A Few more questions...

[kevin21]

I feel like I'm taking soo much and not giving anything, one day I'll return the favor I promise.

1. Hospital, did anyone get their own room??
I want my wife to stay with me cause' I'm a big baby!!

2. Again, anyone heard of a good surgeon here in Houston??

3. If you go out of town for surgery does insurance pay??? ( I know travel isn't covered)

4. Can I continue to do things like ride ATV's (4 wheelers) and camp if I'm on coumadin? I'm kind of clumsy and tend to skin my knuckles and stuff like that on a regular basis, fixing stuff and while I'm out riding.

5. DO you get to pick your food while in the Hospital, or do they pick it for you?? (I remember when I had surgery when I was 10 I got to pick my menu HEHEHEHE).

Thanks a lot for your help!!!! Hope the recent customers are doing good still (bunky, davebaseball, Donna!!)

 

[Johnny Stephens]

- Yes, once out of ICU I had a private room, so my wife was able to stay and snooze. Don't worry about being a 'baby', it may help her as much as you to be close to you.

- Regarding the activities you CAN do when taking Coumadin, it is more a question of what you SHOULD do. Skinning your knuckles would not be life - threatening, but the ATV might be something you want to think about and plan your riding carefully.

- Food...every day they brought me a menu of 'cardiac patient approved' choices for the next day. I filled out a little form with what I wanted, and the next day they would bring me something completely wrong. My appetite was so screwed up from the drugs that it didn't matter much.

 

[Mara]

I had my own room, too. At the hospital where I was the cardiac care patients all have single rooms. That makes it nice, because then you don't have to worry about a roomie.
Everyone is a big baby in the hospital. Just tell your wife to go easy on the perfume and smelly bath scrub. My husband came to see me after he had eaten a chicken cesear salad and all I could smell was garlic! Thanks to the anesthesia!

I only ate the hospital food once. Then my husband brought me stuff from the deli across the street from the hospital. The nurses didn't care. But I remember that the only thing i wanted to eat was pudding and popsicles. Sooooo. you won't have any appetite anyway. at least for a while and everything tastes bland for about the first month anyway.

I don't know about ATV's I am not on coumadin. But, I'd suppose that if you took a big header on it or whacked yourself on the handle bars that might not be too cool on a blood thinner. Ask your doc.

 

[Granbonny]

Kevin

Kevin

At your young age why are you thinking mechanical...Have you read up on all the other choices...Of course they won't last a lifetime..but you wouldn't have to take coumadin...If you do choose a mechanical..I would stick to the golf and gambling I'm 9 months with mechanical..just finished a deep cleaning of teeth with no bleeding and have never had a bruise. but we are all different. Bonnie

 

[RobThatsMe]

Hi Kevin,

I had a private room once they moved me from the ICU. Once there, I had a hospital menu to select my food. It was rather limiting, but, I did get to choose.

I am on Coumadin and I ride ATV's, snowmobiles, boat, waterski, hunt, fish, work on the engines, in fact, I am as active as I was prior to surgery. I may use alittle more thought in the actions I take while doing the above, guess you could say common sense tells me not to be as reckless as I used to be.

I also have purchased a pair of Kevlar gloves that fit my hands perfectly. These gloves prevent me from knicking my hands or cutting them accidently while working on an engine, or using a knife while field dressing game.

If I do happen to get a cut, it does take a little longer to stop bleeding, and I guess I also have thoughts from time time wondering how bad off I would be if I got into a serious accident and had a large open wound. Guess I will deal with that when and if the time comes.

Anyone on the site on Coumadin ever have a serious accidental wound and would care to share their experience?

Happy Holidays,
Rob

 

[Rain]

Well Kevin...

Well Kevin...

I had a private room, I know a good surgeon in Denver , and if I went out of the state of CO I had to pay 30% , if I stayed in CO I only had to pay a thousand bucks, I had a choice of two or three things to eat while in the hospital... I wasn?t really hungry... but they threatened to not let me out and give me ?hungry pills? if I didn?t eat... so I slipped the food to my hubby. And last but not least....... What Rob said!! I still do all the same stuff I did prior to surgery.. just with a lot more caution... I get a little bruised up at times.. but I?ll never stop being me.. that?s just the way I am... not ready for a rocking chair and ?consistent? life. There have been a few times I?ve been way up in the mountains .... hours and hours up a four wheel drive trail.... and wondered what might happen if something happened to me... but then I think to myself... so what if I didn?t have a heart problem..... You never know what?s gonna happen to anyone... anywhere. Just be careful and use common sense. It?s probably safer than standing on the side walk in front of the hospital.


You'll be fine. Think positive.. that's the most important part.
Rain

 

[Gnusgal]

Just wanted to remind you about TCH. The surgeons and hospital staff there are great. But if you're wanting something a little more "adult" (though TCH is REALLY good) I would look at the Drs. at St. Luke's As a matter of fact, these two hospitals tend to share most of their docs. My surgeon was Dr. Charles Fraser. He's the head of cardiology, and the son-in-law of the famous Dr. Cooley (who did my first two heart surgeries as a kid). I highly recommend him. He did a lot of work to be sure that what he did was what was best for me, long term. I'm apreciative of that effort.

