The Ross' Journey

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Angela - thanks for your rant on his hospital stay. - Seriously. We tell people all that time that they should have someone with them in the hospital as much as possible - and your description of how you kept watch is a perfect example! So you are already helping others.

And you area already taking the bull by the horns by ignoring their instructions and doing 8 every day. I'll be curious to see what his INR is on Tuesday. I hope this new clinic is in the know on management.

I really think that the statistics of stroke and bleeds for mechanical valves would be even lower if we had across the board competancy in Coumadin management. When I read or hear stories like yours I stop and wonder just what they're doing to the other people they manage. Who have they allowed to stroke out? I really think they should be required to take proficiency tests in order to manage Coumadin. Sadly - many probably have never done more than learn from the person next to them who's equally incompetant. Al Lodwick's seminars should be a requirement.

Good work - I think you're officially in the running for the Nancy - Warrior Spouse award.
 
Well thank you. I'm a big momma bear when it comes to my family. They are all I have.

I don't think I told this story yet. it's funny now but at the time I thought my whole world was falling apart.

My dad was with the girls. Well Friday, the day after surgery, they told us Ray would move out of ICU. So we decided to have my dad bring the girls down. It's an hour and a half drive from our house. Well when my dad got down there Ray was still in ICU at 3:00 pm. So we begged the nurses to let Ray walk out of ICU to see the girls. They were desperately needing to see that their dad was OK and we weren't just lying to them.

Well in all the hussel my dad just fed them breakfast and they hadn't had lunch and it was 3:00. Well Ray comes walking out with the oxygen in his nose pushing that buggy with that ugly green hospital gown on and Sydney who is a huge daddy's girl, takes one look at him and turns white. Well he is trying to talk to her and assure her he is OK. Well she is reading the card she got him to him and she stops reading. I was stooped beside her and I looked at her and she had this really blank stare. I kept saying Sydney, Sydney, baby what's wrong. Then her eyes dialated and she started to crumble. I picked her up and her eyes were still open. I started crying and freaking out. She was only out a mere seconds. She wakes up and wants to know why I'm crying and then she throws up. She kept saying I'm OK, I'm OK then she went to go down again. So the nurses told us to take her to the ER.

So I rushed her down there, leaving poor Ray not able to do anything. I felt so bad for him. But luckily it was just a combination of not eating and stress. She just had a fainting spell. They did an echo on her, an EKG, tested her sugar even did throat cultures cause her throat looked red, which was just from throwing up. She was fine and driving me insane in the ER within 15 minutes of getting down there.

I told her no more drama! We're at our limit.

I was wondering the same thing about other patients. It really seemed to me like this was their first time or something. Like they were just winging it. I thought hell I can wing it too, I'm PAYING you to know this. WTH!

There is no way I would have let him or anyone else in my family go into the hospital alone. His sister was with us the whole time as well, but she was even looking at me crazy when I was asking about the cholesterol medicine. She was like well if they give it to everyone. I told her that wasn't a good enough answer. My husband isn't everyone. Especially when I come on here and I see people suffering from valve damage BECAUSE of drugs.

Well look at that....don't encourage me to rant! ha ha! But I definitely agree with you, Karlynn. You should take someone with you that can be there the whole time that isn't shy to ask questions (tactfully) about their procedures. Not to mention when you aren't feeling good, or on pain meds you may not be in the right frame of mind to ask questions or even remember stuff that may be important when you get home. Not to mention the moral boost having someone that loves you there to pamper you and keep your spirits up.
 
What a story! Now we know what her hospital bracelet is for. BTW - your daughters are beautiful!

I don't understand giving cholesterol meds to everyone. Why don't they just make them over-the-counter so the whole country can take them?;)

I was raised by parents who thought doctors were gods and we shouldn't question what they tell you. It took me 2 doctors (both well respected in their area) to almost kill me (literally) to get the gumption to start questioning. So rock on sister!!!
 
How awful for you!! I'm so glad they didn't "knock you off" with their well respected practices

Thank you - Ray and I do make cute babies ;) (we're done though....shhh...don't tell him, he still thinks we are going to try for a boy "later")

Ray is adopted, so I wouldn't mind re-paying the favor. But my body is DONE stretching to unusual forms and proportions!
 
Incision picture. This was taken on Saturday (I think, whatever the 25th was!)

It's completely healed up, it's just red. No scab or openness (is that a word?) to it. His drainage holes are looking good too.

He went back to work today. He called earlier and he said he is fine. (Imagine I'm nervous....hmmm, he goes back to work 26 days after surgrey and wonders why I'M mother henning.)

He is working evening hours now vice the midnight shift he was working. So that is good. That makes me feel better knowing he isn't pushing himself to stay awake all night long.
 
I'm not sure if you can post links in here so I will give this a try and if it doesn't work I will just type it out.

This article made me REALLY appreciative that Ray and all of you have the option of benefiting from modern technology. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to deal with our situation if we weren't able to "fix" Ray's heart. I'm so thankful that we had the option.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24859306/
 
Angela,

Glad to hear everything is working out well for your husband.

Back to work in 26 days! Wow! He must be progressing well.

He should be a good candidate for the Plavix/aspirin group.

I just reached my 9th month on the Plavix regimin, and go in for an echo June 12.

So far, for myself, everything seems fine.

The only difference I notice is when the black flies up here bite, the wound takes a bit longer to clot over...
 
Hi Andrew!

Yes, he is doing great. We ran for 22:30 minutes on Monday night. Average pace was 11:34. He was disappointed!!! Crazy man!!!!

