Pre Operation, 

Hello All, 

Since December of 2019 I started to feel a real drag on my energy and breathing ability.  This probably started before December, but that was when it really showed up in a big way.  I was with my wife, kids and grandkids in Cle Elum, WA.  We were sledding in the snow, but after just a couple of runs, up and down the hill, I noticed that I was becoming exhausted and when I took off my gloves my fingernails were turning blue.

The next month started the 2.5-to-3-year journey to get to where I find myself having to again face heart surgery to replace my mitral valve, in my adult life this will be my 3rd valve replacement. 

 I found out in 2020 that the mechanical valve I have had begun leaking and the leak was causing my blood cells to be destroyed.  (My doctor said my heart was acting like a blender). This caused me to have extreme anemia.  The doctors tried twice (arthroscopically) to put in plugs to control the leaking.  Both times I had them done the plugs weren’t enough, so the decision to replace the valve with a pig valve is the only thing that will work.  The blood cells are being destroyed in a greater number than my body can replace the cells. In the next few weeks my wife and I will be preparing our life to deal with me being without the capacity to do much.  

When I was a small child, (3 years old) I had an “open heart surgery” to repair the valve mitral. This type of surgery was very experimental, only having been performed successfully for about 4 months. This was to repair a hole in the speptim between the chambers of the heart and to correct a “dimple” in the mitral valve. This correction lasted 45 years.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Marcus Aurelius