Aorta Valve Replacement

Lyn is the third child of his siblings that needed a new aorta valve.  It has been about 2 yrs. since Lyn knew he was going to have to have this procedure done sometime, and he has been going in every 6 months for an echocardiogram.  When the results came back from his test in Feb., the Dr. felt that it was time and a heart catherization in March confirmed that.  A normal aorta valve opens 2.5 cm and the stenosis in his valve was causing his to open less then 1 cm.  His heart is otherwise healthy and they wanted to have the valve replaced before something bad happened to damage the heart.

April 3rd was the big day.  The surgery lasted about 4 hrs. and he was on the bypass machine for about half of that time.  It was nice having Lyn's brother Joe, sisters Erma & Ida, and dad Joe in the waiting room with us.

He had many tubes, wires and machines hooked up after surgery.  He was off of the ventilater by early evening and was up for his first walk by the next evening.

Lyn was in the hospital for 5 days after the surgery.  Having never even been through minor surgery, this has been quite the experience for him.  He came home with restrictions; the 2 main ones were no driving for 4 wks. and no lifting, pushing or pulling anything over 5-10 lbs. for 6 wks.

We are so thankful to the family for their support and to our church family as well.  It was different for us to be on the receiving end of things.  Thanks for all of you who brought meals, sent cards, stopped in for visits, and prayed with us.

We feel like we are finally over the hump.  Every week things seem to get a bitter better.  We are currently at 4 1/2 wks since surgery and are waiting for that 6 wk. mark.  Plans are that Lyn can start cardiac rehab at that point.  This picture was taken at the hospital about 4 days after.  It is healing nicely and looking much better now.

Battle scars