Hi heartbreaker,
Why would you choose not to have CABG? It took me quite a while to work up the courage to agree to the triple valve surgery and CABG. Everything I’ve read indicates my odds of surviving the surgery are not wonderful. But I have confidence that the surgeons at Mayo will give me the best shot possible- at least at living through the surgery. Quality of life on the other side is a mystery and a huge gamble. Right now, I function independently, and while I’m limited physically compared to my personal past (for example, I can no longer swim because I get severely out of breath), there are many who are far worse off than I. I’ve asked myself “should I just roll the dice and skip this massive surgery and enjoy what time I have left?”. I wish I had a more concrete view of what the progression of this disease will look like without surgical intervention. In the absence of that knowledge, my decision-making is driven by faith in the skill of the docs and my own lifelong compulsion to fix what’s broken.