Two year "anniversary"

Two years ago today, at just about this time of the day, I was on my way to surgery to have my heart's aortic valve and a good piece of my aorta replaced and repaired. I'm doing very well physically and mentally (some might argue that point :-) today due in no small part to the efforts of a very dedicated and skilled surgical team under the direction of Dr. D. Craig Miller from the Stanford School of Medicine at Stanford University Hospital in Palo Alto, California. I spent 10 hours that day in surgery. During about 4 of those hours Medtronic equipment and tubing circulated and oxygenated my blood while my heart was stopped for the repair procedure. I have a nice zipper scar down the center of my chest. Surgery, recovery, and recuperation were all routine and without complication. This year my cardiologist said he doesn't need to see me for two years! I take the anti-coagulant coumadin every day (for life) to reduce the chance of blood clots forming on the valve. My coumadin dose has been stable since shortly after surgery with no complications or side-effects to date.

You can read all about what happened two years ago in this blog if you care to. I refreshed my memory of the events as Deb so carefully recorded them and I am very happy to be here looking back instead of where I was two years ago! This is one memory I don't ever want to repeat!

I have been extremely thankful throughout this entire chapter of my life. I am thankful this congenital problem was found before it made my heart very sick. Dr. Miller told my family when we met with him before surgery that, without correction, the chances were not good that I could have survived more than two years. I'm beyond that point now, so I've got a new lease on life today! I am thankful to have a connection with Dr. Stephen Oesterle, Medtronic's Senior VP of Medicine and Technology, who connected me with Dr. Miller. I am thankful to have the support of my wonderful family, friends, and colleagues. Most of all, I am very thankful to have my wonderful partner and wife, Deb, watching my back all the way. All in all, I'm a very thankful (and lucky) guy -- no doubt about it!

Dad, mom, Deb, and I spent Friday night celebrating. We started this journey together two years ago and it was fitting that we celebrate together all we've been through then and since. I thank all three of them for the support, care, and love they have shown me during this side-trip. Deb even wrote me a poem to mark the occasion. I have posted it separately here - it choked me up Friday night at dinner when she read it to us. She continues to amaze me every day!

Thanks to everyone who supported mom, dad, Deb, and I during this roller coaster detour through our lives. We felt your presence in so many ways and it truly helped us all get through it with smiles, laughs, and comfort!

Jon

One year "anniversary"

Three hundred and sixty four days ago I spent 10 hours in an operating room with my chest cracked open so that my congenitally defective aortic valve and several inches of aorta connected to my heart could be removed and replaced by Dr. Craig Miller at Stanford University Hospital with an "after market" upgrade. My heart was cooled to 50 degrees F, and if I'm reading the paperwork correctly my body or parts of it anyway were cooled to 70 degrees F! I was on cardiopulmonary bypass for 228 minutes. I now have a mechanical valve ticking away in my chest and I get to be on blood thinners for the rest of my life. I have an impressive scar down the middle of my chest and a fully healed sternum. But, I'm still here, I'm back to full health, and I've had no complications at all. I am thankful to be here looking back and seeing how well things went. Standing on the other side 365 nights ago was just a little intimidating! Tomorrow will be a much better day than September 18, 2009 was. I'm looking forward to having a celebration dinner with my amazing wife and my incredible parents tomorrow night. Last year I just wasn't up for dinner :-)

Jon

Back to Work in the Ninth Week of Recovery

I started back to work on Monday of this week for the first time since Sep 14. I'm working six hour days until Thanksgiving, and then I'll start full time work again on Nov 30. I worked Mon-Thu this week, took Friday as a vacation day, and felt pretty good all week. However, as the week wore on, I wore down a bit and by Thursday afternoon I was feeling the burn. Guess I'm not quite back to full speed yet, but nobody (except maybe me :-) expected me to be.

It was sure good to see old friends I haven't seen in so long and to reconnect with colleagues again. I'm slowly catching up with where my work team has gone since I left. Several changes and many new plans to absorb. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things again, but a lot has happened in the two months I've been on the sidelines.

I've fallen off the wagon a bit with my walking, but I got back on track with a 45 minute walk this morning. It felt good to be walking again with some of my aches and pains healed up.

