Meeting With Surgeon Monday Nov 30

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
OldGeezerWNC

OldGeezerWNC

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
55
Location
Willets-Ochre Hill NC, USA
I've never posted before, but have walked around in here getting good info from ya'll. Not a newbie to heart stuff. Had a quint bypass 5 years and I guess you can say I was on the ruff side of the bell curve. But I keep plodding away. My Cardiologist is Dr. Micheal Unks with Asheville Cardiology. Good guy, puts up with me. I'm a typical old master machinist. Grumpy but a good ole bear. This coming Monday we meet with Dr Oliver Binns, he'll be doing my A and M valve replacements. He did my bypass so I trust him. Dr. Unks's P.A. talked with me last Friday and prepped me a little. They will prob put me in for the cath on Tuesday. I talked with the nurse last week and she said something that hit me just yesterday. I hope I'm confused. But I think she said "Dual Caths." Has anybody heard of that before? I've had 4 of them in the past 5 years. I don't like em. My wife had to correct me, because she just couldn't take it anymore. I told people I didn't like the "fembots at all after the caths." She finally explained that they were "fem stops." I'm just yakking away because I'm nervous. I spent 22 days in CICU the last time. I have gotten weak due to the stenosis, but I'm looking forward to being able to walk around and get ready for my garden come spring. Well this is enuff for now Thanks for letting me yak Rick

Saturday afternoon 3:40pm Eastern
I'm learning I think, I added a thanks at the bottom of the other write backs, but I'll say it right here too. The good words and help have taken a lot of the stress off. That's always a good thing. I'm looking at getting back to the garden come spring time and I wanna be able to out run the worms. Rick

Updating Mondays Meeting with Surgeon:

Went pretty good, found out alot. It will be a tissue valve.... and Doc says looks like 3 bypass along with it. I'll be Checking into Mission Mem. Dec 15 for the dual caths and then surgery on the 16th. ahhhhhhh 2 more weeks to go. Hmmmm Tissue valve, since I'm Presbyterian I guess they will have to use a hamster valve. Thanks for all the good words folks. Rick
 
Last edited:
Hi welcome, You HAVE been thru alot. Dual caths, that MIGHT be right and left side. I don't know if your docs do it, but since you don't like caths, have you asked to be knocked out?
 
What they most likely meant is that they'll do both a left-heart and right-heart cath.

To you, it seems like just one, somewhat longer procedure. Generally, he goes in to look at the left heart through the femoral artery, then backs up and goes in through the femoral vein to look at the right side of the heart. They can dial your meds up to where you're not even aware, if you ask them to.

Either side can also be done through other blood vessels, but these are the most common entry points.

Best wishes,
 
Hi Rick. Welcome to the site. I enjoyed your "yak." :)

I don't know if this might be helpful to you or not but at least occasionally after one bad valve is replaced, the other one works better. My doctors thought I might need both the A and M replaced or worked on (aortic and mitral) but after they replaced the genetically malformed and deteriorating aortic valve, they did a TEE test while I was still under and found that the mitral valve didn't need anything done to it afterall. I was young but maybe it could go that way for you also.

Valve surgery may be a walk in the park after quintuple bypass. I've heard over and over again that the incision through the leg can be the worst part of that experience.

Hoping all goes well :) .
 
Hi Rick. Happy you 'yakked' with us. Please come and yak anytime you feel like it.

I had two OHS in four years and truly found the second much easier on me than the first. I was up and walking within 12 hours after my surgery. I wasn't in CICU a full day the second time around and that was Great!

I hope you have an easy time of it this time around and can be planning your garden for spring. Every reason to think that can and will happen.

Sending best wishes.
 
I had a heart attack towards the end of 2004 and the blockage was stented. This stent blocked up 18 months later and it was quite a procedure to get it open again, they needed to measure pressure across the stent, so they used both my right femoral artery and vein to get all the wires in...I've had 5 caths and that one was by far the most unpleasant because it lasted all of 50 minutes! I begged for more valium (I usually ask for 5mg) but instead one of the pretty technicians came to sit at my head for a chat and gave me a jelly baby to chew on... these procedures have their up-side!

Welcome to the site Rick. During my AVR the surgeon also did one bypass and all worked out just fine, as I am sure it will be for you. See if you can get a jelly baby on the house in the cath lab...
 
Welcome to the site and good luck with your dr appt on Monday. I think it's great that you already know the surgeon and are comfortable with him. That in itself can take away a lot of anxiety.
 
[B]Greetings, Rick[/B]

Greetings, Rick

Greetings, Rick, my last Cath experience was both right & left which one of the team members referred to as "dual". Hopefully, you will find that there have been improvements in the process and it will be less troublesome than what you experienced in the past. After my Cath last August, I only had to lay down for 2 hours before being released to go home. The new stuff they use to plug the holes works really well. At any rate, welcome to our community. We speak your language.

Larry
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top