Sensitive subject.....

[enkaynj]

I am not a doomsday prepper or a survivalist; my fear was what if I had a mechanical valve, was in a plane crash and ended up on a remote island (like in the movie castaway) ?
I know it sounds silly, but to each his own fear. Surely one of the reasons that made me go with the tissue valve.
Ultimately if you are able to justify your decision, what ever it is, that is the way to go.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I wish we were ten years down the road.

Why? The valves you are getting RIGHT NOW are pyrolytic carbon

So if shtf then you don't need to wait 10 years

Is this material similar to the graphite used in fishing rods?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolytic_carbon

• It is used nonreinforced for missile nose cones, and ablative (boiloff-cooled) rocket motors.
• In fiber form, it is used to reinforce plastics and metals (see Carbon fiber and Graphite-reinforced plastic).
• Pebble bed nuclear reactors use a coating of pyrolytic carbon as a neutron moderator for the individual pebbles.
• Used to coat graphite cuvettes (tubes) in graphite furnace atomic absorption furnaces to decrease heat stress, thus increasing cuvette lifetimes.
• Pyrolytic carbon is used for several applications in electronic thermal management: thermal interface material, heat spreaders (sheets) and heat sinks (fins)
• It is used to fabricate grid structures in some high power vacuum tubes.
• It is used as a monochromator for neutron and x-ray scattering studies.
• Prosthetic heart valves (Medtronic-Hall)
• Radial Head Prosthesis
• It is also used in Automotive industries where a desired amount of friction is required between two components
• Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) is used as the dispersive element in HOPG spectrometers which are used for X-ray spectrometry.

As a prepper I recommend you become information self sufficient too. Simply entering pyrolytic carbon into google reveals much

I always seem to be a day late and a dollar short

well, if you have a mechanical, and you got it recently you probably already have pyrolytic carbon

 

[Superbob]

Personally, I'd leave it in God's hands as to whether these are end times or not, and not sweat the hypothetical "S", and do what's best re the heart valve on the assumption the Earth will continue to spin until some giant asteroid wipes us all out a few thousand years from now.

 

[Gail in Ca]

Thanks, Pellicle, for the info on pyrolytic carbon valves. I looked up my top hat carbomedic valve that I got almost 4 yrs ago, and it is made of that. I was told by my surgeon that my inr could go to 1.8 and I shouldn't be concerned, and also I could keep it in the 2-2.5 range. I assumed it was because my valve was placed inside a hemashield graft, so the stitching was on the outside for hopefully less problems with bacteria and I guess clots? But, maybe it is because of a little of both, the pyrolytic carbon and the valve inside the graft instead of next to it as they had been doing for yrs. I'm happy to read about this. You do learn something every day!

 

[carolinemc]

It does not do one any good to dwell on what if's. There are always possibilites, no mater precaustions you take, thing will happen, if they do happen at all. Just worry about the here and now, the futue will be what it will be. You nor I nor anyone here cannot prevent what a mad person might do with the ultimate red button to blow us all up. We cannot not prevent natrural deasters from occuring. We cannot totally prevent crime, or anything that might hurt us. So just forget all that crazy stuff,( it is not paronia), it is your imagination running wild when being faced with a medical crises. You will be fine, just live to for today, tomorrow will still come. Have fun, enjoy life, and you will live forever better for it. Don't worry, be Happy. Hugs for today.

 

[canon4me]

No imagination running here when faced with a medical crisis. I have been actively preparing for emergencies and taking responsibility for my life and my family members' lives for over a year now. I just prefer to call it prepared rather than running around sticking my head in the sand should some happen beyond our control.

 

[Julian]

It does not do one any good to dwell on what if's. There are always possibilites, no mater precaustions you take, thing will happen, if they do happen at all. Just worry about the here and now, the futue will be what it will be. You nor I nor anyone here cannot prevent what a mad person might do with the ultimate red button to blow us all up. We cannot not prevent natrural deasters from occuring. We cannot totally prevent crime, or anything that might hurt us. So just forget all that crazy stuff,( it is not paronia), it is your imagination running wild when being faced with a medical crises. You will be fine, just live to for today, tomorrow will still come. Have fun, enjoy life, and you will live forever better for it. Don't worry, be Happy. Hugs for today.

I hear what your sayin but they will have to pull my warfarin from my cold bloody hands!... Get it???!!! Warfarin... Bloody... Lol!!!

 

[Julian]

How do you delete double posts???

 

[Ovie]

I thought i was the only one who pondered this and am so glad somebody brought it up, I too worry about access to Coumadin if something was to go terribly wrong and all hell broke loose, what I'd do. Would that be the end of me? I'm going to ask about prescriptions that last me longer then a month, I also wonder about INR reading as I don't have a machine and really wouldn't know how to dose myself. Thanks for bringing this topic up! I like reading everyone's comments and opinions.

 

[Madsometimes]

I think that all of us sometimes consider what would happen if we couldn't access our meds. My husband has a supply of tinned food in the house, and has bought a small oil powered generator (although I'm not sure that he has ever actually tested that it works ).

Maybe if society did break down, then I may not be able to get hold of warfarin. I tend to get about a months supply in one go. I take 10 mg a day, so my supply would last most people two months. It is very unlikely that society will break down, but it certainly is possible. Here in the UK, we had riots in summer 2011, and for a few days our cities were out of control. However, in the clean up operation that followed, there were plenty of young working class people that dug in and helped their communities rebuild, so I think we should think the best of people as much as we can.

I also worry about the solar flare thing, because I am 100% paced after surgery. However, I have been assured that even an X-class flare should not cause any problems. Frankly, there's nothing I can do about it anyway...

There may be some European centres that do not recommend anticoagulation, but it's certainly not standard. If anything, the hospital I had surgery at is a bit ott on ACT. I was asked to maintain my INR at 3-4 after AVR. My haematologist overturned that so my range now is 2.5-3.5.