Aortic valve replacement

Has anyone here undergone this procedure? I’m waiting for my valve to get bad enough that it has to be replaced seeing the doctor tommorow so far I’ve made it a year .

I had my aortic valve replaced on Aug. 26/15. I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve, which was discovered when I was 50. Had my surgery 12 years later.

How long was it before you were up and running.

My son had the procedure about 10 months ago, at the ripe old age of 32.
First month was pretty brutal, as far as pain, but he did what was required. Another couple months of pretty serious dis-comfort, but was able to do light-duty work. It was open-heart, sternum splitting, so have to use caution for about 3 months. Cardio rehab, etc., but now is good as new.

I was born with a bicuspid aortic heart valve also. It was discovered when I was 62. My valve was about 50% closed. Three and a half years later it was 80% closed and had it replaced with a piece of bovine valve tube.
I was in the hospital 3 nights and up walking the first morning. I was not to lift more than 8 lbs. for about 8-10 weeks so I would not rip out the staples in my chest. Went to 12 sessions of PT to build up strength about 3-4 weeks after surgery. Everything went well and has gone well since. Ours is inherited. I have one brother and one sister that have the same deal. My brother has replaced his twice and he is 9 years younger than me. My sister's is less severe and just has a heart murmur out of the deal. Get it done and follow the directions they give you.

Bryce

I had open heart surgery....called a mini. Only a 5 in. incision. Kept me in hospital for 5 days, then sent home. About 2 months before I started feeling better. They make you walk as much as you can as soon as you can. Catheter and bleeding tubes were removed on day 2 of recovery. They also do valve replacement without open heart surgery....same as stents, up through your thigh. I had the option of pig or mechanical. Mechanical you will be on blood thinners the rest of your life.

Yes the doctor did not want me on blood thinners either. Felt I was way to active and could get bumped hard and bleed internally etc. My brother's 2nd aortic valve was through the thigh as all they did was put in a smaller piece of bovine to sort of line the old one. They can only do that once. He had a pig valve the first time and it only lasted 8 years. I am about 6.5 years into my bovine piece. The problem with the bicuspid valves is they wear out faster, plus they cause your lower smaller chamber to stiffen do to arthritis. That lack of flexibility does not go away but it is the smaller part of the heart and not serious unless one gets more chambers involved.


Bryce

I had my aortic valve replaced in 2015 plus 3 bypasses at the same time, took them 7 hrs to get it done. I was off work for 6 months, it was pretty rough for me I had to sleep in my recliner for 7 weeks. I had other issues as well like a buildup of fluids on my lung. It was rough but I made it through all that crap. It took me awhile to get to feeling good. Don't want to try and scare you or anything but you'll make it ok. BTW they watched my valve for 20 years before it got really bad.

Praying for you

Methods and procedures are literally changing monthly. Transcatheter is now used regularly in valve replacement, stents and even bypasses. Anasthesia is not even required and recovery time is much shorter. In 2018 I had 3 stents inserted thru my wrist and was only kept in hospital for 3 hours after the procedure. So it really depends on what they plan to do with you.
My stents were put in thru my wrist but I think they go thru your thigh for valve replacements.

Thanks for the good word guys.I defiantly want to go with a bovine valve so I won’t have to be on blood thinner the rest of my life.I meet with my doctor this afternoon .

Good luck and let us know what the Dr. has planned for you.

My son opted for the pig valve, also. Problem with those are that they typically only last about 10 years. Then you go through it all over again.

I have 29 years on a Titanium Aortic valve, Dacron ascending Aorta, with three Teflon washers in there also. Had it done at the age of 41.Have taken blood thinners from the start. At that age really had no choice but to go with a valve that didn't wear out. Working years had me farming and building power lines. Still fairly active, farming trapping and such. Tough go for a few months but as I understand they got things figured out to be much easier now. Good luck, you will be fine after the healing process.

There is a 88 year old man at the health club I go to. He is having an aortic value replacement done next week. They told him he would be sedated and they would do the replacement through his groin. He would stay in the hospital overnight and if things looked good the next morning (and they felt they would) he would be released to his home. It's amazing the technology they have these days.

If I were him I would be very skeptical about that procedure and think long and hard about it. My 88 year old father had that surgery at the Cleveland clinic, and he should have been advised by the doctors there not to have it because of his age. It ultimately killed him.

Well the doctor gave me another 6 months on the waiting list.He said even though I have sever stenosis that overall my outputs are good so unless I start getting shortness of breath or chest pains they will wait on the surgery.I don’t scare real easy but this one does scare me something about stopping my heart lol.

Good news

I am glad the Dr feels you can wait. On the other hand recoveries are almost always better when we are younger, stronger and more active.Just hope you don't do damage to other parts of your cardiac system, waiting for your valve to worsen.

Bryce

Not sure about your system but here the plan is to put you off as long as possible. Reason being, they only want to do it once. And thats understandable. I was "on hold" for almost 3 years....with 7 trips to hospital for chest pain. My last trip the local doc called it in and I had an appointment for surgery in 30 days. So, look after yourself, and don't be afraid to notify them if you get worse.