Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

[Garrick]

Anyone ever have any parents or themselves go through this procedure? My dad has to have it done this Friday so I'm flying home to Houston tomorrow morning to hang out with him for a couple days and staying through the procedure and a couple days after to take care of my mom who I know is going to be a complete emotional wreck.

Just curious to know if anyone on the board can sympathize with me a little. I'm quite nervous and just hope everything goes ok. It should, as it has a very high success rate, but it is major surgery and they actually have to stop his heart for an hour or so which is the part that freaks me out the most. Any advice or tips to help him or me cope are greatly appreciated. Please keep him in your thoughts.

[Miroslav]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

My father has had two serious heart events, the first of which led to angioplasty and stents and the second to open heart surgery. And that was with being thin, decent cholesterol, etc. I know what you're going through. It's scary and it's traumatic...fortunately, this is one area of medicine that is actually very well established and has led to remarkably safe and effective procedures. Your father will pull through - today, my father is going on vacations, exercising, taking ballroom dancing lessons, etc. One of the best things for your father to do later might be to reevaluate lifestyle, supplements, exercise, medication, etc. to see what contributing factors can be mitigated so that he doesn't have to worry about these things in the future. The other thing is for all of you to take it one day at a time and don't ever wait to express the things you want to each other...because experiences like this really reinforce the fact that we're all here only briefly.

Best wishes to you and your family...pls keep us updated.

[threehills]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

Best of luck to you and your family.

[deusdeus]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

My mother had this done in Dec. of 2006. It was an insane ordeal. Her second open heart operation.

This procedure was WAY overdue for her. She is a fairly small person, under 100 lbs. I think her heart was only pumping 40% blood before the procedure of what a healthy heart is supposed to pump through.

She had the procedure done in south Texas. I'm sure everything will be o.k. with your father. As they have told you, it has a good success rate and is a fairly common procedure these days. My mothers procedure went through successfully, but then on the third day of recovery, shit hit the fan.

The nurses at the ICU (where the patient stays for immediate recovery) let me stay with my mom throughout the days following the surgery. On the third day, she started to complain of uneasiness. Initially I figured it was probably a side-effect of the procedure/medication/diet (or lack of). As they day progressed, she kept getting more and more restless. I kept urging the nurses to look into it, but they would just look at the vitals and say everything was ok, and just try to force her to rest. After a while she started to get really restless, and I knew something was wrong. I basically had to start raising my voice, and just getting imperative with the nurses to do something, NOW! I demanded they take an X-RAY. By now she was REALLY restless and just looked pretty bad. Soon as the X-RAY was done, they saw she had a spontaneous pneumothorax. Basically a collapsed lung. This happened in the morning and she was leaking air into her body throughout the day. Needless to say, I was crushed. The doctor tried to assure me that she should make it, but I had my moments of doubts. I mean, how many people are trying to recover from an open heart, then have lung collapse? Anyways, they put her on a ventilator (stuck a huge tube down her throat and into her lungs, attached to a machine which did the breathing for her). I could only imagine how uncomfortable it was. I asked them to keep her sedated as much as possible.

She was in the hospital for another week, but she made it just fine.

Like I said, I'm sure your father's procedure will be much smoother. Just to let you know, immediately after the procedure he's probably going to be very swollen. His whole body...hands, arms, legs, face, everything. That may freak you out a little, but it's normal. It goes down gradually in the couple of days following. Since the procedure my mom has lost about 15-20lbs and hasn't put it back on. I think that has to do more with her lack of an appetite more than anything though.

By the way, depending on the type of valve they use, he may be on Coumadin for the rest of his life, as is the case with my mother. Coumadin is a drug that reduces the amount of time it takes for your blood to clot. It does the opposite of what Vitamin K does. It's a crazy drug because your levels have to be constantly monitored. If your ratio is too high, you risk runaway bleeding/hemorrhaging. If it is too low, you risk clotting around the valve, and it becomes possible for a clot to break free, go into the brain, and cause a stroke.

In October of last year, my mother had a small stroke. We don't know if it was because of clotting on the valve or what. Thankfully, she has recovered fully from it, and it has not happened again, we don't think. Strokes are the scariest things too, because you don't know when they happen, and the results can be devastating. I'm constantly thinking, what if no one is home all day and (God forbid) she were to have a stroke, and no one came home till the evening. In the process she could completely forget everything, including calling for help, etc...

Needless to say, I'm not trying to scare you or anything. Just telling you the experience I've been through in the past year and a half. I'm pretty confident your father should have a much better experience.

Good luck.

[Kamal]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

^^ wow glad she's doing ok.

Garrick, good luck bro..... all will be well.

[Jibgolly]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

damn garry. hope your dad comes out of it ok man. i'll be thinking about you guys.

[Nigel Harkness]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

Garrick good luck with you and your family in such stressful times.

[Garrick]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

thanks guys. scary experience. i'm glad others have fared well.

miroslav - thanks bud. i'm going a couple days early of the procedure just to make sure i get to spend time with him. one day at a time, like you say. and my dad is thankful to be in very good health because he excercises constantly, so fortunately the docs say that makes his recovery and his actual procedure tha much better off. let that be a lesson to everyone to stay in shape! appreciate your support big time.

duesdeus - your description helped a lot man. i really appreciate it. my dad decided to go with the cow valve that (yes, get this) is manufactured for a human valve where he won't have to take koumadin. he (as well as i) have heard that koumadin is not a good drug because it really thins your blood out. he actually will stick with the meds he is already on which is a bonus for him. his body won't have to adjust. he's said to have 3 doctors on him while in the icu after the first 24 hours so hopefully they don't ignore any problem like your mother suffered. i'm sorry to hear that kind of story and hopefully the medical professionals don't take that kind of thing lightly anymore.


thanks again for everyone's good spirits. very much appreciated.

[Dhar_2]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

all the best!

hope all goes well. let us know!!

[Garrick]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

just want to let everyone know that my dad had a successful surgery and he is currently in the ICU. it took 4 hours of intense waiting for my family before the nurse came out and said everything was ok! jesus h christ, i was stressed out and couldn't show it for my mom's and sister's sake. it wasn't easy.
my sister, mother and i spent a bunch of time with him late last night hours after the surgery and they finally took the huge tube out of his throat right before we left for the night so he could say how much he loved us and thanked us for being there... he was still very hoarse from the tube down his throat. today his color was excellent, he was eating food, talking normally and walked around the ICU very briefly. now the fun begins... the docs told me they are gradually going to reduce the morphine and he's started feeling his cracked sternum to the Nth degree. so he isn't happy.

all in all, he'll be ok but he's gonna have to deal with a lot of pain. thanks again everyone. i have a huge weight lifted off my chest. i've had no sleep in the past 3 nights. tonight, i'm ready to sleep soundly.

[Jibgolly]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

very good news indeed garrick. we all here at mercuryserver (and i especially having known your for a number of years) wish him a successful recovery.

may you two be sloshing the Jameson on Ice asap.

[DIDI]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

Very happy all went well for your dad and all your familly!! A woman I know had the same thing last year and she is out there partying with the best of them

Sleep tight!!

[threehills]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

Sha-weeet news!

[simonr]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

Best wishes to you and your family - here's to a speedy recovery.

[poults]

Re: Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

Glad to hear all went well.