Wish me luck!

**Liam** · 28th August 15, 09:55 AM

I have been waiting all summer for a surgery date to have my stenosed bicuspid aortic valve replaced. The call came this morning, for surgery on Sept. 4th. I've known this was coming for 14 years when my congenital bicuspid valve was first found during my annual physical. It has gradually got worse and is now at the point where I get out of breath climbing a flight of stairs or walking even a short distance. While surgery and the recovery from it will not be fun, I'm looking forward to getting my life back.
Cheers to all!

**plaid preacher** · 28th August 15, 10:05 AM

Originally Posted by Liam

I have been waiting all summer for a surgery date to have my stenosed bicuspid aortic valve replaced. The call came this morning, for surgery on Sept. 4th. I've known this was coming for 14 years when my congenital bicuspid valve was first found during my annual physical. It has gradually got worse and is now at the point where I get out of breath climbing a flight of stairs or walking even a short distance. While surgery and the recovery from it will not be fun, I'm looking forward to getting my life back.
Cheers to all!

Good news that you have a date, and can soon start looking forward to a renewed life. In the short term, God's blessings.

**Todd Bradshaw** · 28th August 15, 10:22 AM

Good luck Liam. I think you'll find that though it's certainly no picnic, it's not as bad as the anticipation. I had a valve replaced a couple days before Christmas, along with about 4" of my aorta that they replaced with a hunk of Dacron tubing, all to fix an upper aortic aneurism before it could blow out and kill me. All in all, I've actually had toothaches that caused me more discomfort than the whole process did.

Basically, you just go in and do what they tell you to do. Be prepared for them to constantly be interrupting you as you try to rest (which gets annoying) and don't be surprised if almost all food tastes really bad for a while. It took a couple months before my favorite foods finally started to taste "normal" again. They'll probably send you to cardiac rehab after a few weeks and the folks there will get you moving again and on the way back to normal. It's worth doing, especially considering the alternative. My main regret was that I wanted my wife to make me a flannel robe that was black up top with a tartan pleated lower section, for roaming the halls of the cardiac ward, but we never got around to making it.

**Father Bill** · 28th August 15, 10:46 AM

Liam - prayers & cares for you, and yes, you asked for luck, so lots of that as well!

Bill+

**Dughlas mor** · 28th August 15, 11:43 AM

My prayers and best wishes go out to you, Liam. I have no doubt that everything will work out well.

**Thekiltedmohawk** · 28th August 15, 11:59 AM

I hope nothing but the best for you! Good luck.

**SPS tools** · 29th August 15, 08:22 AM

Good luck, Liam. The waiting is the worse. It has taken me (6,2,3) months to convince the doctors that I really had something wrong with my heart (triple bypass `11, stent `14, stent `15). I know the feeling of not being able to climb a simple flight of stairs quite well.

Originally Posted by Todd Bradshaw

...Basically, you just go in and do what they tell you to do. Be prepared for them to constantly be interrupting you as you try to rest (which gets annoying) and don't be surprised if almost all food tastes really bad for a while. It took a couple months before my favorite foods finally started to taste "normal" again. They'll probably send you to cardiac rehab after a few weeks and the folks there will get you moving again and on the way back to normal. It's worth doing, especially considering the alternative. ...

What Todd said! I had to force myself to eat because everything tasted like cardboard. The nurse told me it's a common "pump head" side effect from having been on a heart/lung machine. Some parts of the brain shut down because they're getting a constant pressure instead of the normal pulse of a heart beat. Takes them weeks to recover. I was back riding my bicycle 4 months after the bypass. I worked up to it with walking every day, but only 100 yards at a time near end of the first week. Six months later I was riding 60-80 miles/day. Just take your time.

**Tarheel** · 29th August 15, 03:38 AM

Tell "She that must be obeyed" that (as the major caregiver in my own home) to hang in there with you. If both your spirits are upbeat, the healing will go faster, smoother and healthier.
My wife's throat cancer surgery was 95% successful and she is half way through her radiation. With every procedure she has, I get a new girlfriend to bring home. Example; her voice, from another room, no longer resonates her youthful tone, the new words are exotic and sultry in tone (imagine Shirley Temple one week and Lauren Bacall the next). The powerful forces of the Psyche can hinder you or heal you. Tempt her with new expectations of your post surgery life. Tally Ho! my friend.