HOCM surgery?

Well your a mt a great site for information and a lot of stories from so many different people who have or are dealing with this!
Yes if your talking alcohol ablation where they go thru the artery and basically put alcohol on the obstructive muscle tissue to basically kill the cells and flatten the obstruction!
My local cardiologist highly recommended this for me!
Bit after going to the mayo and they said because of my ykuth 57 yr old and my active lifestyle alcohol ablation would be the last recommended, he said if i was in my late 70’s and not in very good heath he would recommend, so he said i should have septal myectomy!
Tomorrow will be 4 weeks since i had it done!
The surgeon Dr Dearani said i made the right choice!
Good luck and i highly recommend going to a facility that does high volume HCM cases!
COE center of Excellence

@brumasterj How did everything go with your surgery? How are you feeling? Any surprises in terms of the whole process?

Everything went good! Surgeon said i made the right choice!
Surprised at how sore shoulders, shoulder joints, back and Lats got afterward! And how weak yku feel for a good two weeks after surgery!
Pain was manageable with tylenol:)
And the deep breathing exercises was and still is tough:)
Other than that i feel like im doing great! Stairs are no longer and issue cant wait to get back out on my mountain bike:) and maybe start running again:)

Hearing "I highly recommend you have surgery" is enough to send your mind reeling and for you to lose your equilibrium! I was almost 76 when I had my septal myectomy (@brumaster is 20 years younger than me), and all went extremely well. From reading the stories of others, my surgery and hospital stay were practically boring, I remember no pain/soreness at all. Dr Schaff was my surgeon. I was and still am in good physical shape (walk 10K with my walking club often, walk alone on other days and go to the gym). Learn all you can and be sure to go to a Center of Excellence. Yes, this is a scary decision, and I am sending you courage to see this through.

Love hearing how active you are! I always talk about how i want to be on the mountain bike trails well into my 70’s whooping up on the youth:)
Tha ks for sharing

Hi @kay930
I don't blame you for being scared being told you need surgery. You also mention an ablation, which is done through a catheter and not open heart surgery. They are very different approaches and procedures.
I found this online:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32386304/
Myectomy vs alcohol septal ablation

I was desperate to NOT have open heart surgery. I asked about alcohol ablation and was told it was inferior to surgical septal myectomy because they cannot control the amount of heart tissue death they are initiating with the procedure. In other words they could kill too much heart tissue, which is bad, or not kill enough, which means you get no relief of your HOCM.
I asked about minimally invasive myectomy, and was told I was also not a candidate for that due to my obstruction size.
So...with great trepidation I was scheduled for the open heart surgery.
Best decision I ever made!
I don't want to sound like it's no big deal...because if you have never had open heart surgery you will NOT think it is not a big deal...you will think it IS a big deal! And it is a big deal, but it's way bigger in your head than reality.

Have you had a chance to read the posts on Connect about open heart surgery?

Depending on where you have your surgery and making certain your doctor and surgeon are top notch and at a Center of Excellence (Which Cedars-Sinai is BTW) you will go through the decision making process like we all do. Once you let go, trust that you are in the best hands possible and have faith, your fears will be less. Not gone. Just less.
When do you see the Cedar-Sinai Dr?

I was going to have Alcohol Septel Ablation, done after a failed Septel Myectomy. I had it scheduled but the more I thought about it the more I read up about it I canceled the procedure.
I will tell everyone please make sure you have your procedure done at a hospital like Mayo, or Cleveland Clinic that have performed 1000 of these types of procedures.
I am very limited in the state I live in and wasn't able to have it done at a hospital if Excellence, and Six months later my HCM returned and I am in limbo because my insurance is not excepted.
I am in such pain out of breath I can even hardly walk my dog or do the things I love to do , I loved being outdoors and now life has left me with a void a empty feeling.
Please if you read this listen to what the mentors say to you go to a hospital that do these types of surgery's everyday.
I thought I did my research , and it didn't take six months for it to return.
I have no answers from anyone why it came back .
I hope this helps someone to make your life better go to a Hospital If Excellence And Make Sure Your Insurance Will Cover It ,