Yesterday was a rough day for me. For some reason I woke up with a nasty pain in my back and my left arm. Don't know if I slept on my side wrong or what, but I was feeling pretty crappy. Spent some time on the heating pad and by mid-afternoon the pain was pretty much gone. Since I can't take aspirin or ibuprofen any more, I've had to find new and creative ways to deal with aches and pains. Tylenol has never been an effective pain reliever for me, so I can't really count on that for much. After the pain was gone, I was feeling pretty tired so I spent the rest of the day horizontal on the couch watching college football.

Deb made up a dinner for a friend of ours from the lake who had surgery this week. We delivered it to Charlie and his wife at around dinner time. Charlie looks like he is doing pretty well, though he and I both recognize that feel of being "lost" during our recovery. We were his third group of visitors for the day, so we didn't stay long, but we are glad to see him doing well.

I wanted to do some Christmas decorating and maybe even get the monster Christmas tree up in the great room this weekend because the weather was so nice. However, didn't turn out to be a good idea, so I'll have to do it later when I'm feeling up to it a bit more.

I did get out for one event this weekend. Deb and I and Matt and Theresa P. had planned to attend a meat raffle at the Stacy Bar the week I started back to work, so we lived up to our plan this week. We were joined by our friend John E. and we all had a good time. Matt and Theresa won three times, and Deb and I won twice. Before we left, Gene H. from work stopped by and we found out he lives near Stacy, so we consider him one of our neighbors as well. We plan to all get together and do this again soon. On the way home, we stopped at Dave's and Barb's house to say hi and visit for a short time. After that it was home, some supper, and then to bed.

Looking forward to the short work week ahead and then Thanksgiving. We are having our Thanksgiving with our daughters and their families on Saturday. Looking forward to the full house, playing with grandsons, and the good food everyone is bringing!

Working to return to full speed.

Jon

Eighth Week of Recovery

This eighth week since surgery marks my last one away from work! On Monday, Nov. 16 I am returning to work. My doctor cleared me to return with no restrictions or limitations. I will be easing back into the swing of things with shortened work days until the Thanksgiving holiday. This will be my next big transition in returning to 100%. My new 100% should be well above my old pre-surgery 100%. So far, I feel like I've past that old high water mark, but we'll see how it goes once workdays are back in the mix.

I finally finished writing all my thank you cards. Now I just have to distribute them. Many will be coming to work with me next week, some go to our neighbors, and some need stamps. It feels good to have this job behind me!

I've continued my walking and my doctor has let me know that just because I'm back at work is no excuse to give up on the walking and healthy diet habits. Looks like I'll have to dust off the old elliptical machine for those bone chilling winter days ahead!

My blood clotting ratio (INR) is holding steady at 2.3, which is within my acceptable range, so they've moved my next check out a full month and my warfarin dosage remains the same at 8 mg per day.

Deb and I made an unplanned trip to my old home town in Iowa this past Tuesday and Wednesday to attend a funeral. My dear friends from high school (and two of Deb's new dear friends), Brian and Claudia, lost Claudia's mom to brain cancer last week. We went down to lend whatever support we could and to help them mourn and celebrate Norma's wonderful life. We were glad we were able to be there for them! As a nice side benefit, Deb and I were able to catch up a bit with another of my dear friends from high school, Kurt. He had some great stories for us about his sons and their journeys through life -- it was great to connect again even if for just a short time. The trip involved 8 hrs of driving in just over one full day and while we were tired last night when we got back, we both survived the trip. I feel like I passed another hurdle toward full health. I drove both ways and experienced no ill effects from it.

Next update should be with some work experience under my belt. We shall see how that transition goes!

Jon

Seventh Week of Recovery

This seventh week of recovery since my surgery has been pretty uneventful. I've stepped up my daily walks to 45 minutes for the first walk of the day and then 25 minutes for a second walk when I can get it in. I've continued to walk at a pretty brisk pace and I've started tracking my heart rate during the walk. I've been maintaining about a 110-120 beats per minute rate during my walks. According to what I've read, for cardiac rehabilitation I should be keeping my heart rate between 100 and 117, so I'm operating in the right range. I've had no real issues with this level of effort (except for the usual aches and pains of a 53 year old couch potato :-).

