Getting fit for heart surgery
A dramatic, but appropriate, title for my first long blog in a while. First up I’m fine – I don’t feel any different from all of the other times where my cardiology team has hinted that the time has come to do something about my aging dicky ticker. Aging is a good word – it was 46 years ago today (if you’re reading this on the 11 th November) where they did my original operation at Great Ormond Street. Even back then they suggested they’d need to keep an eye on my pulmonary valve… and so they have… My interventionist called the 46 year gap between valves remarkable – I think he was being polite, I’m a freak. Most people with Fallot’s I know have had one or two valves by now. So, I know I’m lucky… The luck continues, I’m a scientist, I read the developments I watch the progress of technologies… Due to the weird internal anatomy of my heart I haven’t been a candidate for transcatheter va...