Heart Valve Replacement - How Heart Valve Replacement Surgery Helps Congestive Heart Failure!

Heart Valve Replacement – Heart Valve Replacement Surgery Can Help Congestive Heart Failure!

Why was open heart valve replacement surgery necessary for me.

Ever since early March of this year, when Dr. Death Drums (a hospitalist I’d never seen before or since) entered my hospital room with an authoritative, pompous flourish and proceeded to ask me if anyone had ever discussed my severe congestive heart failure with me; thoughts of my failing heart have not been far from my mind.

I must have looked as wild-eyed as a baby Orangutan watching his first mating dance of a Bird of Paradise because, although I’d had tachy-brady syndrome and A-fib for more than thirteen years, it was well controlled by my pacemaker and the medicine, Cardia.

I had lived a normal, very active life all those years and really never thought about my heart unless it was time to change the pacemaker’s battery. In all those years, I’d never had congestive heart failure. My first pacer lasted 10 years.

When Dr. Death Drums saw the look of terror flash over my face, he immediately took two steps back from my bed and exclaimed, “don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger”.

I consider myself lucky that I didn’t stroke out right then and there, and he should consider himself very fortunate that I wasn’t able to jump out of bed and strangle him on the spot.

My thoughts about my heart ran then and continue to run the entire gamut from total optimism to complete despair. One minute I’m listing my positive non-risk factors for open-heart surgery and the next I find myself trying to digest the mortality rate for heart valve replacement surgery (which is very good by the way).

Well-meaning people telling you that open heart surgery is not much more than the risk of being hit by a car in today’s traffic does not help at this particular juncture.

Dr. Death Drums, as we now refer to him, was technically correct, I had been hospitalized for congestive heart failure; however had he taken the time to read more than the front page of my chart he would have known that a few days earlier, I’d had a pacemaker lead extraction procedure which had gone terribly wrong.

Complications from extracting a thirteen-year-old pacemaker lead had caused extensive damage to my tricuspid heart valve. The valve was severely regurgitating; and, now, I needed either a heart valve repair, if possible, or if repair wasn’t possible, I’d have to have a heart valve replacement.

I am now awaiting open heart valve surgery, which is scheduled for the 13th of May. In preparation for my upcoming surgery, I got myself a copy of Adam Pick’s book, The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery.

It’s answered so many of the questions that I’ve been worried about. It is easy-to-read, and it’s written in plain English so that anyone can understand it.

Adam is a heart valve replacement survivor who took the time to research his own heart valve problem and surgery, and the book really tells you what to expect every step of the way. It has given me a great deal of peace of mind.

Bookmark It