Quote:
Originally Posted by Suki
That's a pretty hardcore procedure. I'm glad you pulled through. 
Weren't you given the option to get a porcine valve replacement? Sometimes it ain't easy to find the right donor and I hear you can go with a pig's heart valve for 15 years before it requires replacement, which is pretty great.
What does an open heart surgery feel like? It's okay if you'd rather not tell, I understand it can be too much of a touchy experience to share with complete strangers on the Internet, but if you're ok with it I'd really like to know, just out of curiosity. |
Not at all
We were (my parents) given the option and it was recommended that we take the donor valve. Apperently they have a lower risk of infection, has the best results, can last a long time, and requires far less monitoring (less trips to the specialists).
For the donor valve its about 10% of patients after 10 years need the valve replaced, and 20% after 15 years
Also I dont need to take any medication for it unlike the other options except for the first 6 months after the surgery.
The surgery took about 8 hours from what I was told.
Intensive care wasnt so bad as I was pretty well out of it for the most part, and after a couple of days ( I think....there was no windows and the clock was too far away for me to have any concept of time.) I was taken to the ward.
I had to do breathing exercises, and walk around as much as I could (which was damn hard actually after being in bed for a few days).
Coughing was by far the most painful thing I went through (lol) whilst in there, coughing after that kind of procedure is horrible and painful as hell.
I was out in under a week
But I couldn't really do to much for about a month after as I just had no energy and was pretty sore.
