Kristy Weins

Kristy’s Story

Let me introduce myself…I’m Kristy, a 39 year old married stay-at-home-mom of 3 wonderful children.  I live in Littleton, Co and enjoy golf, computers, and baseball.

I was diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis at the age of 21.  My doctor said that it was nothing to worry about, so I didn’t.  I remembered to tell the nurses in the hospital about the murmur when I was having all 3 of my kids, so they administered IV antibiotics.  I was awful about getting dental work done, so I never needed antibiotics there…

In April of 1999, I decided to take charge of my health.  I quit smoking, and got my teeth and gums back into a healthy status.  I hadn’t seen a cardiologist in over 10 years, so I went back to see him as well.  Needless to say, he was ecstatic to see me, but upset that I hadn’t been to a specialist in that long.

In May of 2000, at the ripe old age of 38, my cardiologist started to get pretty worried.  I didn’t display any symptoms, but he could hear that the murmur was getting worse.  I went in for a gated blood pool…a kind of bicycle ride on your back while the technicians take pictures of the radioactive stuff they put in your bloodstream.  I passed that with flying colors and was told to lead my life normally, but come back in 6 months.  In October of 2000, there was no change.  By May of 2001, I started to exhibit signs of fatigue and fluid retention.  It was then that a cardiac cath was ordered.  I had my cath done and the cardiologist who performed it immediately frightened the pants off my husband and mother.  He said I needed my aortic valve replaced immediately.  Fortunately, the surgeon disagreed.

I had an appointment with the surgeon the next morning.  He said that we should have the surgery in the next 4-8 weeks. WHEW!  He wanted me to make sure I had arrangements for the care of my children and husband while I was in the hospital.  I can’t say enough about him.  The surgeon, my husband, and I all discussed the different valve types and we all eventually agreed on the St. Jude’s mechanical.  At first I was scared to death of taking coumadin for the rest of my young life, but I came to terms with it by thinking of it as taking a vitamin for my valve.

My surgery was scheduled for 7am on Tuesday, June 19, 2001, at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, CO.  On June 18 the scheduling nurse from the surgeon’s office called to tell me that she messed up and my surgeon would be out of town for that week.  I had a complete meltdown!  Everything had been carefully planned, my husband and my mother had their vacation times set up so they could have the day of the surgery off, and the weeks following the surgery.  My surgeon understood completely.  He told the scheduling nurse that she couldn’t do that to me as I had 3 kids, and arrangements like that couldn’t just be changed in an instant.  Fortunately for me, there was another surgeon in the practice that could do the surgery later on my scheduled day.  At that point, I didn’t care that I had never met this man…all I cared about was getting this surgery over, and getting on with my life.

I went into surgery at 1:30 pm and was wheeled out into the CICU at 5:30pm.  I don’t remember anything until about 8:30 PM when I started coming to.  I still had the ventilator tube in, and my hands were tied down.  The respiratory guy was a real jokester.  To tell if I could go off the ventilator, he plugged off the hose!  Talk about panic!  He wanted to see if I’d attempt to breathe on my own…darn straight I did!  He removed the ventilator tube about 11:30 pm.  My husband had taken my glasses home with him, so I was pretty well blind while in the CICU.  I had some funky gel in my eyes too that was driving me crazy.  It took a while to get the nurse to understand that I wanted someone to wipe the stuff out.  I dozed most of that night, but never really slept.  The nurse gave me ice chips as soon as I could move my arms myself.  I ate at least 3 cups before morning.  At 7:30, my breakfast showed up…cranberry juice, and jello.  Boy did they feel good on my throat. The nurse had me sitting up and dangling my legs by early morning…I don’t remember if it was before or after breakfast though. 

I was moved to a room in the Cardiac Care Unit by 9:30 Wednesday morning.  The nurses wrote on a dry erase board in my room what they wanted me to accomplish each day.  They wanted me to use the IS at least 2-3x per hour, shower by Thursday am, and walk 2x a day on Wednesday, 4x Thursday & Friday.  I found that I was very sensitive to any kind of painkiller.  Most of the painkillers are codeine based, and my tummy is very sensitive to codeine.  By Thursday I was just on Tylenol…nothing else.  I found that I didn’t need anything more though…my sternum didn’t hurt.

The rest of the hospital stay was pretty uneventful.  I was released Saturday morning after a Tuesday surgery.  My friends and family were pretty impressed.  I was tired though…and I had the attention span of a gnat.  I found that sleeping in the recliner was not for me.  I developed a monster headache by Monday and nothing would help!  I found that I could pack pillows around me and sleep on the couch though.  Each day was better and better. By the time I had been home a week, I was walking over a mile two times a day. My surgeon had sent home prescriptions for a baby aspirin, warfarin  (Coumadin), lasix, potassium, metropolol (Lopressor), and iron.  I had the Lasix and potassium only as a precaution.  I never took them.  The metropolol was discontinued after six months.  It was prescribed for a fast heartbeat. 

I found that my sternum was tender for a very long time.  I was very aware of the clicking and the thumping in my chest at first.  It does taper off, but I’m still aware of it a year later.  I was given clearance to drive at 3 weeks post-op!  My surgeon said that since I wasn’t on any pain meds, and I was moving without pain, I could get back behind the wheel.  I did limit my trips though.  Just to the doctor, and the occasional emergency trip to the grocery store. 

It is now one year since my surgery.  I can’t tell you how much better I feel.  I have never in my life felt this good!  I do some sort of cardio exercise 6 days a week.  I lift weights 3 days a week.  I have more energy and lung capacity than I ever have.  Even as a teenager, I wasn’t this physically strong.  I still take warfarin of course, I also take baby aspirin, iron and a multivitamin every day.  I haven’t made any lifestyle changes other than the 2-alcoholic drink maximum because of the warfarin.  As a matter of fact, I’m more active now than I ever was.  I hike, bicycle, rollerblade, swim…whatever I want!

To those of you who are worried about this surgery…the waiting is the worst part.  Read the other personal stories here.  You will find that results run the gamut, but almost all of us feel much better after the surgery than before.  Send your loved ones to this site too.  Have them read the personal stories and the posts in the Significant Others forum.  It’s a great site! 

Thank you Hank for giving us a place to share our fears, failures and of course our triumphs!

Kristy W.