We did get some bad news this week. We just found out that my best friend from high school lost his mother-in-law to cancer. I went to high school and junior high with my best friend and his wife and we've stayed in contact throughout our lives after high school. We will be traveling back to my old hometown in Iowa for the funeral this week. Deb and I will be leaving Tuesday afternoon and returning Wednesday evening. We are extremely sad for Brian and Claudia and we really hope that we can help them some little bit just by being there for them.

This trip to Iowa should be a pretty good test of my endurance! I'm going to share the driving duties on this trip, but don't expect any complications. I'll be rescheduling my doctor appointment to sometime just after we get back from Iowa so that my doctor and I can factor my level of fatigue from this trip into our decision about my coming back to work on Nov. 16. I still feel like I'm on track and ready to start with somewhat shortened days to get back in the swing of things. We will have to see what my doctor thinks about that idea.

I also have another checkup on my coumadin and anti-coagulation levels this week. I will be moving my anti-coag appointment to sometime before we leave for Iowa so that I can adjust my prescription before we travel if necessary.

Saturday this weekend was another busy day. I accomplished several tasks around the house that need to get done before winter. Our youngest daughter, Nikki, and our oldest grandson, Jacob, came to visit on Saturday. Jacob helped me with some of my tasks and he also helped grandma pick apples at the neighbors house. He even chowed down on a couple of the apples he picked! We watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD and we played some. Then grandma and grandpa needed to have some downtime so we could rest up for an evening of fun with friends. We met at our house and then went to dinner in Forest Lake and then back to our house. We had good conversation with good company. I was pretty tired at the end of Saturday, but it was a very good day in every regard!

I've failed in my efforts to catch up on my thank yous, so this next week will require me to focus on this task. I know I can get this done - wish me luck :-)

This next week will see me preparing myself mentally to get back to work. I'm looking forward to getting back in the swing of things, but this is the longest I've been out of work since I was about 16 years old. I'm just not sure how rusty I'm going to feel when I start back. I have a feeling next weekend will be a pretty quiet weekend for me as I pre-charge by batteries.

Last week away from work (probably) coming up!

Jon

Fourth Week of Recovery

Not much new to report this week, except more good progress and no significant setbacks.

I'm up to two 20 minute walks per day now, weather permitting (and sometimes this week NOT!). Saturday and Sunday allowed me to get two good walks in each day. My goal this week is to reach three 20 minute walks per day at least once or twice.

I continue to work with my local anti-coagulation clinic to titrate my warfarin levels. My INR (the ratio of my clotting time to an average person's) is supposed to be in the range of 1.5 - 2.5. Last week I dropped to 1.8 and this week it dropped further to 1.6 in spite of an uplift in dosage. The pharmacist says this is normal as activity levels go up and as I've stopped taking pain medicine. This week we up it to 8 mg per day and we will check it again on Wednesday. Based on the pharmacist's calculation, moving up to 8 mg per day should boost my INR by about 1 point, but my activity level continues to climb so I expect to be somewhere over 2.0 at my next check. Diet is also a potential contributor.

Speaking of diet, my appetite does seem to be coming back. I've also started taking Activia and other yogurts with bifidus regularus to see if I can re-prime my digestive system to start working better and to reduce constipation. So far I think it is working and that part of my recovery seems to be improving well. My food intake is up a bit, but my weight is still down a bit more. I'm now registering below 195 pounds some days.

I'm still not sleeping extremely soundly, but I am getting adequate sleep for my activity level it seems. I've got several books to get through, and some puzzle books, and some DVDs to watch, so I've got plenty to distract me. This week I should start putting a dent in the pile. I've also got a raft of thank yous to write and I've been very poor about getting this done.

Today, our good friends on the lake, Dave Karsky and his son Kevin, came by to pull our dock out of the lake. We managed to get enough pulling power with my SUV and once we got everything arranged and tow straps in place, we had it out of the water in about 10 minutes. It took 30-45 minutes of preparation, but it is very nice to have this fall chore out of the way. I think we can handle any kind of weather mother nature throws at us now!

