Mary's Journal

care after 24 hours. Today was post op day three. I won’t lie it’s been rough pain wise and before my surgery I really struggled with which valve to go with, tissue or mechanical. In the end I went with the On-X valve and my decision was based partly on the fact that my 25 year old son will be going through the exact same surgery, in the not to distant but yet to be determined future. I will write more on that later but will say he underwent emergency brain surgery in mid-December and we were told he most likely would not make it through that surgery. Well miraculously he did but they also diagnosed him with a bicuspid aortic valve at that time. Luckily my daughter has been checked and does not have this condition, however, my sister and her four children are now on wait lists for Echocardiograms to see if any of them have it. Long story short my son got an infection in his heart and ended up with a vegetative mass on his bicuspid valve which damaged the valve and he now has moderate to severe aortic regurgitation. He saw a cardiac surgeon at the end of January who he will see again in six months. At this point they want to put as much time as possible between the craniotomy he just had and a heart surgery. Yes it’s been a pretty stressful past two months leading up to my surgery with him being in ICU for 10 days and then a further 10 days in a regular ward and he has a long road ahead of him. I had to post-pone my original surgery date due to this. In the end I decided to go with the mechanical valve in order to blaze the way ahead of him as he will have to get the same type because of his young age. Having gone through what I just have I now know I made the right choice because I would prefer, god willing, to never go through this again. At age 55 I am hoping this valve will outlive me. It’s Saturday night and I’m hoping to be out of here by Monday or Tuesday. Once again, thank you 🙏🏻 to everyone for all your kind comments and well wishes! Mary Anne