My New Valve (video)

As soon as I woke up from surgery, my girlfriend Marisa excitedly informed me that my surgeon had dropped off a DVD.  On this DVD, there were 5 different short videos taken during my surgery.  Of course, I was also interested in seeing my surgery as soon as possible.  


This first video is my old Aortic Valve.  The white, fleshy part seen here should be three crisp cusps that come seamlessly together to allow blood to flow in one direction and then shut to prevent regurgitation back into my Left Ventricle.  As you can see in this video, my valve is anything but "crisp" and definitely does not have a "seamless" function.  Basically, this valve was restricting the amount of blood flowing out of my heart while also allowing blood to flow in the wrong direction with each beat. 


The next video is my favorite!  After removing my old Aortic Valve and Ascending Aorta, Dr. Miller then sewed on the new hardware. The white tube sewed to my heart is my new Ascending Aorta.  Inside this tube, you can see my new On-X Aortic Valve.  This is what makes my heart sound like a ticking clock.  The new valve does not restrict blood flow and will not allow blood to flow backwards when the valve is closed.  This should give me more energy after I fully recover, an idea that some of my friends find quite terrifying.


Lastly: the final product!  This is a video of my heart after it was restarted and off of the heart bypass machine. You can see the new Ascending Aorta.  My heart is a lot bigger than average due to the extra work it has been doing for the last 27 years.  Basically, this enlargement should go away as my muscle atrophy.  















Comments

  1. Jared HardingerJuly 6, 2016 at 6:49 PM

    That's the coolest thing I've ever seen!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob SmithJuly 6, 2016 at 10:15 PM

    Thanks! It's a little strange to look at my own heart, but I thought it was amazing that the doc gave us the video.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJuly 11, 2016 at 10:36 AM

    Thanks Bob for sharing...I'm having the same procedure on July 19. And I'm a little nervous and scared. I am getting the st.jude valve. I'm glad you are on the road to recovery.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bob SmithJuly 14, 2016 at 10:59 PM

    Hi Timothy!
    I think that we live at an amazing time where this procedure is possible and very common. We are lucky to be able to get our hearts fixed.

    I did a good job of staying very busy in the days leading up to surgery, which helped to keep my mind off of it. I was really nervous, and even though I wasn't talking about it a ton, the people around me knew it was on my mind.

    Do you have any specific questions before the big day? I had the amazing opportunity to talk with two people who had similar surgeries before I had mine done. Those conversations were a huge step in making it seem less scary.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJuly 18, 2016 at 5:46 AM

    That was amazing thank you for sharing your experience with everyone. There where very interesting videos. How are you doing?

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownJuly 18, 2016 at 5:46 AM

    That was amazing thank you for sharing your experience with everyone. There where very interesting videos. How are you doing?

    ReplyDelete

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