Finally, I Go All In!

Saw Dr. Posten today, the robotic heart surgeon. Mitral Valve is bad, but looks repairable. Repair is much better than replace, but if he had to replace, I asked for pig valve. They last 12-15 years, and I would be dead from something else in the mean time. With a mechanical valve, you have to stay on anticoagulants for the rest of your days. Besides the mitral valve repair, he will do two other things....sew off the atrial appendage which is a pocket on the outside of your heart where 98% of strokes originate. He will also do a short maze procedure on his way out in the hopes that the Afib can be stopped. If I still have afib after all this, there is a good chance that I have sick sinus syndrome, and a pacemaker will appear in my future. The procedure is done thru three incision between and below the ribs on my right side. The way your heart sits makes this valve most accessible from that side. I will be put on a heart and lung bypass machine for the two hours or so that the entire three procedures should take. Although the pain is shorter than when they break open your sternum, there is a good deal of chest pain from your muscles spasming for the first forty eight hours, and then it resolves generally after that. I will be in the ICU for two days, and stay in the hospital for 3-5, I will have to take it easy for three weeks after the procedure, then I can exercise carefully and progressively from there. I go in tomorrow for a variety of non invasive tests. On monday they will do a cardiac catherization to insure my vessels are clear and no stents would have to be done first. I will stay overnight, and on tuesday, they will do the three procedures. The only fear I have is stroke, and he says the echo shows my heart and valves are virtually plaque free like a teenagers, and that is generally where the stroke risk resides. So, there is suffering in my future, but the hope that I will be able to run again and 2018  will be the year of the Tom.....