Hey Jacko......I will be sending some good thoughts to your Sis and hope she knocks 'em out with her performance.

As for you........Yeah man, you'll be more than in my thoughts. They should have repaired or replaced my mitral valve when they did the Quad By-Pass 5 years ago. I didn't realize how weak I was becoming as I still felt pretty good. The past two years have really been going downhill and yet I continued to feel what I thought was okay. I was fortunate to have my valve replaced by a new procedure using the daVinci robot by a top man in the field and thus had very little surgical trauma, but no matter how it's done, you will feel better right away. In post-op, my wife Karen said that she saw a new color about me immediately! After passing through the post surgicals, I began to feel better too and I tell you true my friend, I haven't felt this good, no GREAT, in 10 years or more! There was one point where I swear I was felling stronger by the minute........not the hour, or the day.....literally by the minute!!!

I have a St. Jude's Valve which is still preferred here over the porcine repalcements. They last a lloooonnnnnggggg time and are pretty trouble free. The only drawback being the need to be on Coumadin forever, but what the hell is that? No big deal. No anti-rejection meds needed and my valve is happily "ticking" away. Yeah, you can hear it although I rarely hear mine unless the acoustics are right. Other people can hear it often and to those who love you, no finer song can ever be sung than the simple ticking of that valve. They use them on aortic valve replacements too.

Write me huh?....... and continue to post and let us know how things are.....Okay? You have much support here in the Village of Mudcat and we will all be sending you the best and strongest thoughts we have for a successful operation and recovery. If you can, have someone there keep us posted if you can't.

My e-mail is catspaw@buckeyeinternet.com if you or they want to use that instead, but please let us know. We're pulling for you Jack and I DO KNOW how much better you'll feel....breathe better too..........it's amazing!!!

Spaw