Sleepless nights abound for the past few nights. Mostly because of the whirlwind of thoughts swirling around my head. I've found that my therapy is to put those thoughts out of my mind and into my blog. So probably most of the time, the posts are mostly a uninteresting, unintelligible mix of disorganized thoughts.
Over the past few nights I've been trying to assemble the questions that I want to ask the cardiac surgeon when I go to visit with him next week. It started out with just the things that came to mind to me, then I started looking online for other lists of questions to ask a surgeon. As you can imagine there are a ton of different sites that have plenty of questions, so I added the ones that I thought were relevant to me. In the interest of sharing I thought I'd write a blog with my question list so that I would add to the overall body of knowledge.
Here goes:
Questions to Ask Your Cardiac Surgeon
About Surgeon
- How many aortic valve replacements have you done?
- What has been your success rate? Do you know about long-term success rates?
- What area do you specialize in?
- How many total heart surgery procedures are done at your hospital each year?
- What is the overall mortality rate at your hospital?
- What type of certification(s) do you have?
- Do you, your team and hospital take my insurance?
Alternatives to Open Heart Surgery
- What options are available in Bremerton?
- What options might be available at in Seattle at VM or at Swedish?
- What are the Risks, known effectiveness/record/longevity of the surgery that you are recommending?
- Cardiologist’s description of newer methods. *
Mechanical vs Bovine Valve
- Ongoing coagulation monitoring / management.
- Likelihood of advanced procedures being available in the future to swap out bovine.
- Deterioration of bovine valve in later life comes with similar symptoms to mine now?
What to expect on the Day of surgery
- Normal timing
- Get there at what time
- How long from Pre-work until going to theater
- Time between in OR and being placed under anesthetic
- Time from ‘under’ to surgery completion
- Time between completion and waking up
- What prep work will be done to my body/hair?
- How many people will be in the operating room?
- Who will be doing the surgery?
- Who will be the anesthesiologist?
- How often will my family be given updates?
- Urinary catheter? How long does that stay in during recovery?
- What are the possible complications during surgery?
- Will I need to fill out paperwork to suspend my advanced medical directive?
- What happens to the valve tissue that is removed?
- Can you take photos of the procedure for me?
Recovery
- How soon can my family see me?
- Can I have company overnight?
- Estimated s duration of stay in hospital
- What medical home-help requirements will I require?
- What are the time estimates before returning to:
- Being up and about in hospital
- Walking (for as much as I amble)
- Lay on side or front
- No longer need assistance with daily life
- Returning to Work
- Driving a car
- Having Sex
- Feeling ‘normal’
- What will the pain management be during recovery.
- What type of record keeping will I need to do (blood pressure, coagulation metering, etc.)
- What doctors will be involved during Post op/Recovery in/out of the hospital:
- Who?
- How often?
- Dietary restrictions during recovery? Low salt/extra fiber/prune juice?
Post recovery
- Emotional support requirements
- Post op visits (on going)
- Dentist /strep throat implications
- Long term lifestyle restrictions?
Specific Concerns<Whatever concerns might be personal between you and surgeon>
* My cardiologist was not very enthusiastic (at my last visit) about the newer surgical methods. He noted a few of his recent patients who went off to Seattle and even to the Cleveland Clinic (top rated Cardiac facility in the country) and ended up with bad outcomes from the less invasive methods.
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