It’s always good when that proverbial Silver Lining sticks its head out. In my case this reclusive entity was sitting just north of my spleen on that CAT scan that was rapidly ordered when I made that hasty rendezvous with the guardrail on Rt. 24 a few weeks ago.
Had I not made ‘contact’ and necessitated further investigations, then it may have been a while until the disruptive aortic valve in my heart was discovered. As it was, apparently this little guy is bad enough that it almost took precedence over the spleen, but what good is a heart valve if there’s no blood to pump through it, hence they stopped the bleeding first.
The past week has been a flurry of Doctor’s appointments, each one checking off its own little box on the MDL (Must-Do List ) before valve replacement surgery. Luckily I am a candidate for the MIP (Minimally Invasive Procedure) that has an IHSR (Incredibly High Success Rate), and I should be able to RTC (Report to Training Camp) the next day and resume a full workout regime. Well, that may be slight exaggeration because I will need to spend a night in the hospital with the Breakout scheduled for the next day…..unless. Unless I fall into the 10% of the peeps that end up needing a pacemaker. This is only because of the proximity of the Valve and the Circuit Breaker Panel that is really close to it. Sometimes they don’t get along and need a mediator to calm things down, and that guy is the pacemaker. If that happens I’ll be in the Slammer for an extra day.
Then…. watch out! ‘Cuz I will be at 100% and that will make all the difference! Apparently, my AVA (Aortic Valve Area) has been somewhat compromised. Also known as Aortic Stenosis this valuation is as follows:
Normal: > 2.0 cm2
Mild Stenosis:1.5-2.0 cm2
Moderate Stenosis: 1.0- 1.5 cm2
Severe Stenosis: < 1.0 cm2
I clock in at a whopping < 0.7 cm2
When we went to the Cardio Guy he had a nifty video to show us. It was a visual explanation of how the procedure was accomplished, from the initial incision, through the ‘balloon’ thing opening the bad valve, to the insertion of the new valve being nestled right in, on top of, the old valve, and it begins working immediately as it is really only a ‘check valve’ that works mechanically when the heart pumps blood out. Currently mine is not opening enough and is making the heart work harder to get the blood out. In hindsight, with all the ramifications of the lack of blood flow, I’m betting that a good many of my ‘issues’ (including the sleepiness ) may be traced back to this.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
All of these festivities are scheduled for Monday the 22nd, This time I’ll be at St. Barnabas only because Morristown won’t have me any more after that failed break out attempt that had the S.W.A.T. team fully engaged !(see previous Post 😊)