Anyways, his INR is 2.4...woot woot!! He is at 5 mg now. We are pretty much self dosing just getting the results from our PCP. I'm tired of fussing with idiots.

Karlynn you were right, he just had to let it get into his system and then we adjusted from there. He got up to 3.0 on 49mg (7 days) so we took him down to 6 and he was at 2.8 so we took him down again and he is now at 5. He'll go again next week and we'll hope that he has maintained the 2.4 or close to it.
 
AngelaR said:
Hi Andrew!

Yes, he is doing great. We ran for 22:30 minutes on Monday night. Average pace was 11:34. He was disappointed!!! Crazy man!!!!

Anyways, his INR is 2.4...woot woot!! He is at 5 mg now. We are pretty much self dosing just getting the results from our PCP. I'm tired of fussing with idiots.

Karlynn you were right, he just had to let it get into his system and then we adjusted from there. He got up to 3.0 on 49mg (7 days) so we took him down to 6 and he was at 2.8 so we took him down again and he is now at 5. He'll go again next week and we'll hope that he has maintained the 2.4 or close to it.
Click to expand...

It's never going to stay at 2.4 and if they expect it too, they don't understand Coumadin. Expect it to go from 1.9 to 3.1. That's the best you'll get it.
 
I expect it to "swing" a bit as he doesn't eat the same thing everyday and his activity level varies day to day. As long as he isn't too high, I'm happy =)

I'm just happy he is finally able to stop taking the lovenox shots, as I am sure you can relate. :D
 
Ray was a bit behind me in his procedure and it sounds like he is going great ! In regards to his INR its gonna bounce around some. I'm at 14 weeks post-op now and my INR has been trending a bit lower every time it gets tested. I was staying in the 2.0 to 3.0 range but dropped to 1.7 on Monday. I was taking 34mg a week and now they bumped me to 38mg a week with 2 extra mgs on Monday and 4 extra mgs on Tuesday to get me back in range. I will go back next week and retest yet again.

Basically what they told me is that as you get stronger and more active and as you heal your body will metabolize the coumadin faster, hence you will need your dosage adjusted upwards. I thought on Monday that my INR would have been up a good bit because I went to a party on Friday night, to a golf outing on Saturday, and BBQ'd on Sunday. I had 5 beers Friday, 4 on Sat, and 4 more on Sunday. So I had more than a 12-pack over the weekend and it didn't seem to phase me. Go figure.
 
Good news! Sounds like you have learned a lot! You're much much farther ahead than I was post surgery.

For some reason people get the impression that there's something wrong if you're having to adjust your Coumadin dose from time to time. Some people are freaks of nature :)D) and are on the same dose for years. But many of us just take it for granted that dosage adjustments are part and parcel of taking Coumadin. It's not a big deal if we test and find we need to increase or decrease our dose - it's why we test! We don't test to know if we need to adjust our eating and activity level to fit our dose. It's the opposite.

Looks like you already know that having to adjust his dosage is a sign that he's just livin' his life.
 
Thanks for all your great advice Karlynn. The only reason we are so far ahead now is because of all of you who went before us and shared your experiences, your lessons learned :D

Just wanted to post that Ray is still doing fantastic. He has some big date planned for us on Saturday. It's a big secret he won't tell me where we are going only that I have to wear a dress.....hmmmmmm.

He did some kettle bell training yesterday with his unit and smoked all the other guys. Which made them all feel like saps as the guy who just had heart surgery is showing them up :p

I'll take some pics this weekend and you can all see this horrible beard he has now. Ick. He keeps shaving his head and his beard is growing longer and longer. I can only imagine how he is going to look all dressed up in a tie on Saturday with a shaved head and mountain man beard :rolleyes:

All is well and we are definitely enjoying being "over the mountain" =)
 
OK, well we found out today that Ray will be in the low dose coumadin side of the study. So he has decided not to do the study. Reasoning for this is driving back and forth to Richmond. We are just going to get a machine from the VA and continue to do our own monitoring and dosage adjustments. He has been steady between 1.9 and 2.1. A spike or drop here and there.

We have it all under control though.

Well he is back to doing just about everything he did prior to the surgery even benching. He isn't as strong as he was but he is still very strong. We are just continuing to train for the 1/2 marathon at the end of August.

This has been a very uneventful run for us. Which I am very appreciative, I know many aren't as lucky.

Hope you are all doing well and I wish you luck.
 
Glad things are going so well for you and best wishes in the marathon.
 
Angela,

I had my valve aortic replaced in 2002. About one month after my 40th B-day. This was after I contracted an infection which attacked my already weakend Bicuspid valve and put me into a coma for 49 days. I know the roller coaster you are on my family and children have been through it too. But trust me when I say it is better to do this surgery before it becomes an emergency proceedure.

Good luck
 
Good Morning, All.

Just a quick update. Ray won't actually be 12 weeks post-op until this Thursday (7/24) but we had our 12 week post op echo yesterday and everything is good to go. No problems. I'll try and take another picture of his incision to post, but you almost can't see it in places, it healed up very nicely. I think the scars that will be the most noticeable will be the drainage tubes holes.

He's doing really good and has no problems. He isn't very good at taking his coumadin. He has a hard time remembering....even when I set it out :rolleyes:

Other than that nothing too new to report. We are just cruising through this thing called life =)

Hope you are all doing well too. Take care.
 
Tried to change my avitar but it wouldn't work. A more up to date pic. I think I told you all about the dreaded beard he has grown. :p
 
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