Heart in the right place

[I reserve the right to pull this down at any time. I tend to overshare personal details because I am naïve and despite my reputation, fundamentally optimistic. However, if it turns out to be stupid to have this information so public, I will take it down.]

Recently, on Facebook, through inattention and the vagaries of using my phone to answer a quick question, I unwittingly created a bit of a firestorm over my health. I’M SORRRY!

Thanks for the extension of all the good wishes. I really appreciate that. I had confided in some of my homey’s the current situation, which is a I need a new heart valve. Unfortunately, I overshared in the wrong place and that went haywire (gotta look up where that expression comes from).

First the facts, I had surgery to repair my aorta and replace my heart valve 13 years ago. I freely talk about this so at this point, I figure everyone knows. But everyone does not know.

That surgery happened when I was 40. It was very challenging for my family and well, me, too. It was what is called a Bentall procedure and my valve is a Carpentier-Edwards valve.You can read about my account here.

Past Heart Surgery

My current situation came to head in February and my routine echocardiogram revealed that my current valve had moderate to severe insufficiency. That lead my great doctor, Fendley Stewart, to recommend that I have a conversation with my previous surgeon, Ed Verrier.

Dr. Verrier quickly summed up my situation by saying it is disappointing that the valve did not last longer but that this is turning out be average. He recommended me to consider a TAVR and began me the process of getting me in the study.

I am now waiting for word on that. In the meanwhile, I am in the intermediate risk category. I probably could live another 2 years with no intervention. But I will get a new valve with this new procedure, in all likelihood before the summer is over.

I was at the hospital getting tests when I posted a status that said feeling optimistic at UW Medicine. I honestly didn’t think that would stir up as much as it did. It has been an object lesson in how to not use social media. I feel the love but I have been there so often over the years for routine stuff that I didn’t think that would be some kind of trip wire for people’s emotional concern. Thanks for caring and sorry for not thinking that through and saying nothing.

So far, the test results are  good news because the new valve might possibly be placed without thoracic surgery. It is called a TAVR, transcatheter aortic replacement valve. I was on cloud nine with possibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQDVNPdEC0U

After my first surgery, I went back to work and met a guy Sam. Turns out we were both have procedures on our aortas by the same doctor in the same week. We became walking buddies because that is something we both needed to do after our procedures.

Recently, I told Sam about my need for more surgery. When he asked me on FB about it, I just blurted out my recent news. I didn’t realize at the time that it was a Post on my FB wall for everyone to see. Somehow, I didn’t take the time to grok that I wasn’t responding directly to Sam. My bad. I take full responsibility for that. Sam is still the man in my book and I’m happy to have input from him about pretty much anything. Even politics.

As I get more news, I will put it here. It is a little bit more private and I’ll try and avoid giving everyone a heart attack. Thanks to one of my buds, I was made aware of the gravitas of having just half a story out there.