Love from My Aunt and Uncle

In a lot of ways, I've been lucky. First, the aneurysm was discovered before it reached a critical stage. Second, my aunt and uncle are both on the medical faculty of Stanford University. My aunt is a pediatric cardiologist. My uncle is a neo-natologist. From the beginning of my diagnosis, Aunt M. helped me understand my test results and provided wise counsel. Both of them encouraged me to see their surgeon colleague, Dr. DCM. They explained that he had extensive experience with valve sparing operations the best chance of saving my valve was to go with Dr. DCM. On their advice I had my test records sent to Stanford. After reviewing my file, Dr. DCM's team arranged an appointment to discuss my case on October 5.

Trip to Stanford

The night before the appointment, Meg and I drove to Atherton, CA where my aunt and uncle cooked a wonderful dinner after welcoming us into their home. We had a nice visit with them that night.

The next day I had new Chest CT and echocardiogram. The imaging technology at Stanford is so advanced that the Chest CT could actually show my healthy coronary arteries. I actually got a color picture showing my heart, the aneurysm, and the healthy coronary arteries. At about 5:00 p.m. Dr. DCM met with me, Meg and Aunt M. He said that my aneurysm was between 4.7 cm and 5.0 cm. He did not think my leak was as severe as Dr. M had concluded after my heart cath, but agreed that it was clearly visible from the echocardiogram. He said that I could wait for surgery and have periodic testing (maybe every 3 or 4 months) to monitor my aneurysm. In the meantime, I would have to stop competing in triathlons. Although I am in no hurry to give up triathlons, I considered it for a moment if it meant no surgery. I asked if waiting meant that surgery could ultimately be avoided. Dr. DCM said no. I would eventually need surgery, perhaps in a few months or maybe a few years. The only way that surgery could be avoided would be if I first had a catastrophic event. :( He showed me a risk chart which had me in the edge of the "green zone" for risk of such an event. Green meant the annual risk was just under 4 percent. It appeared that any enlargement would move me into the more risky yellow zone.

I had some thinking to do about the pros and cons of proceeding. However, just about everything pointed to proceeding. Dr. DCM is a recognized leader in the specialty of performing valve sparing operations. After showing me pictures of how the operation is done, he shared some pictures of former patients who had the same operation. These included a current NBA player, a geologist who climbs mountains, and baseball star Aaron Boone.

Meg and I talked about my options with my aunt and uncle that night. My aunt described the complexity and invasive nature of the procedure. But we kept coming back to the concept that there was no way to avoid the surgery. The next day I called Dr. DCM's nurse practitioner and told him that I wanted to proceed with surgery. I said that my goal was to recover from surgery, finish Vineman 70.3 in July 2010, and send a race day picture of me with my finisher's medal to Dr. DCM. I hope he puts my picture in his computer slide show between the geologist on Mt. St. Helens and Aaron Boone hitting a home run. :)

Surgery was quickly scheduled for November 6th. I have pre-operative procedures on the 5th. Exactly one week from now is my surgery. By that evening I should be in intensive care.