Hello everyone.
My name is Brian. In February 2022 I was having routine testing done at my cardiologist office. My cardiologist saw what he believed was an enlarged aorta. He sent me for more detail testing to confirm. It was confirmed that I had an enlarged aorta. I went to a Cardiothoracic Surgeon, and was told in November of 2022 that I was going to need Open Heart Surgery (OHS).
So needless to say the year 2023 was a rough year for me. January 9th 2023 I underwent OHS. I had opted for a mechanical aortic valve, and it proved to not be right for me. I also needed a pacemaker for a complete heart block. I was recovering well and returned to work. Then I was getting shortness of breath while at rest, and sick all the time. My legs started retaining fluid. I was then told that I was in congestive heart failure. In June of 2023 I went to the hospital and they started getting the fluid off of my legs.
I was transferred to another hospital, who was to try and unblock my malfunction mechanical aortic valve. They gave me clot busting medicine to break up a believed blood clot on my valve. It proved to not be a blood clot. They were uncertain about doing OHS due to weak heart. I was then transferred to yet another hospital in Philadelphia. There I had a 2nd OHS and a CABG preformed and got that mechanical valve out and an artificial valve put in. It was a better recovery this time around.