Marcus's Posts

This Monday the 21st will be 6 months post-Ross for me. Had my first follow up CT scan last week. I was a little nervous, because the results showed a very small "outpouching" where my right coronary artery had been reattached to the aortic artery. My cardiologist referred the results to my cardiac surgeon for his opinion. It turns out that the surgeon reattached it this way on purpose, as it anatomically mimics the aortic sinuses. This is a standard practice for this surgeon during these types of procedures, and they reassured me that I have nothing to worry about. In the language of those of us that work in tech, this is a feature, not a bug! Everything is where it should be and his healing normally. Separately, I had an annual physical with my PCP last week as well, and I have elevated creatinine levels and a low eGFR, which when read together, indicate a slight loss of kidney function. After getting an ultrasound of my kidneys and bladder, which came back normal, the most likely culprit now according to both my PCP and my cardiologist is the 800mg per day of Ibuprofen I've been prescribed since my surgery. My surgeon said it's to keep inflammation down as the heart heals, and there's data to show that it's beneficial long term for Ross patients to take for 6 months post-op, particularly in the lifespan of the pulmonary homograft. Anyway, since that prescription was only for 6 months, I've stopped taking the Ibuprofen, and we'll recheck my levels in about 6 weeks. Hopefully they'll have started to normalize, and any kidney damage that was incurred is not permanent. So this represents the first hiccup in my recovery, but in the grand scheme of things that can go wrong, I'm thankful that this one is pretty minor. I feel good and am back to living a completely normal life as it was pre-surgery.

Last Monday was my 3-month post-Ross Procedure date. I took my first trip last week down to Mexico City. I'm getting married there in a year and we needed to meet with some vendors and do tastings with potential caterers. It was a great trip! Today is my first day back at work since mid-October. I'm about 6 weeks into cardiac rehab, and I've recently been able to start going back to the gym on my own to lift weights. Recovery is going well. It only hurts when I sneeze now! :) I've had one ECG that looks good so far, and I've got a CT scan scheduled for April at the 6-month mark. Still taking blood pressure meds, a statin, baby Aspirin, and Ibuprofen/Pantoprazole to keep inflammation down. It feels good to finally start feeling like my life is mostly back to normal. Hope you all are doing well, and had a good holiday last month!

Recovery update: today I'm one month post-op from a full sternotomy and Ross Procedure at Stanford Medical. I'm 46 years old, and was in good physical shape going into surgery with no other medical issues. I initially spent 5 days in the hospital, with 3.5 of those in the ICU. My ICU time was slightly longer because my blood pressure was a little stubborn in dropping, so the nurses couldn't remove my neck line and get me off of the IV BP meds until the third day. Recovery has been smooth since hospital discharge on 10/25. I've been doing a morning and afternoon walk in my neighborhood, getting progressively longer each day, and am now up to walking about 6 miles per day total, with one or two rest days during the week to not overdo it. Pain has improved faster than I expected. I started tapering down the Oxy once I got home, and was able to stop it completely about a week and half ago. For pain I'm currently only taking some Tylenol just before bedtime, but I think I'll probably only need that for a few more days. I've been cleared to drive my car again, and should be starting cardiac rehab in about a week and a half. I think my big takeaway is that I underestimated how shitty the first day or two post-op would be, but I also underestimated how quickly I would improve in the weeks after surgery. I honestly thought that how I feel now would be closer to the two month mark, not the one month mark. I feel very fortunate that I've had no complications and that everything has gone well thus far. Even though everyone's recovery is different, I'm spelling all this out for those that are just entering recovery, or soon to have surgery, to provide another data point for how the first month post-op could look and feel. I know I was looking for info like this when I was getting ready for surgery. I appreciate all of you, and hope everyone is doing well wherever you are in your heart journeys!