This was before and after my 2nd open heart surgery. My parents had to make a quick decision: replace a valve with either a pig or mechanical valve. They chose mechanical valve and now I’ve been taking blood thinners and doing yearly blood draws for nearly 1 and a half devades. That was a barely more than half my life ago at this point, which is absolutely crazy to think about.
If the pig option included immune suppression drugs for the rest of your life, or for like 10 years until it wore out and you had to have another major surgery to replace it, mechanical valve plus blood thinners and a yearly blood draw sounds like the much better deal. I know blood thinners come with their own long term effects, but nothing compared to immune suppression.
Pre mid-summer 2011 and post mid-summer 2011.
This was before and after my 2nd open heart surgery. My parents had to make a quick decision: replace a valve with either a pig or mechanical valve. They chose mechanical valve and now I’ve been taking blood thinners and doing yearly blood draws for nearly 1 and a half devades. That was a barely more than half my life ago at this point, which is absolutely crazy to think about.
If the pig option included immune suppression drugs for the rest of your life, or for like 10 years until it wore out and you had to have another major surgery to replace it, mechanical valve plus blood thinners and a yearly blood draw sounds like the much better deal. I know blood thinners come with their own long term effects, but nothing compared to immune suppression.