Anyone else had emergency surgery for their BAV?

[elirn]

I was just curious who else on the forum had emergency surgery for their BAV. I had my first surgery when I dissected my ascending aorta after being body checked playing hockey. As a result, I had a AVR and my ascending aorta replaced.

It's disappointing because I was never sick or limited by my heart and now I have had to have two OHS in 4 months.

All the best.

 

[river-wear]

Why did you have a second surgery in such a short time? Did they have to do something temporary before going in for a more permanent fix?

I hate to sound like a cliche, but you survived a dissected aorta - that's amazing and definitely not disappointing. If you didn't even know about your heart issue (assuming you had an aneurysm), you were pretty lucky to find out before it was too late.

I had a "boring" surgery planned way in advance, and also never had any symptoms even though my valve was leaking worse than doctors thought. However, I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed too, because some people say that once they were "fixed" they felt so much better and didn't realize they were having symptoms after all. Maybe I just need to be more patient, but at almost 3 months post-op I feel the same as before. (Which is certainly better than feeling worse, but still...)

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi Elim,

Would your bicuspid aortic valve have been replaced as an emergency if your aorta had not been dissected during the hockey accident ?

I didn't have emergency surgery to replace my bicuspid aortic valve BUT I was completely asymptomatic. Pre-surgery (eight months ago) I was a great deal fitter than I am now with a lot of stamina and endurance - now I even get out of breath climbing stairs which I never did before. I'm led to believe that apparently it just takes time to recover from this type of surgery (doubtless if a person has symptoms prior to surgery they may feel a whole lot better afterwards due to the relief of symptoms). I know the rationale for it all but I agree it is very disappointing. Plus I think if a person, such as yourself, has an emergency surgery, there is no time to prepare for it so it must be more traumatic.

 

[elirn]

@Paleogirl:

I wouldn't have needed surgery if I hadn't injured my aorta. The tear in my aorta dilated to the point that my valve was no longer effective and I had a nice pericardial tamponade. I know exactly when the injury happened and I continued to play hockey for an hour. Then I stayed home for 16 hours before going to the hospital and having surgery. (My wife was NOT pleased with me). I was also misdiagnosed in the emergency room because my vitals were still normal after delaying treatment for almost a day. Further, I received muscle relaxants, blood thinners and nitro because the doctor was convinced it couldn't be an aneurysm.

I am just curious how many others had a traumatic injury requiring surgery. My surgeon said most people do not survive the injury and are sudden cardiac deaths. I was counselled after being diagnosed with my BAV that I should live a normal active life. But I have since been told that those with BAV can have injuries from blunt force chest trauma (car accidents, firing a gun, sports, etc).

I was very sick after surgery and was transfused over 40 units of blood products and required a second surgery to repair a leak from my left coronary artery button (attachment to the prosthetic aorta). I am still weak and pray that I will make a full recovery the surgeon keeps saying will happen. I am about 5 weeks post-op from my second surgery now.