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I enjoyed your videos-great idea.
Good luck with your surgery and your recovery. Sounds like you are ready. Keep us posted.
I know you are going tissue, but just as an FYI-- The On-X valve is manufactured in Austin, TX.
 
I hate to be a pain about this, but have you considerred going to your Moms sooner than 3 weeks so you might be a little more comfortable while you're recovering?
 
I have to stay in San Antonio until the doctor says I can go on convalescense leave. The welcome letter they sent me said I would be in the hospital for no longer than a week and I would have to stay in San Antonio for up to two weeks (granted everything goes smoothly). If he says I'm good to go before the three weeks, then I would be more than happy to go home sooner. :)

yesterday's vlog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64WN3__A2UA
 
AiT4Life said:
I have to stay in San Antonio until the doctor says I can go on convalescense leave. The welcome letter they sent me said I would be in the hospital for no longer than a week and I would have to stay in San Antonio for up to two weeks (granted everything goes smoothly). If he says I'm good to go before the three weeks, then I would be more than happy to go home sooner. :)

yesterday's vlog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64WN3__A2UA
Click to expand...

Hopefully they will let you leave sooner. You'll proably feel alot better when you have comfortble furniture to sit in, or lay around etc. But I'm sure you'll make the best of it.
 
Howdy and welcome.
Your room is very tidy, good stuff. Can you swap the hard wood chair for a nice reclining LazyBoy type ?
Many of us have slept in recliners for a few weeks cuz laying on a flat bed is NOT FUN.
I also had a super nice neighbour bring me dinner meals daily for several weeks, bless her soul.
 
Bina said:
Howdy and welcome.
Your room is very tidy, good stuff. Can you swap the hard wood chair for a nice reclining LazyBoy type ?
Many of us have slept in recliners for a few weeks cuz laying on a flat bed is NOT FUN.
Click to expand...

I probably won't spend any time in that room while I am healing. There is a recliner at home where I plan on taking my con-leave. :)

Sunday's vlog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6My-2Dafbyk
 
AiT4Life said:
I probably won't spend any time in that room while I am healing. There is a recliner at home where I plan on taking my con-leave. :)

Sunday's vlog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6My-2Dafbyk
Click to expand...

I'm so glad to hear that. I was thinking that's were you would be staying after you leave the hospital and I didn't think it would be a comfortable place to recovery from heart surgery.
 
I read that the first generation tissue valves were used during the late 1970's through the early 1980's. I couldn't find much on the second generation and they're using third generation tissue valves today. I am trying to be optimistic here - I want to think I'll get at least 15 years out of the Medtronic Freestyle. If I remember correctly, my surgeon said the valve could last 20-25 years (with a lot of emphasis on the word "could"). How long have the third generation tissue valves been "on the track?"

Where can I find information that isn't "dated?" The most recent information I read about third generation tissue valves was from 2008. Is this old enough to be considered "dated?"

monday's vlog
http://youtu.be/QdB6FiokcJU
 
AiT4Life said:
I read that the first generation tissue valves were used during the late 1970's through the early 1980's. I couldn't find much on the second generation and they're using third generation tissue valves today. I am trying to be optimistic here - I want to think I'll get at least 15 years out of the Medtronic Freestyle. If I remember correctly, my surgeon said the valve could last 20-25 years (with a lot of emphasis on the word "could"). How long have the third generation tissue valves been "on the track?"

Where can I find information that isn't "dated?" The most recent information I read about third generation tissue valves was from 2008. Is this old enough to be considered "dated?"

monday's vlog
http://youtu.be/QdB6FiokcJU
Click to expand...

I think 2008 would be considerred current as far as studies go..also watch the dates at the bottom from any studies they might have used.

I usually find most studies at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ to read about a specific valve, you would search that by name and any studies done an it should come up.

As for how long a tissue valve would/could last in someone as young as you, I would hope for 10-15 not 20-25 but noone knows for the newer valves, but they last shorter in people in their 20s than 40s

Are you getting a tissue valve to hopefully stay in the service?
 
Lynlw said:
I think 2008 would be considerred current as far as studies go..also watch the dates at the bottom from any studies they might have used.

I usually find most studies at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ to read about a specific valve, you would search that by name and any studies done an it should come up.

As for how long a tissue valve would/could last in someone as young as you, I would hope for 10-15 not 20-25 but noone knows for the newer valves, but they last shorter in people in their 20s than 40s

Are you getting a tissue valve to hopefully stay in the service?
Click to expand...

That's the website I was at when I read the information from 2008! :) I did not know about the search bar though. Just pulled up another window for that.

10-15 years from now... 31-36 years old.. At that point, I don't think I'd mind a mechanical valve.

Yes! That was one of the bigger factors in choosing the tissue valve. My chances of staying in the military would have been 50/50 if I had to take coumadin (probably even less with my career field). With the tissue vavle, my chances of staying in the military and in my career field are significantly higher.
 
AiT4Life, the problem is that the info is always "dated", and never complete or totally relevant! The only convincing "proof" that a valve lasts (say) 20 years in 60-year-olds, is a 20-plus-year track record, carefully documented and published in a good journal -- and some people still question THAT proof! When the "next-gen" valve comes along, they start implanting it. A year later, they might have a little bit of a ONE-year track record, and two years by the next year. By the time they've got a TEN-year record, it might have been replaced by the next generation, and so it goes. You can't demand solid evidence AND be the "first kid on the block" to get the newest and supposedly best model. One or the other, not both.

The good news, as Lyn and I have agreed above, is that a number of very good valves HAVE been in use for 15+ years, or even 20+ and maybe 25, and their results have been tracked carefully and published. Their results are much better than earlier results, though not good enough to backup a claim of 20-25 years for a 20-something, no way, sorry. The newer models might last even longer than the well-established ones, but that's still more "logical expectation" or "hope" rather than "proof".
 
normofthenorth said:
The newer models might last even longer than the well-established ones, but that's still more "logical expectation" or "hope" rather than "proof".
Click to expand...

And that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm hoping this valve lasts at least 15 years. There's a chance this valve might not even last 5 years. I wasn't demanding "solid evidence." Sorry for coming across that way. I just wanted to read something that might support that hope a little. Being "20-something" years old and having to make this decision is not easy.
 
I made it. I have video for all but one day. Just haven't had much time to edit. I'll see what I can get done here in the next few days.
 
Hello from a fellow Okie! I grew up in Tulsa, live north of there now in Sperry. I had my heart surgery at Oklahoma Heart Institute five weeks ago. I really like the doctors there and have gotten good response on my follow-up. Start cardiac rehab there in June. Love the idea of your videos. Wishing you the best on your upcoming surgery and recovery.

Melissa
 
Great to hear that you've made it to the other side of the mountain. I gather you have a Medtronics Freestyle, combined root/valve replacement, as do I. Hope it serves you well. Looking forward to your continued reports.
 
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