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 11th 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 valve implantation… until now.  The plan will be to have a good look around, check that things fit and will bend around the kinky corners of my heart, and if all is ok put a stent in.  That stent should shore up the tissue and will be left to bed in for a number of months and then a valve will be inserted. 

 

Sounds simple, and if it all goes to plan then I get a new valve (bovine, so no anticoagulation) in exchange for a couple of weeks off work and a sore groin. 

 

Fingers crossed. 

 

And no, I’m not being brave, I know there are things that can go wrong, I know they may do the detailed scans and decide they can’t go forward, throw in the issues around Covid and who knows what could happen.  

 

And I’m used to this, Mrs Jiminy isn’t, exposing cardiologists and cardiac interventionists to me as a scientist and my beloved wife with her engineering head on could be considered unfair.  It’s not. Mrs J will, and has, asks the questions I forget, not allow my prior knowledge get in the way of there being complete understanding and most importantly she’s there for the days when I’m not able to be the scientist and need someone to cry with. 

 

The practical stuff will come; the dental checks, the self-isolation due to Covid, the trips to hospital for test after test, the checking of the will, and most importantly hugging Mrs J. 

 

So, as some of you may have picked up from my microblogging, I’m in the shielding category (GP criteria… ) which cramps my style a bit on the exercise front.  However, whatever comes all the evidence I’ve read is that if I can get a bit fitter and a bit lighter then things will be easier.  So, I need to keep going on the exercise bike, try and keep the creaky back in working order. 

 

I’ve almost done Land’s End to John O’Groats – about 100 km to go… So I need a new challenge, so I will circumnavigate an island I’ve always wanted to go to – and when this Covid stuff is over will do – Mrs J and I have northern lights to see, hot springs to lounge in, volcanoes etc etc etc and I have friends to see and introduce Mrs J to.

 

So, the next challenge is 828 miles, 1332km… around Iceland I don’t know how long I have to do it, and the back limits how hard I can push it, but that’s the target.  

 

As you’d expect, cos I’m a fundraising whore – there’s a page if any of you want to support the charities that have supported me and will continue to support all with heart conditions from childhood.  https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/getfitforheartsurgery

 

Thank you for reading, and really all being well I’ve got an easy ride… 

 

TTFN

 

Paul 

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