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Mitral valve repair-Open Heart better?
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Mar 2 11:20am | Replies (10)Comment receiving replies
@jlharsh Thx for the welcome! At this point my cardiologist & the surgeon seem to be hoping the ablation will relieve my sx of breathlessness etc w activity. They see my regurg plume as still moderate on TEE & despite LAvi enlargement over 54 think that I can wait for repair. They are puzzled by my intolerance of activity ( breathlessness, afib if HR goes over 115-20, lightheaded, shaky, weak feeling) and wonder if there’s a pulmonary issue. SpO2 are usually >95 and chest CT/X-rays show nothing significant. R side of heart looks fine. To be clear, above sx did improve after cardioversion and I go in and out of afib now . I was surprised that minimally invasive surgery is off the table and am trying yo get my head around that.
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@babheart I had minimally invasive mitral valve surgery coming on 2 years ago. I was told that minimally invasive surgery was more painful than a thoracotomy, but minimally invasive heals faster. So I'm surprised minimally invasive is off the table also.
More time on the pump??? I assume that's bypass; I don't know how the two would compare.
Anyway, my experiences was going into surgery around 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon and my wife could come see me around 6 or 6:30, ...as I remember. I was in intensive care that night, and moved to the cardiac center the next day.
I was in the hospital for 4 or 5 days and there was definitely some pain nothing intolerable, but all well managed by my excellent cadre of nurses. The majority of the pain was from the chest tubes - quite uncomfortable, but once removed, pain was much less. By the time I got home, I took few pain meds - I think hydrocodone for a couple days, maybe a couple times a day, then none. All the best.