After he heard about my heart surgery, Brad said he thought about sending me a copy of Melissa Etheridge’s cover of Janis Joplin’s “Pieces of My Heart.” I guess he hesitated because he was worried I’m be offended. But no, I think that’s pretty funny.
So my surgery will be April 22nd. From what Dr. Beckman and his staff told me, it won’t be nearly as difficult a recovery as I’ve been expecting from the reading I’ve been doing. I’ll only be in the hospital about 5 days. After that I will be home, but I won’t be bedridden. I’ll be able to be up and walking around, going up and down stairs, etc. in the first week after being in the hospital. Every day after that will be an improvement. They are still recommending that I take 6 weeks off work. There are restrictions on lots of upper body exercise for quite a while while my sternum heals. And it will take me 3 months before I’m completely healed. But I won’t be bedridden, which is the impression I had.
He said that it’s a 90% chance that this will only be a valve repair, not a replacement. They will know for sure once they’re in, but he says my chance is good for the repair. If that’s the case, I won’t need to be on anti-coagulant drugs, which means that I would be able to be on the Amazing Race. No, we didn’t specifically ask about that. 🙂
He and his staff were very upbeat and positive about the surgery, and made me feel much better about it.
The other day when I was sitting in the Cardiologist’s waiting room, there was a video playing about health issues and medical breakthroughs. One of the stories was about a woman who had devastating epileptic seizures and who couldn’t live on her own because of them. They came without warning and rendered her helpless, so she had to live with her mother all the time and her movements were very restricted.
Scientists discovered that animals can sense when humans are unhealthy. In this case, they were able to train a golden retriever to recognize by scent when the woman was about to have a seizure, even when she didn’t know it herself.
Several times a day, the dog would come and lick the woman’s hands, and if she were about to have a seizure, the dog was trained to jump up and lick her face. She then had enough warning to prepare for the event; she could call someone to help, lie down so she wouldn’t be injured and take other steps to keep herself safe. That enabled her to live on her own and to go out and shop, spend time with people, and even work. So the dog’s ability to see things that humans can’t gave her freedom.
It’s funny because every morning I wake up and find all of my cats curled up around me, which they’ve never really done before.
Wow, reading this about Terri Schiavo’s case makes it clear why it’s important for me (and everyone!!) to have a living will. As much as the idea of creating that document frightens me, the idea of something like this happening to me frightens me more. God forbid my life become a political football for the anti-abortion crowd.
Courtesy of whitehouse.org
Here’s some information about Dr. Beckman, who will be my heart surgeon, apparently. And here’s another bio page on him. Also, here’s some info on some rare procedure that Dr. Beckman is pioneering (not what I need done). Here’s a video [real player required] of Dr. Beckman talking about some rare procedure he’s done on a website about heart surgery. And in this IndyStar article, Dr. Beckman is being interviewed about a surgery he performed. And here’s a mention of him on Channel 6 news’s site about a surgery he performed.
And a couple of medical articles he’s authored or co-authored. One of them is titled “Pain levels experienced with activities after cardiac surgery – Pain Management” — and it’s all about how pain can get in the way of recovery. Yikes! Shouldn’t have read that. And some other paper he wrote, that makes no sense to me at all, but sounds really impressive.
I go to meet with him tomorrow morning at 8:30 to find out more about when my surgery will be and what all I will need to do to prepare for it.
Sounds like I’m going to be in good hands.
UPDATE: I was. He did great.
My Transesphogeal Echocardiogram test went really smoothly yesterday. It’s a relatively painless procedure and all I have is a slight sore throat now which I’m sure will go away soon. And they drugs they give you to knock you out are fantastic. I felt really good after the procedure. I apparently asked Doctor Trippi the same question ten times, but I felt good asking it. Fortunately Stephanie was there to hear all the answers, or I’d be wondering today what the heck we talked about.
It was a little more complex than I expected; they stick you in a hospital bed and wheel it around from the cath holding area to the cardiovascular area to do the test. Any time you have to put on their clothes and they start moving your bed around, you realize this is a real hospital thing and not a simple “visit the doctor” thing. They also made me stay and eat dinner, which was pretty cool, except I was still high and ordered odd combos of stuff.
The results of the test: I cannot get out of open heart surgery. The valve I need repaired is my mitral valve, and some of the experimental catheterization surgeries they do are for other valves, like the aortic valve. So despite my insistence, they will still have to crack me open.
Also: exercise is bad for me, and I can’t do it before surgery. Elliptical machine? Bad. Lifting weights heavier than a pound? Bad. Walking up more than a flight of stairs? Bad. Carrying boxes of books? Bad. Opening stuck jars? Bad. Moving groceries into the house? Bad. Anything that involves strain? Bad. Short, casual walks around the neighborhood are okay.
The reason is that the mitral valve is anchored by strings of tissue that act like the cables of the golden gate bridge, or like the lines of a parachute. The keep the valve from being open permanently. Over time, because my valve doesn’t close correctly, these anchor strings stretched out, and one of them has snapped. The others are ready to do so, and will if I put pressure on my heart. If they do, I’ll be in the emergency room asking them for surgery as soon as possible.
Thank god I didn’t start tearing out the spare room and extra bathroom that I planned to work on this spring. Thank god I went to the doctor for a routine check up so they found this. Thank god I’ve been lazy and used the elevator instead of the stairs at work.
We weren’t able to talk to a surgeon and find out when they want to do it; it was too late in the day for that. But Dr. Trippi said that waiting around for a long time is a very bad idea. I need to get it done in the next couple of months. I have to say I agree, because if I can’t exercise or do anything I’m used to doing, I’m going to be bigger than a frickin’ house.
We have an appointment to talk to Dr. Beckman, who will be my surgeon, early on Tuesday morning to find out all the details of surgery, recovery and what day and time we need to do this.
