Thank you & I'm happy things have worked out for you. Unfortunately my problem is more complicated due to my alpha-gal (allergy to mammal meat). With all 3 options for valve replacement - Heparin is used during all 3 procedures so two hospitals told me there was nothing they could do to help me. I did some research and found there are anticoagulants that are mammal-free. Now I will be going to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis to find out all about it for the TAVR procedure to replace my aortic valve. My heart was damaged 15 yrs. ago when I received radiation following early stage breast cancer surgery. My aortic valve thickened immediately and it's taken 15 yrs. for it to go from mild to moderate and now "severe". I am presently in heart failure. This new information that I researched has given me such hope now. The irony is that mammosite or topical radiation is not used now following early breast cancer surgery. Probably due to the data collected from women like me who went ahead and followed a doctor's recommendation to have mammosite radiation (where they insert a balloon shaped catheter into the breast and receive high doses of radiation twice a day for 7 days. It was absolutely a brutal treatment and I would never, ever recommend it to anyone. Now I, at least, have a chance to live longer. Valve replacement is now available to patients like me.

I had aorta stenosis and have a biological valve (cow valve) I am not on heparin or anyother blood thinner, I was 52 years old. The first surgeon want me to have a artificial valve that would require a blood thinner. This was at Emory Clinic. I went to Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Cosgrove said I was a good candidate for the biological valve. I am 74 and it has been 22years since I received my valve. It is still going strong. I would ask about a biological valve and get a second opinion. I was on coumadin before they replaced my valve because they thought I had a TIA but I didn't, I just had eye migranes. It is not fun to be on a blood thinner, so I would definitely get a second opinion.
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