Most likely going with a mechanical .

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I have doubts about the future. In these days when they've stopped teaching about government in the public schools -- so people no longer understand the three branches of US Government and some seem to buy into the fact that the Legislative branch is a rubber stamp for the Executive, we've got real problems.

When they no longer teach the basics of math (or, perhaps they try, but it's much easier to pull out a phone and do the math than it is to actually THINK), and when you go to a store and the clerk has to pull out a phone to figure how much change is due, or what two of an item should cost.

When people no longer have to write - instead, they use some crazy shortcuts to reduce the number of characters in a tweet or message --- we have a problem.

Where, in the past, education was sometimes used to actually TEACH important things, much of this seems to be gone.

In the future, there will be two top tiers - the handful of programmers and engineers who don't lose teir jobs to artificial intelligence (and the people who make the computer hardware and software that runs it), and the hands-on people who do what we used to call 'trades.' It'll be people who can unclog your toilets, fix your electricity, actually BUILD and REPAIR things.

The rest of us will probably be relegated a bit lower, with robotics and AI taking over tasks that we formerly did; with farming resources mechanized and challenged by the ravages of global warming; with little value given to writers and thinkers (or some value given to a small handful to drift to the top).

I doubt that the next 50 - or even 20 or 30 will be better for most of us.

Medical research will continue; medical advancements will continue; perhaps our lives will be extended so we can enjoy life on an increasingly declining planet, with a majority of stupid (undereducated) people in the majority.
Sorry but your comments were a bit funny. I had a cousin who thought computers were on the way out, in 1986. He was totally wrong. It is nice to talk what is not really happening right now, just imagining what the future could be. I remember back in the 1970's there was a newspaper article about the 1990's, with the robots cleaning the home and all the houses were in the sky. Almost like the Jetsons. Imagination. Gotta love it.
 
Sorry but your comments were a bit funny. I had a cousin who thought computers were on the way out, in 1986. He was totally wrong. It is nice to talk what is not really happening right now, just imagining what the future could be. I remember back in the 1970's there was a newspaper article about the 1990's, with the robots cleaning the home and all the houses were in the sky. Almost like the Jetsons. Imagination. Gotta love it.
Yes. Some of these statements may have seemed funny - but true.

I'm a technology journalist. I look at the way things are developing.

I was told that car ownership will be ending - that people will eventually get a car for trips when they need them (a rental model? Uber?) - but the time for this is probably still rather far away. (Of course, for areas where there is NO parking, the cost of maintenance, parking, fuel, insurance, and other costs may make such a model viable. If you want to travel a significant distance, you can rent a car.

My comments about fragmentation of roles, social positions, and other changes are, I think, valid. And my concerns about the lack of education; the lack of understanding of the fundamentals behind Government, Math, and English (and probably other languages in other countries), and the rise of the trades to fill an ever widening gap seem, to me, to be 'spot on.'

I hope I haven't taken this thread too far off base.
 
Just got this email from foldax apparently they do have clinical trials going on in my area . Now I have to make a decision and see if I want to change at the last minute and contact them. Have sent information to to my cardiologist about this possibility.
 

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Buckeye.. I reside in Cincinnati and just had a redo on my aortic and mittral valve performed at UC Health. I am not familiar with the Tria Valve.. Will research
 
They have already transplanted it in a man from Michigan in July from what I’ve read on the site. If that’s the case how much longer before mainstream. I’m not familiar with the time frame of early feasibility to clinical trials to fda approval.
Buckeye, I am in a clinical trial for a new type of tissue valve. It had been going for two years when I had my surgery four years ago and will run at least two more years until the last person entered into the study has been in it for five years. That’s 8 years just for the study trials to give you an idea of how long it might take to go from feasibility to mainstream.
 
Buckeye, I am in a clinical trial for a new type of tissue valve. It had been going for two years when I had my surgery four years ago and will run at least two more years until the last person entered into the study has been in it for five years. That’s 8 years just for the study trials to give you an idea of how long it might take to go from feasibility to mainstream.

