Ongoing Situation

[Survivor72]

Struggling with severe aortic stenosis. Any tips will be helpful. Thank you, community.

[Yumz199725]

So sorry to hear your struggling? I have significant aortic stenosis and moderate to severe aortic regurgitation. Is it symptoms your struggling with or just the whole thing of knowing you have aortic stenosis? Either way I can totally sympathise x

[Survivor72 in reply to Yumz199725]

My coronary angiography is scheduled for early April. Likewise, one’s stenosis is significant and I have braced myself for an eventual aortic valve replacement. My symptomatology although tiring I am used to, but the ordeal of invasive heart treatment is constantly on my mind. I also empathise with your situation and wish you all the best for the future.

[Thonglor in reply to Survivor72]

Please be assured that, even if you are required to have OHS, the ordeal will be far less than your fears. At the age of 81 I had aortic valve replacement and triple by-pass OHS. Of course I knew nothing at all about the surgery part, and the several days afterwards were distinctly uncomfortable rather than the painfulness that I had expected but did not experience. And the rehab people getting me off the bed and walking (stumbling) around the hospital corridors was miserable. Soon afterwards the various tubes sticking out were progressively removed until I was discharged 14 days later. Even then I could only walk unsteadily for a couple of hundred meters or so, but progress then became quite rapid and within 3 or 4 months I was able to walk and climb steep hills without any problem. During and immediately after hospital confinement I had no appetite and mealtimes were to be dreaded because I would be pushed to eat, but appetite soon returned. Rather too well, actually. In short, it is certainly not a walk in the park, but neither is it the dreadfully painful experience that I mentally anticipated. And the relief from being able to painlessly resume all normal activities afterwards, without even thinking about it, cannot be overstated. Among the best advice I received was that your progress in recovery largely depends on the effort that you put into it. When you have walked around the hospital corridors (a totally boring experience) ask the rehab people if you can do one more round, and so on.

Of course, if you qualify for valve replacement without OHS, you will avoid much of what I have described and recovery and normalcy should be even faster.

Good luck.

[Vms49 in reply to Survivor72]

I had severe aortic stenosis but after numerous tests was told “surprisingly you have no need of by passes or stents “ only my valve was failing so I was given the choice of a TAVI at LGI best thing ever brilliant care and total success .

[MoretonCross]

I didn't find it to be an ordeal at all. But then I maintained a positive attitude and took everything as it came. It really isn't anything like as bad as your imagination can make it seem. Just look past the operation itself, and concentrate on the recovery phase. There's much to look forward to, in my case a new beginning. Stay positive, that's my advice. Otherwise you may become anxious, and there's no need for that. All the best 👍

[Bluenose10]

I, too, had aortic stenosis in my case associated with a bicuspid valve. My valve was replaced by bovine tissue. I was scared before the OHS, the moment the nurse came to shave my chest the morning of my operation was one of sheer terror. However, as others have stated, the actuality was by no means as bad as the fear had predicted. Sure, waking up still inturbated and with tubes sticking out of me was awful. I was weak and had to be encouraged to get up and stagger about. Even shifting position in the bed I so gratefully returned to was difficult. But, things very soon improved, my mobility got better, my appetite was good and I was allowed home after a week. I needed help at first but I stuck to the programme of exercise and activity issued and now, six months on, I am grand, well as grand as a man in the mid-70s gets to be. Without the OHS, I would still be very unwell or, quite probably, dead. So, yes, you are worried now, but in my experience the operation, carried out so carefully by our NHS, is transformational. Good luck with your own journey to a better life.

[Carbis]

Hopefully, like my wife , you will be considered suitable for a TAVI procedure as an alternative to OHS. If so, grab the opportunity with both hands - you won’t regret it! It takes less than an hour from start to finish, a couple of days in hospital and that’s it! Outcomes of TAVI are fantastic!