I go in for my Transesophageal Echocardiogram (TEE Test) today at 3 at Methodist Hospital downtown. I had a big breakfast because I can’t eat 5 hours before the test, since they stick a tube down my throat to do an ultrasound from inside my body. They also have to sedate me, so Stephanie’s coming with me for the test so she can ask intelligent questions (which I’ve written down) and drive me home, since I’ll be loopy. After the test I should know a lot more about my condition, including when I would need to have surgery and what recovery will be like.
The main question I want to ask is whether I have to have open heart surgery, or if I can do some of the other heart catheterization surgeries that they’re doing for valve repair. I don’t deny I need to have something done, but if I can avoid having them crack me open like a walnut, I’d prefer that. I know Dr. Yee said that they couldn’t do the less invasive surgery because there are two valves, but I want them to go into detail about that.
I also want to know a lot about the surgeon. Like a complete biography, and how many times they’ve done the surgery. And if they’ve ever had someone die on the operating table. Because if this is someone who’s going to drastically alter the course of my life, I don’t want it to be some stranger I meet the day before and then never see them again.
It’s strange, because first I feel much better about this whole thing, but then I’ll get scared and start crying at really weird times, like right before going into a meeting at work. Which is just so graceful. I pick the strangest, most inconvenient times to fall apart.
There are some things I’ve done to prepare for all this though. Since I’ll be preoccupied and won’t be able to write regular scathing remarks about how retarded George Bush is, I took my little flight suit George Bush doll and hung him upside down and stuck pins in him. Not in anyplace vital, just his knees and elbows and stuff. That should hold him until I feel better. If we find out Bush suddenly has erectile dysfunction, you know who to blame.
She never stops cracking me up:
Why, that’s just not true. In addition to good vibes, I can send you goodies for after surgery. Of course, I can’t send anything funny, or you’ll laugh and your chest will hurt. And I can’t send you anything sad because you’ll cry and your chest will hurt. And nothing exciting that will make your heart race… so boring stuff that you’ll be indifferent to. Yep. That’s what I can send. Q-Tips maybe? Or some string? Beige shoe polish, even.
It’s a shame it’s your heart that’s the trouble. I mean, if it were a kidney, I could just say “Here, have one of mine. Either one. I’m not really using them anyway. I want it back when you’re done though. Better yet, have one of Gary’s. And one of Todd’s. One for day and one for evening wear. And take an appendix while you’re at it, since you’re already one short”!
But alas, my GP says I’m not allowed to give away bits of my circulatory system, even on a time-share basis.
Anyway, keep me posted.Love,
Stacy
I like how she volunteers my brother’s kidneys. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.
Expectations after surgery:
The rate of success of heart valve surgery is high — and increasing. The operation provides symptom relief and prolongs life. The death rate varies depending on the heart valve and averages 2% to 5%. Approximately 2 of every 3 patients who received an artificial mitral valve are still alive 9 years after the surgery. Life-long anticoagulant therapy is necessary for patients with artificial heart valves. The clicking of the mechanical heart valve may be heard in the chest — this is normal.
2 of every 3 patients? 9 years? Oh my god. Okay, wait a minute. That’s for valve replacement, not repair. And, this make me feel much better:
Conclusions– Mitral valve repair using Carpentier’s technique in patients with nonrheumatic MVI provides excellent long-term results with a mortality rate similar to that of the general population and a very low incidence of reoperation.
I’ve waited a bit to write about this, because I need to talk to my family and friends first. It appears that I will need to have open heart surgery to repair my defective heart valves. I’m hoping to get some other opinions and information on less invasive types of surgery, but that appears to be what I know currently.
After I had the stress echocardiogram last week, that was the analysis the cardiologist (Dr. Yee) gave me about what he is seeing. His conclusion is that my heart valves, especially my mitral valve, are failing, and eventually I will have heart failure, possibly in the next two or three years. If I go in and get the valves repaired now, I have a prognosis of living a normal, long and healthy life. The sooner I get the procedure done, the better, because it will be a repair of the valves, rather than a replacement, and my heart will not enlarge to fight the valve failure.
After I get the TEE test that I wrote about earlier, the surgeon will be able to tell me whether I need the procedure next month, or if I can wait a bit longer, like six months. But Dr. Yee is saying that I will need surgery this year.
What’s interesting is that this is the reason some of my shoes don’t fit any more. My feet are swelling because my circulation is poor. It’s also the reason I haven’t been able to lose weight easily while exercising, because I’m just not able to burn enough calories before I get tired and out of breath. So this surgery could help me lose weight.
Obviously, if this is the surgery I need to have, it’s a pretty scary thing, because they crack open my chest and put me on a heart & lungs machine to circulate my blood while they stop my heart to work on it. After the surgery, I’ll be in intensive care for several days. The recovery time is significant and for a little while after I come home I’ll need someone with me to watch me 24 hours a day.
Stephanie is already making plans to move in for a while to be with me, which worries me a lot, because this is a huge burden to fall on one person. She will need to go home twice a day to feed her cat, and I’m hoping my family will help and support her if they can. I’m also very worried about the hospital not recognizing her as my spouse and letting her visit me, and I want to make sure that they know she is the number one person I want with me, along with mom.
The following links about open heart surgery are not from my hospital, but they do cover some basic information about what the surgery and recovery are like.
On the bright side, according to this page, I’ll be able to resume fishing after 6 weeks, and firing small caliber pistols after 2 months. Woo hoo!!
This link seems to have a lot of good information: from Brigham and women’s hospital
Open Heart Surgery – What to Expect
Heart Valve Repair Surgery
Mitral Valve Repair
heart valve surgery
Mercy Hospital Open Heart Surgery