We had several visits from friends and coworkers this week and another of our neighbors delivered lasagna dinner to us on Thursday evening. On a down note, we had our last dinner out at the Log Cabin restaurant with Mom and Dad. They leave on Tuesday morning to drive back to their winter home on Marco Island in Florida. We will miss having them so close by -- they have been a great source of comfort and help to both Deb and I during this journey. We wish them a safe and uneventful trip home. We plan to visit them in January or February and we look forward to their return in the spring! I passed my cane on to my Mom who is having some knee problems that she will have looked at in Florida. I'm doing well enough that I no longer need a cane to get around.

My goals this week are to catch up on my thank you notes, call Stanford to discuss my return to work plan, work up to three walks per day, and to continue to recover as best I can. I'm also trying very hard to avoid the H1N1 flu bug and hopefully I can get a shot from my clinic as soon as they have the virus injections on hand.

The cats are getting very used to having me around all the time and I think I'm becoming one of their favorite napping spots during the afternoons :-)

The recovery continues,

Jon

Third Week of Recovery

On Friday, Oct 9, I completed my third week of recovery since surgery. I had an up and down week and struggled with some abdominal discomfort that appears to have been constipation related to the pain meds and other medications I'm currently on.

I went to the doctor on Thursday and checked in on a bunch of questions I had about various things related to my recovery. I received advice about managing my constipation better. I found out that as soon as the H1N1 virus shot is available I need to get in to get it. I found out that I should be trying to stop taking my pain meds if I could tolerate it. Turns out I have been able to tolerate it pretty well and I haven't taken any since I went to bed on Saturday evening! Some minor discomfort in the area of the breast bone and incision and some back spasms, but essentially no pain to speak of. I wanted to check on my dosage of beta blockers for blood pressure because it seems my blood pressure is often pretty low. I found out that we really want to keep my blood pressure as low as I can stand, so I'm staying with the current dosage for now.

I've been working hard on walking and my breathing exercises. The weather has been pretty crappy for walking, but today I walked around the "block" that our house is on and it took my 20 minutes (in the snow and all :-). That is the longest continuous walk I've taken so far. I was moving right along and had no issues with balance or fatigue. I'm just about to give up the cane and get back on just my own two feet!

My appetite is still pretty weak and my stomach is pretty messed up with all the drugs I've been on as well as just recovering from surgery I imagine. My weight is down about 15 lbs now and seems to have stabilized. I haven't weighed this much in many, many years. I wouldn't recommend this as a diet plan, but I can tell you that the unintended consequence is that it is one.

The cats are very happy that I am home all day and they love coming by and "snuggling" with me as I watch TV or snooze during the day. Daytime TV is pretty bad and I'm not yet reading real strong, so the days can be pretty long some times. I've got one book I'm working through and others on tap, so I have no shortage of reading material to get through.

Deb has been working early days and taking an hour of vacation each day so she can get home in time to spend the afternoon with me and make me some lunch. It is nice to have her around when I'm feeling crappy and when I'm feeling good. She has been a real trooper -- doing all the household chores, hers and mine. She's pretty worn out most of the time! She even hosted a couple of get togethers this weekend of friends, relatives, and well wishers. I don't know how she does it all!

I'm not sure how much recovery I have left. By the current date that the FMLA folks have I have three weeks left, but I need to check in with the folks in California to see what they have to say and to figure out how we are going to make the determination of when I can go back. It seems like things are progressing extremely well, in spite of my minor setbacks, but what do I know -- I'm just the patient not the doctor! I'll check in with them this week.

I had great intentions of coming to the Medtronic Mounds View campus on Friday for a short visit to the last day of the S&T conference and to say hi to my colleagues, but I thought better of it. I decided it was best to forgo that visit and just stay away from all the people and potential sources of illness I might pick up. I need to keep my recovery on track so I can get back to work full time as soon as possible.

Thanks to everyone for everything. I'm running behind on my thank you cards, but I have started working on them. Hopefully I'll catch up this week.

Continuing to recover at home.

