O'Dark Thirty in the Morning..
Well, today is the day. I'm excited, nervous, anxious, but surprised that I'm not at all frightened. My wife, my good friend Joe and I arrive bright and early at the hospital and check in. Everybody there is very pleasant, but it's just another day at the office for them. I am well aware that in a very short time I'm going to have my heart stopped and I'm a bit awed by the thought.

In a while we go down to the pre-operative area where I don my lovely backless hospital gown and get on the gurney/bed thing. I do like the heated blankets, nice touch. Pretty soon the nice resident from anesthesiology comes in to start an IV line so that I can get the nice drugs to put me out. He sticks me no less than 4 times, trying to find the vein he needs. After a while I suggest that he just keep sticking me until I bleed out and then he won't have to use drugs at all. He apologizes and I feel a little bad for teasing him, but I'm the one thats bleeding.

Laurie and Joe come back in and we visit for a while and pretty soon it's time for me to go into the operating room where they can finish getting me ready for the rest of the long day ahead. I kiss Laurie, hug Joe and tell them to take care of each other. They start something in my IV as they wheel.......me........away........and I start to.......drift......off... .. ... ......

The appointment is on for today!

We get to meet the surgeon, Man! This guy looks soooo young! But everybody tells me he is really good at what he does, and I like him right off the bat so I'm OK with the fact that he has the Doogie Howser thing going on.

He explains that he is going to do something called a "Minimally Invasive" procedure.
A small incision under my right breast and going in between my ribs. No splitting my breastbone and that big cool caterpillar-like scar? Amazing! I like this guy more and more all the time! Then he explains how he will repair the valve, cutting a little piece out, sewing a "ring" on it for support, ect. "OK, sounds good, when can we get this thing over with?" I was a little surprised when he says, "How's Monday?" Hmmm..I wouldn't buy a car built on a Monday, so I wonder out loud if it's a good idea to have surgery when everybody is coming off a weekend, and he laughs at me. "OK, how about Wednesday then?"

One more week..."We're gonna fix this thing," NO MORE testing now!

Today is the day I'm supposed to meet with the sawbones that is going to split me and fix my little problem. I'm anxious because we are getting close now and I want to get it over so I can get back to doing the things I want to do. I'm very lucky because I have a great wife and lots of really good friends that worry about me and they haven't let me do much since we found out about my "defect." I appreciate the concern, but I really don't do well with sitting still.

10:00 ~ The Dr's. office just called....He has an emergency and will have to postpone my appointment until next Tuesday. Arrrrrrgh! This will be a long week..

Oh boy! This is gonna be fun...Today we are doing a Cardiac Catheterization. I'm not really happy about this because I don't see why I need it. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I'm in (pretty good) shape, so there shouldn't be any gunk in my arteries.
"It's just a precaution" they say. So, I tell them to go ahead and knock me out and get it over with, but they go "Oh no, you need to be awake for this so we can talk to you." WHAT? No happy drugs? I like this less and less all the time.

Anyway, they wheel me into this operating room and it's kinda cold in there. The Dr comes in and gives me a shot in my groin, or my "Special place" as I like to call it, to numb the area. Then I get to see my heart on a TV screen over my head as he feeds these wires up through my Femoral artery and into my heart. Strange, there are no nerves inside arteries so I don't feel it (Thank Goodness). After a while they tell me they are going to inject some dye for contrast, and it's like WHOOSH..A really nice hot flash that goes from my ears to my toes. Remember I said it was cold in there. So I tell them to "Hit me again" because it helped warm me up. So they do. Nice..

Just as I thought, clean as a whistle. I'm feeling smug about it, but I hold back the "I told you so" that I had ready. Besides, they still have needles and stuff.
Doc says "OK, this part will hurt, sorry but I have to do this." At that point he takes something that I can only describe as something that looks like a mini-marshmallow and SHOVES it into that hole he poked in my Femoral...Damn! He wasn't kidding, not the most pleasant experience so far.

After a nice 2 hour nap flat on my back I get to get up and go home. Next stop, meeting the Surgeon. We have gone from "We gotta fix that" to "We're finally gonna fix that."

"Stress" test. First another Echocardiogram, lots of wires stuck to my chest. Then I get to run on a treadmill with all the wires hanging, I kinda feel like the 6 million dollar man..Very high tech. I'm supposed to be able to run uphill and downhill for 12 minutes, but at 9 minutes I'm huffing and puffing like a 3 pack a day smoker and they decide it's probably time to stop. Quick, back on the table to do another echo and see how my poor little pumper is straining. My heartrate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 160. I don't want to be in that neighborhood..

Anyway, "We really need to fix that." But of course, MORE tests first.

"Transesophageal Echocardiogram." Pretty impressive term huh? It means, "We are going to shove a hose about the size of your little finger down your throat so we can get an up-close and personal look at that leaky valve."

It really isn't as bad as it sounds. They have good drugs for this sort of thing, and once they put the IV in your arm you're pretty much good to go. All I really remember is talking to the nice nurses and then my vision started to narrow-quickly. I said "OK, Bye." and the next thing I remember is waking up.

In the cloudy stupor I remember the Dr saying, "We are gonna have to fix that."
But first....MORE tests.

Today I go down to the hospital for an Echocardiogram. Interesting process. Basically they smear this goop on your chest and run a microphone looking thing around in the goop so they can look at an echo picture of the heart and the valves doing their thing. The technician says, "Um, we need to have a Dr take a look at this." Not exactly encouraging news. I was expecting something more like, "This looks great, I think your doctor must have made a mistake."

Anyway he comes in, looks at the pictures and says, "Hmmm, Mitral Valve Prolapse with Regurgitation." I say, "Once again in English please."

He explains that there is large valve that opens when the heart pumps that allows blood to run though the system, then slams shut until the next pump. Mine is dropping down so that the blood runs back into my heart. Not a good thing.
He says, "We're going to need to fix that." But first...We need MORE tests. I get to come back for something called a TEE. I'll keep you posted.