Pre-Op Appoinment
On May 9th, I met the man who, one day very soon, will cut my heart open. After my cardiologist determined that my Aortic Valve was too narrow, and the regurgitation caused by it is too extreme, I was sent to see a cardiac/thoracic surgeon named Doctor Miller.
As we discussed all of the information about my heart that I already knew, and already mentioned in my first blog post, something new came up. In addition to having a faulty valve, my Ascending Aorta is also oversized. Basically, at birth my body lacked a protein. The result is that my Aortic Valve has two cusps instead of the normal three and that my Ascending Aorta has expanded. A normal Ascending Aorta is 2.5cm in diameter. My Aorta is 4.7 cm.
This is something that I was not aware of, but is apparently pretty common. When a cardiologist looks at an Echocardiogram, I guess that the focus is the valve function, and sometimes the Ascending Aorta is not noticed.
So what does this all mean? In addition to needing an Aortic Valve replacement, I also need the root of my Ascending Aorta to be removed and improved. Dr. Miller handed me the piece of tubing he will be using to replace my Aorta. It looks just like a hose you would buy from Home Depot to plumb a sink. Throughout the meeting, I used this piece of tubing to fidget and work with my nervousness.
In addition to this big change to my surgical plan, we also went over other information about my surgery, what to expect, and how to prepare. I decided to go for a On-X Aortic Valve for reasons that I will explain in my next post. One of the qualities that I loved about Dr. Miller was that he went over so many details about my care as a person, not just his patient. Some interesting additions to my recovery process are that, in addition to recovering from having my chest opened, I'll also be recovering from anesthesia and the mental effects of surgery.
Apparently, after receiving this surgery, my body is going to be freaking out. Dr. Miller informed me that depression is a common side effect in addition to hormonal imbalances, hallucinations, loss of taste buds, an interim of short term memory loss, an inability to make insulin (basically Diabetes), inability to form sentences, and of course, a struggle to walk more than 15-20 feet at a time without feeling as if I ran a marathon. This is what I'll be doing during the whole month of June!
Right now I am nervous, but excited to get things rolling and start the recovery process. I figure that post-op is going to be a struggle, but ever day of that struggle is a day closer to being back to "normal."
As we discussed all of the information about my heart that I already knew, and already mentioned in my first blog post, something new came up. In addition to having a faulty valve, my Ascending Aorta is also oversized. Basically, at birth my body lacked a protein. The result is that my Aortic Valve has two cusps instead of the normal three and that my Ascending Aorta has expanded. A normal Ascending Aorta is 2.5cm in diameter. My Aorta is 4.7 cm.
This is something that I was not aware of, but is apparently pretty common. When a cardiologist looks at an Echocardiogram, I guess that the focus is the valve function, and sometimes the Ascending Aorta is not noticed.
So what does this all mean? In addition to needing an Aortic Valve replacement, I also need the root of my Ascending Aorta to be removed and improved. Dr. Miller handed me the piece of tubing he will be using to replace my Aorta. It looks just like a hose you would buy from Home Depot to plumb a sink. Throughout the meeting, I used this piece of tubing to fidget and work with my nervousness.
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| The tubing is was fidgeting with is the white "graft" above. |
In addition to this big change to my surgical plan, we also went over other information about my surgery, what to expect, and how to prepare. I decided to go for a On-X Aortic Valve for reasons that I will explain in my next post. One of the qualities that I loved about Dr. Miller was that he went over so many details about my care as a person, not just his patient. Some interesting additions to my recovery process are that, in addition to recovering from having my chest opened, I'll also be recovering from anesthesia and the mental effects of surgery.
Apparently, after receiving this surgery, my body is going to be freaking out. Dr. Miller informed me that depression is a common side effect in addition to hormonal imbalances, hallucinations, loss of taste buds, an interim of short term memory loss, an inability to make insulin (basically Diabetes), inability to form sentences, and of course, a struggle to walk more than 15-20 feet at a time without feeling as if I ran a marathon. This is what I'll be doing during the whole month of June!
Right now I am nervous, but excited to get things rolling and start the recovery process. I figure that post-op is going to be a struggle, but ever day of that struggle is a day closer to being back to "normal."
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