Heart Valve Replacement Surgery - Delays To Valve Replacement Surgery!

Heart Valve Replacement Surgery – Delays To Valve Replacement Surgery!

Dang it all! During my annual physical exam, my primary care Doctor found a suspicious odd shaped mole on the base of my neck. She thought it would be prudent to remove the thing rather than wait until after my heart valve replacement surgery.

I’m extremely allergic to a lot if tape adhesives, but what I didn’t know is that I was also allergic to the nylon suture material she used to close up the wound.

Three days after the removal of the nasty-looking little mole, I developed a blistering rash (looks like a poison ivy rash) beginning with the suture line and spreading out and covering an area of about 5 x 10 inches.

Believe me, I want to get this allergic reaction cleared up before my open heart valve replacement surgery. With all the tests and anxious waiting we’ve done, I would be very disappointed if the tricuspid valve surgery had to be delayed.

At first, I thought that I probably should have waited until after my heart valve replacement surgery to have the mole removed, but then I thought, no this is terrific. Why terrific? Because, now I can inform my heart surgeon not to use nylon suture materials when he is closing up my chest.

In spite of the rash issue, my spirits are up today. Yesterday, I was in the pits most of the day. Waiting, for me, has been a roller coaster ride.

Have you gotten your copy of Adam Pick’s book, The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery yet? One of the things you’ll learn from his book and extensive research is that everyone’s heart surgery recovery is uniquely different.

I’m reading the part right now about what he felt like and saw as he began to regain consciousness in the ICU after his surgery. His book describes in detail many commonalities of valve replacement surgery and lots of them are things you probably won’t learn from your Doctor. Click Here, to read more about Adam’s book.

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