TAVI and pain meds

[SandraLlew]

What is the feeling about TAVI? I read it is riskier than SAVR, also pain medication not so keen on epidurals

Sandra

[Wurliwonder]

I had a TAVI procedure just over a week ago. No epidural involved. I took 2 Paracetamol tablets before the surgery but needed nothing afterwards. I've been pain free since. I had some complications so the surgery took a little longer than expected.

The surgeon went through all the risks before I signed the consent form and I was able to ask questions. Nothing in life is without some risk and doing nothing wasn't an option.

As I live on my own, the worst things for me are the restrictions on driving, lifting etc., but I have excellent neighbours and friends to help.

[SandraLlew in reply to Wurliwonder]

i have to have it and the surgeon was talking about epidural pain blockers but I may have confused that with the lung surgery I have to have within 2 weeks of the TAVI.

[Ageingfast]

dea r Sandra

One aspect of TAVi is that it doesn’t always work. How often I don’t know, but my surgeons hinted that TAVi wasn’t right for me due to the need to divert to open heart if the TAVi didn’t work.

I was lucky to have two surgeons advise me, one OHS and one TAVi.

Sooty

[SandraLlew in reply to Ageingfast]

Sadly I have lung cancer and they won't do the surgery without the TAVI, I am also uncomfortable about it, research suggests it's not as good as SAVR.

[Ageingfast in reply to SandraLlew]

dear Sandra

OHS to replace an aortic valve is incredibly safe and certain. Compared to that TAVi is less certain. However, a failure at TAVi doesn’t have terrible outcome whereas a failure with OHS is pretty bad.

So TAVi has many good points and I hope a few people can emphasise the plus points.

I am so sad to hear about your cancer. You don’t deserve cancer and heart issues.

Best wishes

Sooty

[SandraLlew in reply to Ageingfast]

Thank you, I was given the choice of TAVI then Lobectomy or Radiation therapy and SAVR at some point. Not really a choice, I'm fairly certain it will have to be re-done at some point which is why the cardiologist never suggested it.