Thanks, my cardiologist has not gotten back to me yet. To be honest I don’t think I will be able to do the new valve. I see my cardiac surgeon on Wednesday and I we’ll probably go with the on x valve. I am pushing the 1 to 2 months timeline he gave me and I don’t want to Damage my heart by jumping through hoops with the clinical study. I will trust in my doctors to make the right decision for me. On a side note how often do you have to get checked up on in the clinical study ? I work third shift and it would not be easy for me to adhere to the clinical testing.
 
Thanks, my cardiologist has not gotten back to me yet. To be honest I don’t think I will be able to do the new valve. I see my cardiac surgeon on Wednesday and I we’ll probably go with the on x valve. I am pushing the 1 to 2 months timeline he gave me and I don’t want to Damage my heart by jumping through hoops with the clinical study. I will trust in my doctors to make the right decision for me. On a side note how often do you have to get checked up on in the clinical study ? I work third shift and it would not be easy for me to adhere to the clinical testing.
I went at six months, one year, and annually since then. Each visit takes no more than a few hours. I get an RKG, echo, and blood work through the surgeon’s office and it’s paid for by the study. I see my cardio separately at my expense.
 
Well just got back from the surgeons office today and I will be having my surgery on January 23. Unfortunately I have a small artery that is 70% blocked and I will need bypass surgery along with my aortic valve. We have decided on the ON X mechanical valve for me. I am a little freaked out right now knowing I have a coronary artery that is 70 % blocked along with the valve. My anxiety and stress level is through the roof. Any words of advice or what to expect to help me calm down would be welcome. Again thank you for all of your advice and help during this very stressful time in my life.
 
. I am a little freaked out right now knowing I have a coronary artery that is 70 % blocked along with the valve.
well the other way to look at it is that it was blocked for months probably years before and didn't cause an issue. So now that you know its there and know its going to be fixed you should be able to breathe easy right?

Advice:
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best of British for the surgery mate
 
Well just got back from the surgeons office today and I will be having my surgery on January 23. Unfortunately I have a small artery that is 70% blocked and I will need bypass surgery along with my aortic valve. We have decided on the ON X mechanical valve for me. I am a little freaked out right now knowing I have a coronary artery that is 70 % blocked along with the valve. My anxiety and stress level is through the roof. Any words of advice or what to expect to help me calm down would be welcome. Again thank you for all of your advice and help during this very stressful time in my life.

So sorry to hear you are having some anxiety and stress about this, however it's hard not to! Thankfully, the doctors do these preoperative exams and imaging for exactly this reason--to find anything that should need fixing so they can do it all at once. Heart surgery is so common these days. While it's hard to stay calm, rest assured your type of surgery is done all the time. You get some awesome drugs, fall asleep, and wake up good as new. Modern medicine is incredible! We are all here for you to vent to or answer your questions or commiserate...whatever you need really. You are going to do just fine because you have done your research and are well informed and seem to have a good medical team behind you--the remedy for success. Best of luck, January 23rd is going to be a good day!
 
LoveMyBraveheart said 'Modern medicine is incredible!' I don't disagree with her.
I think this statement can easily have been made any time during the last century or so.

In another decade or two, when we rhapsodize about the state of modern medicine, it may refer to transcatheter valve repair or replacement; medications that replace warfarin and no longer make testing necessary (but probably cost as much, over a few years, as a new car), perhaps a robotic surgery that is minimally invasive and can perform cardiac bypasses or other procedures without cracking the sternum, a new drug for ED, a cream or pill that will help grow hair on bald men or balding humans, many new medications for problems that nobody knew they had, improved diagnostic devices, computer assisted diagnostics and surgery worldwide (with Internet access becoming ubiquitous and G5 being available everywhere), improved Artificial Intelligence that can scan X-Rays and other diagnostic images to determine more accurately than the human eye when conditions develop before a human can find them, and other advances that we may not imagine, or think much about today, detection of genetic markers for many other 'diseases' and, perhaps, gene modifications that can reverse the disease processes. We still won't see much development in regards to 'orphan' ailments - or what the medical community considers to be too rare or unsexy to devote real effort to solve.

I don't think that I'll be here to see any of it. Avoiding healthcare to detect and deal with some possibly terrible issues because I couldn't afford the deductibles will probably do me in long before that next decade rolls around.

