A pretty good day afterall!

We met with Scott's heart surgeon this afternoon, and he was wonderful. He is a tree of a man, tall & strong, and as it turns out he is the best heart surgeon in our state. This type of surgery is done about 1,000 times per year in our state, and of those he performs more than 300 of them himself. Further, there are only about a dozen other heart surgeons across the nation that perform as many of these a year as he does... Scott is in GOOD HANDS!!!

And,... he (the heart surgeon) says that he feels 96-98 percent sure he can do a repair instead of a replacement. Of course, this could change once he gets in there, but this man is a master. Scott has been given a choice now, too, on what type of valve he wants (if they end up still needing to resort to the replacement),.. the mechanical valve which would require Cumadin for the rest of his life, or a tissue valve which doesn't last as long. With the repair, he could go 10 years before needing another surgery. If the replacement is necessary, then the mechanical is pretty much a lifetime thing, and odds are good that he wouldn't need another surgery down the road, but again, the Cumadin delimna. And in case you don't know,.. Cumadin (blood thinner) is actually rat poison in a prescription bottle. Of the tissue valves, there are two choices,.. human or animal. The human valves are very difficult to replace in surgery,.. the animal valves are sturdier and easier to use. Of the animal valves, they used to use pig valves, but they generally only had a lifespan of about 7 years before needing surgery again. Now they prefer to use cow valves (this all sounds so gross), which tend to have a life span of anywhere from 10-15 years, 12 on the average. Scott has to decide his valve choice by the 22nd, just in case he still has to go through with the replacement once they get in there.

All in all, a very good meeting, and we both feel a lot more relieved!

More great news,......... S's mom got her results back, and her CA125 count is down!! She has been battling ovarian cancer now for 4 1/2 years, and just before Christmas gave us a big scare when her counts had jumped to 190 something (and I remember when we used to get so scared when she would go from 11 to 23!),.... Well, she's one tough lady, and in March her counts had come down to 115. She got her latest results today and she's down to 78!!!! I cried happy tears most of the way home tonight (good thing S was driving because it wasn't just a few trickling tears, I was actually bawling!). I love my MIL sooooo incredibly much! Her strength amazes me...

So Monday turned out to be a pretty good day afterall!