Stephen's Guestbook

Hi Ana, thank you for your message. I’m exactly 6 weeks from surgery today and I’m feeling great. I meet the surgeon and was on the phone with my cardiologist last week and they are both very happy, they said I could start driving again, I can ease back into doing weight training in the gym and I can stop the medication I was temporarily on after surgery with the exception of warfarin as with the mechanical On X aortic valve I will be on this for life. So thankfully that’s all good news. The symptoms I had before surgery have gone. I feel my fitness has increased with the new valve. I’m also down some weight from the surgery which is a nice unintended benefit. My overall experience was great, it’s not a surgery that should be feared from my experience. Pre surgery I was having heart flutters, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing when lying down and strong pulses. But being young in my 20s I didn’t realise these were a symptoms of a heart problem. I though it was caused from the coffee I was drinking and maybe my fitness being low, despite regular exercise. So I largely ignored these for around 2 years until the health committee in the office I work organised a cardiac health screening for the office which I signed up for. At the cardiac health screening it was discovered I had a heart murmur and referred to a cardiologist for review. He diagnosed me with serve aortic regurgitation, said I would need surgery to replace my aortic valve and sent me for a echo gram test. The echo gram showed my heart was enlarged, the ejection fraction of my left ventricle was 50 and that I had a bicuspid aortic valve. The symptoms, heart enlargement and ejection fraction were all indicators for surgery. I was referred to a Cardiothoracic surgeon, he advised a mechanical valve rather then tissue valve would be best for me as with my age of 29, the tissue valve may only last 10 years and I would need another surgery then but with the mechanical valve it should last for my life with a low risk I will need a re operation at some stage. I had done my own research and asked if I could have the On X valve as this valve is FDA approved for a low warfarin dose. Which I received. Thankfully he was able to do a mini sternotomy i.e only cut the top 4 inches or so of my sternum and left the bottom half untouched, as I do weight training this is very beneficial to me. I did the cardio rehabilitation. The surgery was a success and thankfully my recovery went perfectly. The whole experience was thankfully much easier then I thought it would be.