Ray's Guestbook

Ray, Your granddaughter is very pretty and the photo is one you should have someone show you just before "rolling off to surgery"! (I had a photo of kayaking on a lake with my husband) and it is amazingly the last thing I saw before drifting off and coming to after the surgery! I wanted to wish you the best in your surgery "date" tomorrow. I hope your evening tonight is pleasant and you are able to dream the dreams of a man who will soon be on his way to having his heart mended and many years ahead of him to enjoy and celebrate this life fully. Be confident and know you are in the greatest of hands(and the surgeon and his team will do excellent work too!) take care Heart Brother...all will be well. You will have the prayers of many by your side.

Ray , Just wanted to pass on some info about Cleveland. The patient rooms have a long padded bench that opens up for sleeping which can be used by a family member. Also request a recliner for your room after you leave icu ,they are limited in supply. My major pain was from the hosp bed which was killing my back. My chest incision pain was minimal compared to back discomfort. After discharge I used a zero gravity portable recliner chair ($45) covered with a foam pad held in place with bungee cords. This worked excellent in place of a normal recliner chair. Medical supply stores will not rent recliners because of liability. I divided my time between bed rest and the recliner. Be prepared to have someone help you with your first few showers as you will be weak beyond belief and food may not taste good for many days. I was fortunately that I did not need narcotic pain meds beyond two days in the icu and then only at night to help with sleeping. Riding in a car after discharge was easy and not uncomfortable. I wish you well on your journey and hope your recovery is smooth. As I sit here writing this it is hard to believe my surgery was Jan 29,15 as I feel like a new person with no sensation from the surgery. Regards Bill

Ray, excuse the name error. I was not aware of my tamponade as i was in the ic unit still recovering from the valve surgery. The basic sequence after the valves are replaced is to do an echo and make sure everything is ok then the team starts to close your chest. After you are in recovery they measure the amout of blood draining from the chest tube at set time intervals. Mine was too high and they new I had a problem which did not diminish. After pumping a lot of iv fluid into me with no results the left ventrical collapsed and I could no longer breath. At that point they bagged me and sent me back to the or to sttop the bleeding and clean out blood clots in my heart. The good news was they did all this while I was in deep sedation. After this I had an excellent recovery with very little pain and no mental fog or memory issues. The only problem for me was back pain from the hosp bed and all food had a metallic taste for several weeks. The heart surgeon said the never found the source of bleeding but it seemed to stop on its own. The big atvantage with Cleveland is their excellent teams and experts available 24/7. They have very experienced cardiac surgical fellows available.

Hi Dan , you beat my longevity record. We were diagnosed in the Stone Age ! Mine started in 1958 with mv murmur ,stethoscope sound only. After many years of testing I ended up consulting A CCF cardiologist in 2013 about av and mv degradation. My surgery was 1/29/15 at CCF. I had excellent energy (9.3 mets on exercise) and could bike 25 trail miles without symptoms . I did not trust where the mitral valve was going to be in the near future hence the decision for HVS. As things turned out what saved my life was a 2nd surgery 5hrs after my valve surgery at 3am. to correct cardiac tamponade . I feel like a new person except for minor hernia surgery that is scheduled the end of May, You should do well at Cleveland. My emerg surgery was done by a Cardiac Fellow which would not have been available in many hospitals.