Joe and his surgeon are engaged, wedding to be announced

[Nancy]

Joe has a go ahead on his third valve surgery to correct a leaking mitral valve (mechanical) and also a "look-see" and possible repair for his own leaking tricuspid valve.

For those of you who don't know his history, he had rheumatic fever as a teen, just before they came out with penicillin, consequently he spent a year in the hospital on sulpha drugs. He's 70 years old now, has an aortic valve replacement of 24 years, a mitral valve replacement of 2 years and a pacemaker.

We expect to have a surgery date in the next couple of days.

He's been battling CHF and is very symptomatic. Needless to say, we're very relieved.

Nancy

 

[Nancy]

Janie- Re:Joe's valve

Janie- Re:Joe's valve

Hi Janie-

Joe has a St. Jude valve, but not a silzone valve. His surgeon said he has never even seen one.

Don't know the reason for the leak. Joe has a lot of damage in his valves, he also contracted a very bad virus a little while after his mitral valve surgery, something like a flu, but the worst I've ever seen. Soon after that he had to have lung surgery for a "trapped" lung which was caused by scar tissue. So there are sufficient culprits to put the blame on. We know that rheumatic fever never leaves the body. Who knows, maybe the "flu" stuff kicked it up again. I'll be interested to hear what the surgeon has to say after he has a look around.

The surgery will be minimally invasive, through the ribs.

Joe is indeed a "toughy". He's not even nervous. Just says "cut away".

In 5 years he's had 3 major surgeries (2 lung surgeries, one for a benign tumor, and the other for the trapped lung, plus the mitral valve surgery). He's also had 3 minor surgeries.

I think this will be quite enough for awhile. LOL Some people think we work at the hospital. They think Joe's a doctor and I'm a nurse, we're there so much. The cafeteria wanted to give me a discount.

Nancy

 

[Tammy]

Good Morning Nancy - I'm glad to hear Joe is keeping upbeat about his upcoming surgery. He has been through a lot and you too of course. Are they going to replace the mechanical valve? I have never heard of repairing a mechanical valve. I also had Rheumatic Fever as a child and had my Mitral replaced. They are keeping an eye on my aortic also. They say usually with Rheumatic Heart Disease, it is the Mitral that gets damaged. It is interesting that it was his Aortic that had the first problems.
Good Luck and keep us posted when you find out a date.
Tammy

 

[Nancy]

Hi Tammy

Hi Tammy

The surgeon will probably replace the mitral valve. He said that he could surgically tighten it up without replacing, but might as well replace it because the risk to Joe would be the same either way.

Nancy

 

[Gillian (in UK)]

Nancy

Nancy

Nancy - I think you should take the discount in the cafetaria - you deserve it.

Good luck and sending best wishes to you both.