Jon

A Visit With the Family

My daughters, their families, and their grandparents came to visit us this afternoon. Deb and I really enjoyed their visit. Our grandsons were in fine form today.

Jacob (3 1/2 yrs) brought a collection of his "guys" to play with and then proceeded to get out a lot of his toys we have here for him. He had to make sure "papa" showed everyone his scar, just in case anyone didn't know he'd had surgery. He thought it was a pretty good looking scar :-) He was an active boy and gave us lots of chuckles during the afternoon as his imagination worked for all of us to see! Grandma and Jacob played lots of games and Jacob kept grandma on her toes all afternoon.

Henry (3 months) was a cutie pie, as always. He became the pass around pack for most of the afternoon. At one point between feedings he fell asleep in grandpa's arms while I rocked him in the chair. I'm convinced the way he was laying that he could hear grandpa's new "ticker" and found it soothing and relaxing. He slept for a good 1/2 hour or so -- it was a special time for grandpa.

Grandma baked chocolate chip cookies for everyone and set up milks all around for us -- yum, yum!

GG (great grandma) and great grandpa just marvel at Jacob and Henry and just have a lot of fun with them when they are around. Jacob entertains and Henry charms.

It was good for Deb and I to see Nikki, Jessi, and Luke again, on this side of our adventure. We are all relieved to be back together under nearly normal conditions again. No more big adventures anytime soon, we hope!

Deb and I are both tired from our visit, but we wouldn't have it any other way. It did our hearts good to be back in the company of family again!

We received a cute card and gift from the Medtronic CRDM Core Product Development VP and his staff. We also received dinner last night and tonight from my System Engineering group at Medtronic. So many blessings we have -- it is beyond humbling and very therapeutic!

Jon

Pretty Good Day

We had a pretty good day today. My abdominal pain seems to be back under control with more careful control of the timing between pain meds doses. I'm taking 1/2 doses every 4-5 hours and that seems to have put everything under better control. I'm also doing better with fluids and exercise. I got a 15 minute walk outdoors in this afternoon -- what a fantastic day! Hope to take another stroll before sunset.

Saw my local doctor this morning and got all set up with the anti-coagulation clinic to monitor my blood thinner dosage.

Found out it was our neighbors, Wally and Carole Ostlie who put the banner up on our garage door -- very nice to come home to!

Today we received a big batch of Chicken Teriyaki from the Good Earth from my work group, and a big "bouquet" of fruit from Kelly and Molly. Very nice!

Received and answered several nice e-mails.

All in all, a pretty good day I'd say!

Jon

Good To Go!

Deb and I just got back from the medical center and Dr. Miller and his team have given us the green light to go home. We have everything set for tomorrow and should be back on the ground in Minnesota around 6:00 PM tomorrow evening! Neither of us can wait. California is beautiful and everyone here has been just fantastic, but we need to get home. Mom and Dad are picking us up at the airport.

I have an appointment with my family doctor right away Wednesday morning to transfer care responsibility to him for the remainder of my recuperation. Return to work date was set today at 8 weeks from the date of surgery. This puts me back Nov 16 on a part time basis as tolerated. I'm looking forward to getting back, but I'm also looking forward to recuperating at home and letting my sternum heal up good and solid.

Dr. Miller told me to take it easy, and he knows that will be tough for me, because he said when they tried to cross-match my blood they found out my closest match was mule :-) Apparently someone has been talking out of school about me!

One big hurdle left to jump and them we settle into, hopefully, a bunch of small ones in friendly confines of home.

Thanks everyone -- can't wait to catch up with all of you in person at some point in time!

Jon

Vikings Win!

OK, so I know I probably shouldn't have watched the game, and I admit it looked pretty much like a scripted Vikings debacle plenty of the game, but even when the Vikes gave the ball back late in the game I couldn't give up on them. Brett Favre was still in the game and Bernard Berrian had even started catching something once in a while. Of course, when that final touchdown happened I might have gotten a little excited, in spite of doctors orders not too :-) After that lunch and a little nap and then breathing exercises. Deb "practice packed" the suitcases just to make sure we could get everything home on Tuesday and it looks like we are good to go. Now we can relax a bit, keep up on the Colts game and look forward to Monday!

