR changes is if he’s been eating a bunch of junk food, really. Even...

Skyler(13yo) takes to much in my opinion, but his mother is a 'health consultant' who deals in natural supplements so it's hard to have any discussion otherwise. Skyler takes: 1 Omega 3 3 Warfarin (10.5mg - Rx) 1 cal/mag (evening) 1 analapril (Rx) 1 Vit C Vit D (liquid) 1 multivitamin 1 Co-Q10...