A side note-- My mom said that recently there was a story on the news about the "top 10 places to work in Houston" and St. Luke's was #1. They really take care of their staff, and you can be sure that if the staff is happy, the patients will be treated better. Hope you don't need to have surgery, but SL or TCH would definately be a good choice. Not so sure about other hospitals in the area when it comes to heart stuff.

 

[sylviayasgur]

hi kevin!
about the private room.... i think it depends on the hospital... my husband joey had a private room right out of icu, but my dad did not. my dad was moved into a room with about 10 beds in it, kind of a "halfway room" where he was held for a day.
then he was moved into a room with another man. it wasn't too bad.
(after having the private room though, i would certainly ask for one if they are available. i stayed with him all day and helped change his sheets, do his sponge baths, etc, so the nurses let me stay as long as i wanted to because i was such a big help to them).

about the menus.... mara is right, joey hardly had an appetite and i brought food in from all the delis around the hospital.
i would bring an assortment of soups each day for lunch so he could taste them all (2 or 3) and eat what seemed tasty to him that day.
they did leave menus for joey to fill out, but they always seemed to put them in the most remote places and i would find them at the end of the day!!! maybe have your wife ask for it each day or at each meal to order for the next meal.

insurance paid, thank God, for joey's entire surgery.

please let us know how things go.
wishing you all the best, sylvia

 

[richie rich]

Kevin

I having ben doing research on valves too since I am scheduled for surgery on either Dec. 26th or 27th ( depending on which valve I get ). I am 32 years old so I am dealing with the same issues as you.
What I have learned about Coumdin is :
1. You can do anything you want. ( atv's , soccer, sports, working out etc.) The key is that you have to use your head (not Phyiscally ).
You have to be aware of the situation that you are in and then adjust accordingly. For example Like Rob said above if you go on a atv you should wear a helmet to protect your head and gloves sound klike a excellent idea to protect your hands. Even if you cut your hands this risk of you dying due to a cut is probable nil.
If you weight training use sound judgement. Using machines instead of free weights is much sounder advice. You don't want a 50 lb plate falling on your foot or you head. I play on a mens soccer team and I know that if i get a mechinical that I will still play , have fun and get exercise but I doubt that I will be trying to use my head to hit the ball. I could do that if I wanted too but one surgeon suggested that i wear a helmet if I feel the urge to use my head while playing soccer.

2. My wife was in the hospital this summer for six days. Don't worry about the food there. If it is like 99% of the hospitals in AMerica then I can tell you that the food probably stinks anyway and your wife will be bringing in Taco Bell, McDonalds and Krispe Kreme doughnuts anyway.

Good luck and let us know your decision. I am going to NYC today to see Dr. Stephen Colvin about minimally invasive surgery and valve repair. I hope he has some good news for me.

I am still debating on either mechanical or the Ross Procedure. If they can repair it then thats even better. Then I will have more time to make a decision down the road. At your age you are much better of with the Ross then with a tissue. Re-op is a given with a tissue (10-12 years) till proven otherwise. With the Ross you may get 25 years till re-op.

 

[JimL]

One of the hospitals in the DEtroit area (Crittendon in Rochester) has begun a few months ago using a restaurant style menu. There is wonderful variety on the menu, even though it's the same menu every day. It looks like an incredibly complicated system, but they're still using it. I haven't yet had the opportunity to eat off their menu, so it may well be the same old food in a new foil wrapper.
Anyway, on the food question, it might be worth checking around in your area; there might be more variety available.

 

[Bunkenmeyer]

private room

private room

Having just gotten home from the hospital, the thing I am enjoying MOST is not having a roommate. I went from ICU with no roommate to a Cardiac Progressive care unit with 4 beds clustered around one nurse station and then finally onto a "regular" room on the cardiac floor. The regular room was incredibily annoying, perhaps because I was young and lucid enough to realize that my roommates constantly sounded like they were on death's door, wheezing and hacking and coughing and spitting and snoring all night long. Family members fighting with the nurses... it was a total nightmare. The kicker happened my 4th day post op, I finally felt up to a little diversion so my wife brought my laptop in and while I was out getting a cat scan for two hours one of my roommate's family members who were visiting (I'm 99% sure) broke the security cable I had used to attach it to my hospital bed and took off with it. Nothing like filing a police report from your hospital bed. The doctors, nurses and everyone else were really shocked and I believe such things rarely happen but it made me realize how vulnerable you are in the hospital surrounded by strangers. I believe most insurance does not cover a private room (semi-private is standard). However, a friend of mine with a lot of hospital experience now always makes a point to ask if there is a single room available (e.g. a double with no roommate) and usually gets it if available. After my experience I would strongly recomend at least trying that. And more generally, I wish I had stood up even more for myself (or my family had), I was too appreciative and not demanding enough of what I should have reasonable expected in terms of peace and quiet to recover from such major surgery.

