Health Choices

Seeing that it’s the most major organ in the body and the one that makes the remainder of the body work, when something bad happens to the heart, fear is an instant reaction.  Heart valve illness is when a valve in the heart doesn’t work the way it should.  It could be blocked from opening or closing all of the way therefore not allowing blood flow to happen the way it needs to for the body to work the way it should.  When this happens, heart valve replacement is an option to patch up the problem. 

Every year, over 250.000 heart valve replacement surgeries are performed with only 2.4% ending fatally.  That may appear like a high percentage, but when working with any surgery on the heart, it is highly low in all reality.  Every day we engage in activities that are just as dangerous.  Driving a car, flying in an aeroplane, and crossing the street are all activities that would end fatally but typically don’t .  One way to dispel any fear you have over this surgery is to recollect that and go into it with the positive outlook of how this is another potentially perilous activity you may do, but tell yourself that the danger of it being deadly is too small to risk not having it done.  If you need the surgery, get it done. 

One main problem that would make you need heart valve surgery is known as aortic stenosis.  This happens when a valve in your heart chamber doesn’t open fully.  It could happen from scarring or calcium deposits forming, but when a valve doesn’t open fully, less blood flows thru or it has to flow thru a smaller chamber so not getting to the subsequent chamber.  When this occurs, there are two possible surgeries that will occur.  They can correct the valve which means correcting the part that’s hurt or they can replace it that means removing the diseased valve and replacing it with one that works. 

The surgery sounds much scarier than it actually is.  When heart valve replacement is required, the doctors put you under anesthesia so you aren’t awake during it and then they physically stop your heart from thrashing but have a machine continue pumping the blood through your body.  They then make an incision above your aorta, do the needed repairs and then sew you back up.  The final scar(s) will be tiny so there’s really nothing to fret about.

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