A Status Update
So I saw my surgeon's understudy in Leeds General Infirmary yesterday. He once again explained the situation to me (actually, he prefaced this by saying "I have bad news," which was extremely unhelpful, as the information he imparted was not news, and also slightly less bad than I thought) and then laid out the current, slightly sketchy plan for the medium term.
They will be replacing my now defunct tricuspid valve. This replacement will be a tissue valve. This will require another median resternotomy, which will again leave me with a couple of months of work at least. Using a tissue valve rather than a mechanical valve means I shouldn't need warfarin, which is good - warfarin's other use, you may recall, is as a rat poison. None of this bit was news.
What I did learn yesterday was that I'm not being considered an urgent case. This is good, as I've tried being an urgent case earlier in the year and it's bad for your health. I will be seeing Dr. Ballard, my lovely Scottish cardiologist, on the 17th. He will be doing an echo and some other things and thereby seeing what is happening inside my heart. If it doesn't look too horrendous and if I am still asymptomatic (other than being just damn tired, which is to be expected) then they will start thinking about the operation for some time in the next few months.
This means that I'm going to be in York working and looking for a new house from the beginning of next week. Looks like it's time to email the Bishop and call in that offer of a spare bedroom. If I do end up living with him for a while, it will be very nice, and also very, very weird.
They will be replacing my now defunct tricuspid valve. This replacement will be a tissue valve. This will require another median resternotomy, which will again leave me with a couple of months of work at least. Using a tissue valve rather than a mechanical valve means I shouldn't need warfarin, which is good - warfarin's other use, you may recall, is as a rat poison. None of this bit was news.
What I did learn yesterday was that I'm not being considered an urgent case. This is good, as I've tried being an urgent case earlier in the year and it's bad for your health. I will be seeing Dr. Ballard, my lovely Scottish cardiologist, on the 17th. He will be doing an echo and some other things and thereby seeing what is happening inside my heart. If it doesn't look too horrendous and if I am still asymptomatic (other than being just damn tired, which is to be expected) then they will start thinking about the operation for some time in the next few months.
This means that I'm going to be in York working and looking for a new house from the beginning of next week. Looks like it's time to email the Bishop and call in that offer of a spare bedroom. If I do end up living with him for a while, it will be very nice, and also very, very weird.