 

[hkitch]

Hi,
I couldn't wait to get out of the hospital because i didn't have to have a roommate anymore!. I was in ICU with no roommate then i was in "step-down" which is 4 beds in one room..then i finally went to a regular room with one other person. Unfortunately i couldn't have a private room because my insurance wouldn't cover it and there wasn't any space left on the cardiac floor i was on (boy did i asked!!). In the hospital that i was in (Columbia-Pysberterian) it costs an extra $200 a night for a private room! YIKES!
I got to pick the food most of the time I was there. But each time i switched rooms ...it would get messed up. I actually couldn't eat for the first 4 or five days anyway.

I hope your surgery goes well.

 

[Rich]

I went to the top rated hospital in Michigan but the food was and I think still is TERRIBLE!
They kept after me constantly to eat but I had no appetite.
My wife came in and said I had to eat something so I told her if she could eat that stuff then I would too. Well she nearly gagged on it and didn't eat it so niether did I.
Get a private room if you can,my roomate was a total jerk.
I didn't get one decent nights sleep with that big baby next to me.
He must have called the nurses every 30 min, 24 hours a day.
Then when I was going home he tells my wife that he guesses he will have to pay for his own TV now.
Jim just a side note for you,the food at Crittendon hospital is really good. I have heard some seniors go there for lunch on a regular basis because it is good and also cheap,they even have their own bakery there.
Just too bad they don't do heart surgery.

 

[JimL]

Thanks, Rich, I'll try to eat there sometime. They don't do catheterizations, either. The last patient I visited there was transfered to St. Joseph in Pontiac for the cath and bypass.

 

[Gail in Ca]

I would recommend calling Dr Craig Miller's office at Stanford Hospital and get his recommendation for a good surgeon in Houston, I bet he does know a good one as he has been at the top of his game for years.
I got my own room the day before surgery only because I came in from ER and it was because of a screw up with the cardiac cath recovery nurses.
But, after surgery I had to share a room ( get the window if possible, it's your only hope). My roomate was a poop and didn't like it when I had more than 2 visitors at a time, and she only had an infection, not recovering from Open heart like me! When able, I got to choose my food and it was brought to me correctly and it tasted so much better that what I was getting.
Gail

 

[terry40]

kevin21

kevin21

I must be one of the few who didn't have a private room, even though I was by myself till the last 2 days.

My family borrowed extra blankets and pillows for me, from the next bed, and of course surrounded my bed with all the extra chairs.

The food wasn't bad, but I wasn't hungry, just thirsty and only for water, all the food was either too salty or too sweet for me. I really had to force myself to eat.

I'm on coumadin, with a mechanical valve, and I'm clumbsy too, I've had a few bruises, 2 bloody noses, and a few nicked fingers that took just a little bit longer to stop bleeding. I've sent for a medic alert bracelet just incase...

I use to wear one years ago when they first put me on cardiac meds.

I was not a canidate for a repair, and they gave me a 10-12 year range for the tissue valve, so for me the mechanical was my best choice, also because I plan on never going through this again!

My prayers are with you,

Terry

 

[Arlyss]

Regarding Your Questions

Regarding Your Questions

Hi Kevin,
I noticed that your problem is listed as aortic stenosis. Have you been told that your aortic valve is bicuspid? If it is, you will want someone who understands that condition well. In Houston, at Baylor, Dr. Joseph Coselli specializes in aortic conditions including bicuspids and Marfans. I would suggest that you contact his office. I know someone with a bicuspid valve who had the aortic valve and part of the aorta replaced by him this past November. If you would like to chat about other options, please feel free to contact me.
It will depend on the type of insurance you have whether or not going out of state makes any difference. It may not be so much going out of state, as going outside of a network of preferred providers, that makes a difference in the amount that is covered.
And I have to say how great a private room is after heart surgery! With my husband's last surgery, it was wonderful. Every room is private there, and it is possible to have a cot at night in the room with your loved one. That is ideal!
Best wishes,
Arlyss

 

[Les]

Kevin,
If there is any way, get a private room. It's hard enough to rest when all the "relatives" of your neighbors show up at the hospital at the same time because to some of them, hospital stays and funerals are the family gathering events of the year and the partying continues well past visiting hours. I had a private room for both my AVR surgeries and even then, the noise next door and especially out in the halls made me appreciate being able to get up and shut the door. Actual happening: After my second surgery, I was just completing one of my evening walking rounds of the halls and always stopped by the room that had soda, ice, etc. to re-fill for the evening. As I stepped out, I was asked by one of the "visitors" to get them a few cans of soda
and deliver them to the room they were at, which was two doors down from mine!
Everyone who has posted here has given you the best reasons for a private room. Best of luck to you!
________________
Les
AVR '93 / '95