bw00
Active member
Hi everyone,
I have a little update! I posted before, but a small summery: I am an eighteen year old girl from the Netherlands and I need a new valve. My surgery is planned for April the 15th or 16th, I’m not sure. I just got my wisdom teeth taken out and had surgery on my foot to make sure that I won’t have any infections going on during the surgery.
First I decided I was going to have a mechanical valve put in, because the thought of reoperations did not sound nice, and my surgeon thought that on me the biological valve would only last around 5 to 10 years. Last week I got a call from the hospital that they looked at my scans etc. again and they wanted to speak to me again. I went there today and now I will have to have a different surgery.
It turns out that my aorta is very small, so they will not be able to fit a 21 mm, or 23 mm valve in. They think a 19 mm one is too small to work properly. I now have 2 options:
1. They will put a mechanical valve in, but they will also replace part of my aorta. They call this the Bentall procedure I believe. The downside is that there will still be quite a lot of tissue growth around the valve, so it will probably not last longer then around 25 years. And of course the blood thinners. Another downside is that because my aorta is so small, I will still not have a well functioning heart. When you put a mechanical or tissue valve in, the aorta will get even smaller. There will still be a problem with my valve, the story in Dutch was already so complicated in English it is impossible haha.
2. A Wrapped Ross procedure. When you put in a mechanical or biological valve, your aorta gets smaller. With the ross procedure they will put in a human donor valve and they will not have that problem. If I choose they Ross surgery I will have a better functioning heart then I had ever had before and I don’t have to take blood thinners. The surgeon that performs this is very experienced in this surgery and gets flown around Europe to perform this on others. The downside is that the surgery takes longer and is more risky. Also the valves need to be replaced on the long run as well, and you don’t know when.
Just thought I would give you an update, the forum is a huge help to me! What do you think is the best option? Oh and something completely different. 6 weeks after the surgery there is a large festival in the Netherlands, I bought tickets, but do you think it is realistic to go there? Hope this is in the good thread, and apologies for any spelling mistakes!
Berit
I have a little update! I posted before, but a small summery: I am an eighteen year old girl from the Netherlands and I need a new valve. My surgery is planned for April the 15th or 16th, I’m not sure. I just got my wisdom teeth taken out and had surgery on my foot to make sure that I won’t have any infections going on during the surgery.
First I decided I was going to have a mechanical valve put in, because the thought of reoperations did not sound nice, and my surgeon thought that on me the biological valve would only last around 5 to 10 years. Last week I got a call from the hospital that they looked at my scans etc. again and they wanted to speak to me again. I went there today and now I will have to have a different surgery.
It turns out that my aorta is very small, so they will not be able to fit a 21 mm, or 23 mm valve in. They think a 19 mm one is too small to work properly. I now have 2 options:
1. They will put a mechanical valve in, but they will also replace part of my aorta. They call this the Bentall procedure I believe. The downside is that there will still be quite a lot of tissue growth around the valve, so it will probably not last longer then around 25 years. And of course the blood thinners. Another downside is that because my aorta is so small, I will still not have a well functioning heart. When you put a mechanical or tissue valve in, the aorta will get even smaller. There will still be a problem with my valve, the story in Dutch was already so complicated in English it is impossible haha.
2. A Wrapped Ross procedure. When you put in a mechanical or biological valve, your aorta gets smaller. With the ross procedure they will put in a human donor valve and they will not have that problem. If I choose they Ross surgery I will have a better functioning heart then I had ever had before and I don’t have to take blood thinners. The surgeon that performs this is very experienced in this surgery and gets flown around Europe to perform this on others. The downside is that the surgery takes longer and is more risky. Also the valves need to be replaced on the long run as well, and you don’t know when.
Just thought I would give you an update, the forum is a huge help to me! What do you think is the best option? Oh and something completely different. 6 weeks after the surgery there is a large festival in the Netherlands, I bought tickets, but do you think it is realistic to go there? Hope this is in the good thread, and apologies for any spelling mistakes!
Berit