Welcome to the club! I remember finding out (about the same time that you did, actually) that I was about to become the recipient of a bovine valve too. After my ticker woke me up at 1 a.m. hammering my backbone, followed by a month of wearing a monitor and other tests, the cardiac surgeon scheduled a video visit. His first words were, "OK, here's the deal. Without a new aortic valve, you won't live another two years. With the new valve, you can look forward to a normal lifespan."
I took option 2.
And yep, you pretty much nailed the after-I-woke-up scenario. When they took the two electrical leads out of my heart (I felt the leads coming out of the muscle), the nurse said, "Did that hurt?" My response: "It didn't hurt, but it felt REALLY weird. Let's not do that again." And the drain tubes weren't too bad. But they had pre-sutured the drain sites so when the Home Depot Hoses came out, they immediately pulled two sutures on each site and closed them up on the spot.
The nurse said, "There will be just a little sting." Yeah. And Godzilla is a lizard with a thyroid condition.
The high point? The day after the surgery the surgeon came by, did his post surgery tap dance, and asked if I had any questions for him. "Actually, I do. They brought me a pretty decent hamburger for lunch. Does that make me a cannibal?" He looked at my wife and said, "Three more days and he's your problem."
Yowza. A terrifying story - well told!
yeah . . . you don't wanna go there. But hey, I survived and take no prescriptions, and I'm pushing 80! (long live good bourbon!)
Welcome to the club! I remember finding out (about the same time that you did, actually) that I was about to become the recipient of a bovine valve too. After my ticker woke me up at 1 a.m. hammering my backbone, followed by a month of wearing a monitor and other tests, the cardiac surgeon scheduled a video visit. His first words were, "OK, here's the deal. Without a new aortic valve, you won't live another two years. With the new valve, you can look forward to a normal lifespan."
I took option 2.
And yep, you pretty much nailed the after-I-woke-up scenario. When they took the two electrical leads out of my heart (I felt the leads coming out of the muscle), the nurse said, "Did that hurt?" My response: "It didn't hurt, but it felt REALLY weird. Let's not do that again." And the drain tubes weren't too bad. But they had pre-sutured the drain sites so when the Home Depot Hoses came out, they immediately pulled two sutures on each site and closed them up on the spot.
The nurse said, "There will be just a little sting." Yeah. And Godzilla is a lizard with a thyroid condition.
The high point? The day after the surgery the surgeon came by, did his post surgery tap dance, and asked if I had any questions for him. "Actually, I do. They brought me a pretty decent hamburger for lunch. Does that make me a cannibal?" He looked at my wife and said, "Three more days and he's your problem."
Glad you made it!