Patient Story of Diane Lewis

My Story

About Me (In My Own Words)

6 years ago I had a mitral valve repair for a Barlows mitral valve with severe regurgitation. This surgery was done through the ribs.

Just last week I was told the repair was no longer holding and the entire valve would need to be replaced along with the aortic valve due to regurgitation.

“I had my consultation with Dr. Fred Meadors this week. He was more than thorough and probably spent over an hour talking us through our options. He talked with my cardiologist and another surgeon by phone to see if any thing less invasive was possible.

He recommends replacing both the mitral and aortic. The aortic can go several years without being replaced, but mine was already moderate regurgitation with the mitral repair 6 years ago. Anatomically the mitral and aortic are so close together that its not uncommon for the aortic to get worse when the mitral is repaired. Its a lot more complicated than this but he made it make sense.

Incision can only be done mid chest this time. 5-10 days hospital stay. No lifting over 5 or 10 pounds for 3 months (that seems excessive). If incision is healed and no complications I can go back to driving and walking exercises in the pool around 3 weeks.

My first step is to get a heart cath to make sure no heart vessels have issues. Will try to get that scheduled this week.

6/27/24
After further research I decided I really wanted a consult wit Dr. Marc Gerdisch in Indianapolis. I now have a video consult set up for Aug 1.

My local cardiologist thinks I can wait for a Nov-Dec surgery if my symptoms don’t increase. I am looking forward to seeing his opinion. I really believe he is doing some things that really speed up your recovery afterwards.