Way to go Vikes!

Jon

Good Morning...

I'm delinquent in keeping up my end of the bargain on this blog. I may have a reason to be a bit tired, but that isn't really an excuse. I'm feeling very well today, even better than yesterday which I think has been my best day so far since the surgery. My vitals are rock solid, I've lost 12 pounds since I left the hospital loaded with water, and I'm sleeping pretty well. My appetite is definitely off, which explains the weight loss, but I'm getting 3 squares a day thanks to Deb's efforts. Hasn't she just been great through all this. I know I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for putting up with my crap as I recover, sometimes crabbily. She did a fantastic job with the blog while I was out of circulation and I will encourage her to keep posting her side of the story as we continue to move forward on this detour through life.

The one problem I still have, that is a known side effect of this surgery, is that my vision is extremely muddied right now. I don't know what the cause is, maybe heart-lung machine, maybe anesthesia, who knows (I'll look it up online later). No matter, I can't wait for this effect to fade so I can get back to reading at my normal glacial pace.

We are waiting to catch the Vikings-49ers game this morning and looking forward to a wonderful and relaxing Sunday in CA. Tomorrow we go see the surgeon for my wound check and to get our "walking papers" back to MN. I am really looking forward to getting back home and settling into the rest of this recovery. Not sure what setbacks may be facing us, but so far so very good! Tomorrow I should find out when my tentative "return to work" date is and we will work toward that. Conventional wisdom says 6-8 weeks minimum from date of surgery for the sternum bone to heal. That would put us somewhere in the Nov 2 - 16 timeframe for at least a part time return to work.

We are looking forward to catching up with Mom and Dad and thanking them profusely for their fantastic support of both of us during the first week of this journey. We are also looking forward to a visit from my daughters and their families. We have really missed them and we want to see our wonderful grandsons, even if it is just a short visit!

Have a great day everyone. I know I will never be able to thank you all enough for the good thoughts, prayers, and energy you've all sent our way and the help it has given us in getting through this!

Thanks,

Jon

Not for the Faint of Heart (Round 2)...

Here is that better picture we promised, hot off the pixels :-)

Jon

Not for the Faint of Heart...

Here is a cell phone quality, slightly blurred phone of my scar before I left the hospital. I think you will get the idea. We will get a better one today and send it out later.

Getting better and strong in CA outside the hospital walls!

Jon

Missed it by that much :-)

Well, I didn't actually get sprung from stir today :-( But, not to worry we aren't (yet) moving the return to Minnesota date. I have a bit too much fluid around the heart and in the lungs still today, so they are bumping up my Lasix dose to move the fluid out. We will reassess tomorrow morning with another echocardiogram and hopefully be back on schedule! We were idling the engines ready to go when the last minute wave off happened. We didn't come all this way to do this halfway or ignore our doctors recommendations, so we continue to do the "right" thing even if we don't want to!

Love everyone - starting to come back fully online!

Jon

My Last Post For a While...

We are back at the hotel for the evening. Mom, Dad, Deb, and I just met with the surgeon. Dr. Miller still thinks mechanical is the wise choice and Medtronic Freestyle is definitely out (not safe for a re-operation). Medtronic Mosaic is the best tissue option, St. Jude mechanical is the best overall option (for long term surgical outcomes). Long term durability of transcatheter is still uncertain. I have until tomorrow morning to make my final decision, but based on everything so far I'm back to leaning toward the mechanical. I can't imagine having to go through this again in 10-15 years (I don't want to do it this time!). The dosage of Coumadin I have to take is very low and about as minimally problematic as it can get. The clicking of the valve is something to consider, but less of a problem than it used to be. I have some stuff to sleep on.

Haven't heard anything from the hospital to indicate I can't have the surgery tomorrow (blood tests, etc) so the roller coaster is just about to the top of the first massive hill. We have to be at the hospital by 5:00 and surgery begins at 7:30 AM Pacific time. Dr. Miller is clearly the right guy to do this and his team is also very good and reassuring. Here we go!

