My Aortic Adventure

A neighborhood high above Medellin, Colombia  After receiving a mechanical heart valve, I am now dependent on Warfarin for the rest of my life.  I wrote about this decision, and what life has been like, in a previous post. When taking Warfarin, it is essential for me to get blood checks to see my INR level and whether or not I need to adjust my medicine. (Yes that’s right; I adjust my medicine to meet my lifestyle and not the other way around) These blood checks are usually 1-2 months apart, and with my health insurance, I have to get these INR checks done at a hospital.  There are at-home devices that check INR, but I am not covered for one, and they are very expensive out of pocket. So, how would I be able to manage my medicine without access to my hospital? The view from my apt. Medellin Until now, my trips out of the country have all been for less than a month, so it has been sufficient for me to get my INR checked before travel and feel good about not getting it agai...

Getting psyched for knee surgery! I recently had to have my ACL replaced. This has been a nagging injury for many years, and in May 2021, I finally pushed it over the edge.  With one little slip on ice, I way laying on the ground screaming in pain, unable to get my meniscus out of the way to allow my knee to bend again.  After a minute or so, it finally clicked back into place.  I hiked the mile back to my car, and knew that it was time to get this knee looked at by a doctor. After it was determined that I would need ACL surgery, and the prospect of a looming 9 month recovery settled in, I started to think of my heart and my anticoagulant dependency.  In 2016, I received a mechanical aortic valve and ascending aorta and have since then taken anticoagulants every single day.  Through this process, the need to consistently take my medicine was always stressed to me.  I was told that Warfarin stays in my system for roughly three days, and in order to keep the ...

Before open-heart surgery, I did some planning for the space that I would use for recovery.    I had to figure out what I wanted my living situation to look like when I returned home from the hospital.  I wanted to make sure that when I got home, everything I needed would be accessible, functional, and set-up to promote healing.  In the few days before my operation, I made some of these changes, but it wasn’t until I lived through this process that I understood what was truly important.  Here are some of the considerations to make before heading into a major procedure like this. Ready to head home from my open heart surgery The key here is to think ahead and take on as many of the necessary tasks before surgery so that when you come home, they are not a concern.  Where is your bedroom? During the time of my surgery (and still today), I was living in a basement apartment.  This proposed two issues.  First, this meant that I would need to wal...

This question loomed over me for months before surgery.  Here is what I have learned in the years since. A photo of me in Washington Pass about two years after surgery Heart surgery undoubtedly changes a person's life. In 2016, when being rolled into the operating room to replace a faulty Aortic Valve, I did not know the extent of this change.  A few people told me stories of what it was like to live with a mechanical valve.  The main focus of my interest in these stories was to learn what it would be like to live life on "blood thinners" (anticoagulants), since this was one of my biggest concerns about choosing a mechanical heart valve. The issue, though, was that the people I talked to did not live their life similar to the way I want to live mine, so their antidotes were not fully helpful.  Sometime bruises 'appear' after a long day of climbing. They had "normal" lives, where risk is not part of the day-to-day experience.   Sure, some of the people I ...

If I had to classify rock climbing, I would call it both a passion and a lifestyle.  It is hard to say that rock climbing is a sport, since the only person you are competing against is yourself and the only rules are the ones you accept as important.  Sure, it is an intense activity that involves both mental and physical training,  but it is more than that.  When many people are asked the standard "what do you do" question, they answer with the title they hold 40 hours a week or the product they produce in exchange for money.  If I am asked the standard "what do you do" question, my primary response is: "I climb." Me, before surgery,  climbing in Shelf Road, CO. Photo by Michelle Christiance  When climbing is such a major part of your identity, it is hard to have an impending surgical procedure on the horizon that is going to put you out of commission.  I did not realize this until last year.  After an initial check-up, where my cardiolo...

When receiving an open heart surgery, there are certain milestones that are essential to recovery.  For me, the five-week-check-up with my surgeon was the biggest milestone I was looking forward to.  For the first five weeks after surgery, I had many restrictions: I could not drive, swim, bike, or lift more than 10lbs, to name a few.  This appointment was so important to me because I knew that some of these restrictions would finally be lifted. As I sat down with Doctor Miler, I was excited.  I knew that I would finally start working back toward my usual activities.  The first good news was that I had made big steps in the healing process of my sternum. According to my doc, at week five, I was 90% healed and could no longer do much to injure my chest.  This was great to hear.  After surgery, I had been walking around in a very guarded manner, as if my chest could break apart with the slightest impact.  I could finally relax. With this great ne...

The new school of thought is that I should eat a healthy diet and drink alcohol if I want, just as long as I keep things consistent.  When deciding to go with a mechanical Aortic Valve, I knew there was going to be some compromise.  The upside is that, unlike a tissue valve, my new parts should last the rest of my life.  This means that I should not ever need another heart surgery!  The negative side of this decision is that my body recognizes this new valve as a foreign object and will try to form a clot around it for the rest of my life.  In order to prevent this from happening, I take a daily dose of Warfarin. Basically, Warfarin has been used as a rat poison.  When I take my daily dose, it prevents a clotting factor from working in my body.  This means that my blood will clot more slowly.   Although Warfarin is often referred to as a "blood-thinner," this is inaccurate.  My blood is not thinner by any means; it simply does not produce c...