Yes, modern medicine is very credible. If funding and research continue, we may see many of my speculations on future medicine coming to pass.

This is assuming, of course, that we still have a planet that is inhabitable.

I'll put my crystal ball back on the shelf.
 
Well just got back from the surgeons office today and I will be having my surgery on January 23. Unfortunately I have a small artery that is 70% blocked and I will need bypass surgery along with my aortic valve. We have decided on the ON X mechanical valve for me. I am a little freaked out right now knowing I have a coronary artery that is 70 % blocked along with the valve. My anxiety and stress level is through the roof. Any words of advice or what to expect to help me calm down would be welcome. Again thank you for all of your advice and help during this very stressful time in my life.

You are a really lucky guy. They caught it early and the additional bypass will be a piece of cake during an AVR. Nothing will happen between now and 1/23/202, all systems go. Take that to heart to help your anxiety. Functionally the only thing that's changed is your operation will be a little longer but your life will be a lot longer.
 
Well just got back from the surgeons office today and I will be having my surgery on January 23. Unfortunately I have a small artery that is 70% blocked and I will need bypass surgery along with my aortic valve. We have decided on the ON X mechanical valve for me. I am a little freaked out right now knowing I have a coronary artery that is 70 % blocked along with the valve. My anxiety and stress level is through the roof. Any words of advice or what to expect to help me calm down would be welcome. Again thank you for all of your advice and help during this very stressful time in my life.
I had a 70% blockage in one of mine. The only problem I had afterward was swelling in the calf from which the vein was taken for the bypass.
one of the things I did to psyche myself before surgery was to tell myself repeatedly that many people would trade places with me in a heartbeat. I remember one news story in particular from that time. A 12-year-old girl drowned while on a school field trip to Galveston. Those parents would have been ecstatic if they were prepping their daughter for heart surgery instead of burying her. My condition was fixable and the odds were in my favor.
 
I may be wrong as I know surgeons interact differently with patients, but I didn’t really get to “choose” what kind of mech valve I received. I definitely asked about it and my surgeon said he used both St Judes and ATS, he said depending on what fit better would determine what he used during surgery. I ended up receiving an ATS which was fine, but were any of you able to select from a variety of different mech valve brands?
 
The only choice I was given was mechanical or tissue, 28 years ago, and I was encouraged to go mechanical. I had aleady decided this before I saw my surgeon. I'm not sure if there were many choices for mechanicals at that time.

I suspect that, at surgery, with your chest open, a skilled surgeon would be best able to decide WHICH mechanical valve would be best for your anatomy. I doubt that, for a patient to select from one make or model or another, would be the best way of getting the best valve for that patient.
 
I doubt that, for a patient to select from one make or model or another, would be the best way of getting the best valve for that patient.
For most people my discussions with doctors suggests they just want it made better and don't want to know details (probably can't grasp them) and want to go back to how it was before they knew.
 
I suspect that, at surgery, with your chest open, a skilled surgeon would be best able to decide WHICH mechanical valve would be best for your anatomy. I doubt that, for a patient to select from one make or model or another, would be the best way of getting the best valve for that patient.

The doctor has no idea, a heart valve is just a one-way check valve and it would mostly be determined by who/whom the buyer from the hospital has negotiated a contract with valve manufacture X to stock valve X. Doctors are very good at physiology, but in general, know little about the specifics and details about heart valves.
 
Well just got back from the surgeons office today and I will be having my surgery on January 23. Unfortunately I have a small artery that is 70% blocked and I will need bypass surgery along with my aortic valve. We have decided on the ON X mechanical valve for me. I am a little freaked out right now knowing I have a coronary artery that is 70 % blocked along with the valve. My anxiety and stress level is through the roof. Any words of advice or what to expect to help me calm down would be welcome. Again thank you for all of your advice and help during this very stressful time in my life.

They bypassed an artery when they did my valve too - wasn't mentioned at all before, and they said not seriously blocked but "might as well do it whilst we are in there, to save opening you up again".

Just think of the discount on surgery bills!

Top post surgery tip: avoid watching classic British comedies - laughing hard hurts until your sternum has knitted back together .... well, that's what I learnt, anyway!
 

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