Some Gory Details

First I want to thank you all for your wonderful words of support and encouragement. I'm glad that you're taking the time to read about my journey and I hope I'm somewhat entertaining!

So some of you have asked what the surgery will actually entail. This is the post that may not be for everyone to read, as it will contain some graphic descriptions, so if you have a weak stomach, stop reading now and I'll let you know when its safe :)

While my clinic is primarily a research based hospital with a concentration on finding less invasive forms of valve replacement surgery there is no easy way right now to do the valve transplantation. Also, the pulmonary valve is located on the right side of the heart, making it harder to get to. So that all means open heart surgery in order to fix my heart.

My pre-op will begin the day before at 7:30 am (yikes, I'm so not a morning person!) and will go for most of the day. I'll have blood drawn, x-rays taken and the doctors will pretty much get a baseline idea of what my body is doing right before surgery.

The day of surgery I'll go to the hospital and be checked in as an in patient. Then, based on what I've read, I'll be prepped for surgery, given drugs to knock me out and will wake up in intensive care.

During the surgery the surgeon will go in through the scar that I have from my first surgery. Thankfully the scar will not be any larger than what I already have and should heal nicely. My breastbone will be split in half and my chest opened up. My heart will be stopped and my blood will be run out of my body through a heart-lung machine throughout the surgery, oxygenating the blood while they work on my heart. The pulmonary valve, which will be made of either pig or cow tissue, will be inserted. My heart will be re-started and I'll slowly be weaned off the heart-lung machine. They'll close my chest and wire my breastbone shut again (watch out metal detectors!)

When I wake up from surgery I'll still have a breathing tube in because they want to make sure I'll be able to breath on my own. It will be removed when I can prove to the doctor's that I can breath over it. I think that is one of the parts of waking up that I'm looking least forward to. The second is the chest tubes that will be placed below my scar to allow the incision to drain properly. From what I've read its not a pleasant experience to have them removed. I guess I'll find out and report back on that later! I'll be in the intensive care unit immediately following the surgery until the doctors feel my risk of infection is low enough that I can go to the cardiac until. I know that I will be asked to stand and walk around the day after surgery because it promotes healing. They may have to pry me out of that bed though!

Ok safe to read again! :)

While all that I just wrote is fine and dandy I'm fully aware that I won't know the half of what I'm going to have to go through until I'm actually in Boston and getting ready for surgery. I'm surprisingly calm right now and am busy taking care of details so everything is in order before I go in. I also have an amazing support system from my family, Tim and my friends. I also have to shout out my bosses at Berger, DuCharme, Harp & Clark because they have been so understanding of this whole situation. I couldn't ask for better people to work for.

So thats the scoop on the actual surgery. I'll just have to wait and see how it actually goes!