Heart Valve Replacement Surgery

While you are having your heart valve replacement surgery, a heart-lung machine will be used to allow your surgeon to carefully stop your heart while your vital organs continue to receive blood and oxygen.

This very necessary machine allows your surgeon to perform very delicate surgery on your heart valves without the pumping motion of your heart.

During my heart valve replacement, I was on the bypass machine for 166 minutes. Can you imagine it, my heart was stopped for all that time while my surgeon worked his magic.

Before you have your valve replacement surgery, your surgeon will more than likely put you on or you may already be taking Coumadin also known as Warfarin. You will also probably be on the Coumadin for a awhile after the surgery.

These blood thinners are used to prevent clotting, and you have to have your INR checked frequently to make sure that your blood is within the desired range. This means that you have to trot down to the Coumadin Clinic or lab to get your finger pricked for the little blood test.

What you eat has a lot to do with whether you stay in range or not. For example, eating green leafed salads which are full of vitamin K will lower your INR, Usually, your surgeon will want you to stay between 2 to 3.

After your heart valve replacement surgery, your surgeon will probably send you home with oxygen. Usually you won't have to be on it for more than a few weeks unless you have other problems.

After heart valve replacement, your heart needs time to heal and it's just not strong enough to pump hard enough to furnish your body with the oxygen it needs.

Look in your local phone book for an oxygen vendor. They will bring the tanks and all the other paraphernalia that goes along with them right to your house. They will show you how to set it up and how to use everything.

Make sure that someone in addition to yourself hears and understands the instructions. When I first got home from the hospital, I was too sick and too doped up to remember much.

Although, I was mighty glad to get off the oxygen, at first I was too weak to push the tank around by myself, so one of my support people had to push it for me. I stayed on it for several weeks while I was exercising.

When my heart surgeon told me that I needed either a heart valve repair or a valve replacement surgery depending on what he found when he got in there, I don't mind admitting that I was scared. The very thought of open heart surgery sent shivers through my body.

Like you, I wanted to know what to expect before the surgery, during the surgery, and during the recovery time. If your surgeon is like mine, he doesn't have the time or the inclination to answer the many questions that pop into your head.

A friend, who is an Internet research buff, got on the computer and found Adam Pick's book, A Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Replacement Surgery. Talk about a stress reliever, Adam covers everything from choosing a Doctor to getting a second opinion to what to expect during your heart surgery recovery phase and everything in between.

Open heart surgery can be a very confusing, emotional and stressful time for patients and their caregivers. Adam's book goes a long way toward bringing your anxiety and stress levels down.