Louise's Journal

Hi, I'm wondering - Has anyone used Philips services for at home INR testing using CoaguCheck Vantus System? I looked into using Acelis Service but evidently my doctor sent the order to Philips and the reps there were very eager for my business, which makes me hesitate. The rep did say that Acelis is their competition, sooooo, I'd love to hear anyones experience with Philips. Thanks everybody!!

Good News!

My 1 yr. post op follow up was brilliant! New porcine mitral valve is working perfectly as is my repaired ( ring) tricuspid valve. I do have minimal regurgitation on my Aortic just as I had before surgery but it was and is considered not ready for intervention yet so we'll just keep watching that over time. Surprising news is that my pre surgery severely enlarged Left Atrium... has, post surgery, returned to normal size! This was not expected and was such good news even though Dr. Xu said it was not a big problem if it stayed enlarged as expected - we were all delighted, excited in the change. His final remark, "This was a great surgery." Thank you, Dr. Gillinov and Cleveland Clinic! I was so elated that when my husband, Bill, and I returned to our hotel room, I said "wow, Let's go do that again!!" like a child who just experienced something thrilling. It was the exact same feeling. That's the life of we heart warriors, right? One year down, a great relief and life to live ahead with a little less worry. I'm a happy child. 💞

I'm so happy to say it's my 1st year Anniversary with my new porcine mitral valve and a repaired tricuspid valve! So many thanks to our online family here with our patriarch Adam leading the way. Needless to say how scary these surgeries are but here I am, one year after and enjoying all of life and I feel reverent today. Reverence for my surgeon Dr. Gillinov and cardiologist, Dr. Xu both at Cleveland Clinic along with the outstanding nursing staff there. I'll return in May for my one year exam, (one year after my post surgery three month exam.) I'll post again after that visit and I feel confident that the tests will reveal just how well my freshened heart has adapted. It's a happy heart now for sure. "Trust the journey." Love!

Now, here's a guitar with heart! My brother made this to benefit ThScience Mill, a STEM based museum in Johnson City, TX. The fundraiser event takes place Oct. 22nd. He has made guitars for various non-profits but how cool is this!

See Adam's blog to see three happy heart valve surgery community members meeting for the first time six months post op. It was so exciting to meet in person and share our stories and news. Adam, you have created a wonderful place of education and friendship for us all and we're going to stay right here and keep on ticking and smiling too! Thank you!

Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick, Canada. Photo taken from street level platform. This goes with my other post today. I didn't realize only one photo per post or I didn't know how to add the second photo. Bill and I then went down the many, many steps to walk on the beach at low tide. Yes, I went up all the same steps - taking my time- after our walk on the beach. Six months post surgery and feeling great!

Six months post surgery, celebrating by taking an epic road trip from Florida to Nova Scotia! Feeling fine and taking my time 🎶. Photos are from The Hopewell Rocks at the Bay of Fundy - New Brunswick side. Walking on the beach at low tide, see if you can see the high tide mark on the rocks behind my husband, Bill and I. High tide was 46.5' this day. Huge amount of stairs to climb so I took my time, taking a moment on each platform, not letting my HR go beyond 110 ( just my own comfort level being far from home.) Had a wonderful time, took the scenic route everywhere we could and stopped in NYC to spend a little time with family and friends as well. You wouldn't know I had Mitral valve replacement and Tricuspid repair six months ago. I hope this gives those awaiting surgery a vision of how soon it will be to live your life with joy, not anxiety, again! Trust me, it will be!

Hi Fellow Warriors, I'm happy to say my three month follow up visit at Cleveland Clinic post mitral valve replacement ( porcine) and tricuspid valve repair went beautifully. ECHO and EKG and bloodwork all normal and new valve functioning perfectly. Next visit in one year.
I did go into Afib once home post surgery but that's not uncommon and a cardioversion snapped me back into sinus rhythm. It worried me to no end at the time because you hope that you'll just cruise into recovery and no one wants their heart to have a hissy-fit but we warriors have strong hearts! My EF is 63% and I'm doing the course in cardio rehab at a local hospital center. It's great and will give me the confidence I need to know I'm neither doing too little or too much. I never felt tired or bad so it's somewhat strange to think I need to slowly retrain my heart into condition. I now have the connection with that at rehab since they monitor you the whole time, test your BP mid exercise and more. There's one large monitor on a wall that shows the running EKG of the six of us and each persons rhythm is so vastly different, so unique, it's an eye opener!