Aortic valve surgery

[Riceycakes]

My stepdad has been really struggling with fatigue and breathlessness for a couple of years now. He’s finally been told that he’ll need aortic valve surgery. It’s not clear yet whether it will be the open heart surgery one or the less invasive one where they go in through the groin. Has anyone got any experience and can give me an idea of what to expect in terms of recovery? My mum isn’t very well herself and I want to be as prepared as I can be. If the surgery is successful will he actually feel much better than he has been?

My mother had OHS for aortic valve replacement 14 years ago, she was 72 at the time and is still doing very well with it, it was a bovine tissue replacement. She was only in ICU one night, her recovery was longer as she caught a chest infection after surgery but she was more at risk of that as she was on steroids before surgery because of her RA ( she had to come off her usual medications for that prior to surgery)

My mother replaced the felt roofing on her shed just six months after surgery!

That’s amazing, I’m so glad your mum is doing so well. I hope for a similar outcome as it’s been really awful seeing how his quality of life has really declined.

It is obviously major surgery but valve replacement is a very routine one for cardiologists. The difference in quality of life is amazing. When my mother had hers the groin method was only just being trialled so that is why she had OHS.
My teen daughter has a leaking aortic valve plus another more serious heart defect.