We have heard from many of you and we appreciate all the good thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. This is all pretty much out of our hands now. We are counting on your continued support to keep the energy wave coming our way! Keep it up and we will catch up with you on the other side. Look for updates from Deb for a while. She gets to carry all the load for now!

Thanks,
Jon

Arrived in CA

Arrived in California safe and sound. Checked in and settling in. More later.

Last Day at Work (For A While)

Today is our last day at work, for a while. Deb will be off for three or four weeks and Jon will be off until approximately Thanksgiving. Very strange feeling walking out today and thinking about what is ahead of us next. Our routine has been seriously disrupted and won't get back to anything resembling normal for quite some time. We are staying home tomorrow to pack, make sure we have everything to take with us, and have an opportunity if we've forgotten anything important to still have a chance to recover. Have to drop off one of the cats (Dakota) at a kitty kennel so he can be watched to make sure his urinary issues are truly solved and don't flare up again. Have to make a quick trip to Mounds View for Deb to drop off some StampIn Up stuff at Medtronic. While we are there we will meet with one of the program managers for Medtronic tissue valves to get one more shot of data to help us make our final decision. Dinner tomorrow night with Mom & Dad and then home to bed so we can get up bright and early Wednesday and trek to the airport with Mom & Dad through rush hour traffic (oh goody :-) Our level of anxiety is climbing rapidly, but we know we've done everything we can to eliminate as many unknowns as possible. We have that one last decision about which type of valve to select, but we are closing in on that decision quickly. The journey continues ...

Jon

One Week and Counting

One week from tonight, we will be in California preparing for surgery in the morning. We will have our meeting with the Dr. Miller next Thursday evening where we can ask all those last minute questions we have about the procedure. Hopefully, Jon will have decided whether to go with the mechanical or the tissue valve at this meeting. Final instructions will be confirmed. Barring any extraordinary circumstances, the journey through this curve ball of life, will be all but at our doorstep. Trepidation is rising, but that seems somehow normal. If something like this doesn't scare you, something else would probably be wrong with you :-)

My parents are traveling to Stanford University with us and will be with us for about a week. They will be a comfort to Deb during her hours of uncertainty and waiting. I'll be a bit preoccupied, so they will have lots to talk about. Once I wake up, I'm sure we'll have some wonderful conversations that I won't remember anything of. Hopefully, they can share them with me after my lucidity returns (maybe it will increase over it's present level?).

Three work days left for Jon, two for Deb, and one more weekend. Dad and I put the pontoon into storage for the season on Tuesday this week. The to do list is getting shorter, which is good because there isn't a lot of room (or rather time) on it for many more items.

Wow, time is really flying by now!

Jon

What Did the Cardiologist Report

So, I met with Dr. Brian Ip, Minnesota Heart at Fairview Southdale on July 28. Dr. Ip informed me that I did indeed have Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease and that I had a severe aortic valve stenosis. I had no idea I had this congenital condition until July 28, 2009 -- some 53+ years since I was born with it. Apparently it is very common for people to "discover" this condition in their 40s or 50s. I'm right on schedule. Typically, symptoms are pretty severe, and in my case, other than the fatigue I was largely asymptomatic.

Dr. Ip continued to explain my situation. Severe stenosis exists when the valve opening area is less then 1.0 mm square. My reading was estimated at 0.8 mm square. Normal is greater then 1.5 mm square. I wasn't getting a lot of blood through this important valve, the one between the left ventricle and the "alaska pipeline" feeding fresh, oxygenated blood to my body. No wonder I was so tired! Dr. Ip ordered a CT angiogram to verify the condition of the valve, the aortic root, and the aorta itself. This disease I had is a connective tissue disorder that often affects the valve, the root, and the ascending aorta. Sometimes it even involves the aortic arch. The angiogram confirmed the valve was badly calcified, the ascending aorta was bulging and I was going to need a valve job and relatively quickly at that. I made sure to get a copy of every piece of information about my condition right away so I could use it to consult with a surgeon, as soon as we found one.

Now the big question was who would we find to do the work, where would we go, and when would we be going there? And, how would we start letting our family and friends know about what was facing us?

Jon