Ellen's Posts

Hello Everyone, I wanted to provide an update on our new aortic valve stenosis journey. We just met our new surgeon, Dr. Sharma. He is with Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento. He evaluated Jim’s CT and said that his bigger concern is the bovine valve. That although the Aorta is indeed dilated, it’s not the main issue. At this time he puts Jim at moderate to severe stenosis stage. This is just slightly over three years from when it was installed, March of 2019. Dr. Sharma stated that based on Jim’s overall physical size, the Edwards Bovine Valve that installed is too small (23mm). He said this does create a situation where stenosis can set in much faster. He also said that given Jim’s age, he just turned 59 (so considered young) that stenosis can appear faster. The procedure Dr. Sharma is recommending is AVR with root enlargement, he will install a 25 mm valve (Edwards), fix the Aorta, do a Maze procedure and a LAA (left atrial appendage) ligation. He talked to us about an increased chance of a pacemaker. Went over all the risks of course. When he first walked in and saw Jim his comment was, “Wow, you are very fit.” We run a construction company and Jim is owner/operator - he never sits down. He asked if Jim was having any symptoms and at this time our answer was no. Dr. Sharma is going to have, or perhaps already has had, a conversation with our cardiologist Dr. Joshi. They will determine the best time for surgery at this point. My understanding is Dr. Sharma is two months out - it’s really crazy as he said he alone is doing 4 heart surgeries a week I believe. He did say however, that if Dr. Joshi tells him to get Jim in sooner he will do so. He was wonderfully reassuring. Our original surgery was performed at another hospital (Mercy San Juan) and he shared confidently, that Jim’s this experience, at Mercy General, will be very different - it will be more positive. He even spent time talking to Jim about his past trauma around the surgery and how he understood - he was very compassionate and sorry that we were back so soon discussing another surgery. So, all in all - even if we are back way too soon for this we at least feel good about the surgeon and how it’s being handled. It’s a bit uncomfortable knowing the bovine valve failed and that it could again. Dr. Sharma will be setting up Jim’s heart so if the valve fails early again they will be able to do a “fix” using a wire. We didn’t go into this in detail so I’m not sure what that meant. He also said his heart will be setup to receive another valve, if needed, without another open heart surgery. Too bad that wasn’t done the first time around. Thank you everyone for listening. This is de-ja vu for us and not at all comfortable. We are blessed to have such an incredible support system around us both here in this forum (thank you Adam) and in our personal lives…we won’t be going through it alone.

Hello everyone - Jim’s first surgery was minimally invasive. From what I’m understanding his next surgery will be a full split. Can anyone share any encouraging information on the full split and recovery and how it might be different from the mini-split? My husband is pretty anxious over this and I guess I am as well. Thank you.