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Had open-heart surgery 2.5 years ago to replace my Aortic Valve at 55 years old. I was born with a bicuspid Aortic Valve instead of the normal tricuspid version. The bicuspid version tends to calcify quicker than the normal valve. I found out about it about ten years ago, with the cardiologist telling me, "you WILL need to have that replaced at some point, can't tell you when, 3, 5, 10 years, but you will know when you do". August 2021 I am walking up the hill in front of my lake house and I feel "weird", have to take a breather. Call my cardiologist and he refers me across the floor to the surgery side of their practice. I see the surgeon and he tells me it is time, not immediate, but within the next year. It's mid-August and we schedule it for 10/20. The anxiety gets the better of me and I call him after Labor Day and ask when the earliest he can get me in is. I am on the table on 9/17. Post surgery he comes in and says he wished he had videoed the surgery as I was a textbook case. Surgery supposed to take 3-5 hours, but I am in and out in 2.5. I was up the next day and discharged "as soon as he was allowed". So, I have a bovine manufactured valve with a 10-15 year life. It will need to be replaced and they would probably do that via a TAVR, going in through my groin in an out-patient procedure.
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