Okay, for the record I had Critical Aortic Stenosis.

Basically, that meant that my aortic valve was not letting enough blood through. The heart had to work harder to push the "right" amount of blood through. After a diagnostic procedure, it was determined that my aortic valve had to be replaced.

Here's a picture of the heart. The valves are defined and there are some different type of replacement valves.

I was told the valve replacement surgery would last approximately an hour and a half to two hours.

Okay, don't take my word for this because I didn't see it happen. (I was anesthetized!) After you're out, they slice you open and BREAK your sternum (breast bone). The surgeon then has access to your heart.

Here is how the valve is replaced.
Note: The real pictures are not of my surgery.

Here's a picture of the type of valve that I have in my heart.

The doctors said it would take at least 8 weeks for the sternum to fully mend. Also a good time to do a lot of walking and breathing exercises to gain stamina and strength.

Timeline

Here's a timeline of the happenings...

The year: 2003

First a little background. I was born with a heart murmur.

January 30 - I got a REAL bad sore throat. (Found out it was strep throat.)
Strep throat can also cause excess stress on your heart.

February 3 - Nearing the end of my work day, I lost consciousness. I was transported via EMS ambulance to Southwest General Hospital. In the emergency room was when I was first told that I lost consciousness because of stenosis. I was then admitted for observation.

February 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 - I was in the hospital.
During these days, I was given antibiotics (through an IV) to combat the strep throat.
On the 7th, I was told that I was going to be transported on the 10th to the Baptist Hospital downtown. The reason for the change? Heart catheterization.

Heart catheterization is a procedure where they go in through an artery in your leg. They run "tubes" up the artery to your heart. The purpose is to open a blockage in either a vein or a valve.
The doctors thought that the stenosis was caused by a blocked valved.

February 10 - Transported to another hospital and Heart Catheterization
During this procedure, the cardiologist wasn't able to reach my valve. He tried three times with different size "tubes" but couldn't reach the valve.
The cardiologist said he was going to talk to a heart surgeon and ask his opinion of the next step. In the recovery room was where I found out
that I had Critical Aortic Stenosis.

I was then told that I would have surgery to replace my bad valve THE NEXT DAY.
What was really freaky was that it was that quick it was decided that I was going to need open heart surgery.
In the recovery room, a man next to me was told that he was going to need triple-bypass surgery and that they were
"lining" him up for the surgery later in the afternoon.

February 11 - Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery

Before the surgery, I was told that after surgery I would be in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit for 24 hours. If everything looked well after that, I would be moved to a room on the cardiac floor. I was also told that I would be sedated during this time.

Okay, so check this out.

Surgey started between noonish and two o'clock. I don't actually remember ANYTHING until the next day approximately four o'clock. Why do I remember four o'clock? Well, one nurse asked the other nurse the time and that's what she said. I LOST approximately 26 - 28 hours! Don't remember anything. You ask my family and they say they visited me in SICU but ask me to recount that and I DON'T RECALL!!!

February 12 - Moved out of SICU to a private room
It wasn't until after 6pm when I was moved to a private room.

February 13 - Recuperating in my hospital room

February 14 - Still in the room. At night I got my first blood transfusion.

EVERY single day, MULTIPLE times a day they would come in a take blood from me. I had so many holes in me I felt like a pin cushion! Anywho, the blood results were showing that I had a high white blood cell count. (Which happens when you're fighting an infection, virus or mending a broken bone to name a few.) I had the broken sternum and my temperature was fluctuating to near fever. The doctor decided to give me a blood transfusion to help up the count of red blood cells. (Oh yeah, the doctors were also concerned that I might have lukemia.)
A nurse came in the afternoon and told me that a blood transfusion was ordered for the evening. Let me set this up. I had an IV needle in my left hand. I still had an IV needle in my upper left arm that was placed during surgery. The nurse checked the IV needle in my upper left arm. It wasn't inserted all the way and looked like it was hanging out. The nurse said that this was where the blood transfusion was going to go. She didn't have much confidence in it and told me that there could be a possibility that the vein wouldn't be able to handle the blood going into the vein and my arm could just start pooling the blood. Another nurse came in and checked the IV and said to give it a try.
So night pulls up and so does the nurse with the blood. She sets up the transfusion and sets it going. She said that it would take about 3 to 4 hours for the transfusion to be complete. Off it goes! I'm sitting up on the side of the bed with the Spurs game going on on the TV. It's hard to turn my head to watch the game so I go ahead and just listen. About 45 minutes into the transfusion the nurse comes into the room to check it. Like she expected, the vein couldn't hold and the blood was already pooling in my arm. She slowed the transfusion to a trickle and went to call in some more nurses.
More nurses show up and they start looking for another place to put in an IV needle. This old male nurse, who has more experience at putting in IV needles, asks the nurse for a shave kit. She chuckles and says, "What are you going to do? Shave his arm?" He looks at her and says, "Yeah. That way we can see his veins better." So he grabs my right arm and starts shaving the hair off of my forearm. It's funny to think of it now but get this. To clean off the hair he uses alcohol swabs! That's like putting aftershave lotion on right after you shave your face. (for the guys) For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the places where he would wipe the alcohol swab it would instantly heat up. I mean HOT!
So the nurse finally finds a place to put the IV needle. (It was actually the place I recommended they put it in the first place.) The IV needle gets placed and the transfusion gets transferred from my left arm to my right arm.
The nurse checks my left arm and it's gotten pretty hard. (With all that extra blood in there.) She goes and gets some towels and wets them with warm/hot water. She then wraps them around my arm. (It's supposed to help somehow or another.)
The blood transfusion takes about four and a half hours to finish. All that sitting down, I couldn't feel like legs anymore! My left arm was wrapped up so much it stiffened up. The nurses asked me to baby the right arm so I did. I babied it so well that it stiffened up. By the time the transfusion stuff and the towels were taken off of me I was ready to stand up and straighten out. BEFORE I could do that, a guy comes in to take some more blood out of me and another guy comes in to give me a breathing treatment.

I did get a temporary souvenir of my first blood transfusion. Do you wanna see it?

Here's a picture of my temporary souvenir of my first blood transfusion.

This picture was taken four days after the transfusion.
It took a little over a month for my souvenir to disappear!

February 15 and 16 - still in the hospital
I'm getting VERY tired and bored of being in the hospital!!!!!

February 17 - Released from the hospital!
I've been passing the physical evals (walking in the hallways). All my numbers (blood
pressure, temperature, blood sugar, etc.) are showing normal. They finally let me go home.

February 18 thru April 8 - Recuperating at home!

Here's a picture of my scar.
This picture was taken a week after surgery.

The two holes were for tubes inserted in my chest to control drainage.
Also, notice that there are no stitches/sutures. They used "super glue" to mend the incision.

Well, that's about it! I know I've missed some stuff. I'll add it later.

Addendum

February 15, 2005
Well, it's been two years now. You know...the days that it happened.
Me passing out and me getting cracked open like a walnut went by without even me remembering those days!
I don't know what to say because it just hit me that I just let those days go by without anything...
Dunno...gonna go contemplate this...

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