P
PeggyM
This has been a week filled with ups and downs. I learned things about my second heart surgery 11 years ago that I didn?t know. Apparently they did a Konnos procedure to expand my aorta and put in the bigger valve, a 25 by the way, which stunned by current surgeon. I also learned they added donor pulmonary tissue to the graft. All this time and I didn?t even know.
Because the grafts are right on the other side of my chest wall, the chief surgeon at Kaiser said it would be too risky to do the traditional surgery to replace my mitral valve. That it could cut into my heart and the results could be catastrophic. So he turned me over to the one guy there who specialized in Port Access and I?m having that Oct, 10th.
I absolutely love my surgeon, he laughed with me and my sister and at me, he ?gets? me, he amazes me and I amaze him. He explained everything to us so that now we understand and said it was going to be pretty easy for him. He showed us all the films and videos of my heart in action on his computer and how the blood is flowing up to my atrium but not back down. It?s also caused my atrium to enlarge. He showed us where my heart created it?s own bypasses from my right coronary artery so I don?t need to get a bypass. I?ve gone from feeling death creep up on me to feeling like I?m going to breeze through this thing. So now I?m happy and at peace.
When it came time to discuss valve choices I stood up and held the brochures I got from On-X and did the Vanna White thing, moving my hand and arm back and forth. LOL. He said, ?Wow, you really have done your homework!? And then he said, ?That?s my valve of choice?. Huge relief. This is absolutely the best choice for me because another thing we read in the report from the second surgery was that I had pannis on that valve!!!
I?m on my way to living again!!!! So excited!
Because the grafts are right on the other side of my chest wall, the chief surgeon at Kaiser said it would be too risky to do the traditional surgery to replace my mitral valve. That it could cut into my heart and the results could be catastrophic. So he turned me over to the one guy there who specialized in Port Access and I?m having that Oct, 10th.
I absolutely love my surgeon, he laughed with me and my sister and at me, he ?gets? me, he amazes me and I amaze him. He explained everything to us so that now we understand and said it was going to be pretty easy for him. He showed us all the films and videos of my heart in action on his computer and how the blood is flowing up to my atrium but not back down. It?s also caused my atrium to enlarge. He showed us where my heart created it?s own bypasses from my right coronary artery so I don?t need to get a bypass. I?ve gone from feeling death creep up on me to feeling like I?m going to breeze through this thing. So now I?m happy and at peace.
When it came time to discuss valve choices I stood up and held the brochures I got from On-X and did the Vanna White thing, moving my hand and arm back and forth. LOL. He said, ?Wow, you really have done your homework!? And then he said, ?That?s my valve of choice?. Huge relief. This is absolutely the best choice for me because another thing we read in the report from the second surgery was that I had pannis on that valve!!!
I?m on my way to living again!!!! So excited!
