Surgery date set!

[Alysha]

I went for my appt. with Dr Scaff yesterday @ Mayo. It was kinda an odd appt. We drove 9 hours to get there and he saw us for about 10 minutes. He did not give me any info. Seems to be a very smart man. He said he could not give me any real statistics since my type of surgery has only been done like 25 times or so, but thought due to my age that everything would go great, no reason for concern. He is going to do the surgery through both the Apex and Aorta, if I understood him correctly. I am having surgery July 1st. So I guess my family has a new vacation this year for the 4th. I'm am anxious to see how much better I will feel. He thought it could be like 75%, no guarantees of course. I guess the reason I thought the appt. odd was he did not go over any part of the surgery. Like what to prepare for or anything, said to be there June 30th and his assistant would go over everything for surgery. So I am hoping that when I get my schedule that it will have some of the info about the surgery. I have been on this site almost everyday so I kinda know what to expect. My husband on the other hand wants to hear it for himself. He was not with me last week when I visted Dr. Freeman, who was much more informative, so he is still in the dark. Although I think he likes it that way. He sure has been grouchy lately.:mad: I think or hope that is his way of dealing with this whole thing. If we do not talk about it, it won't happen sort of thing.:confused: If I try telling him things I have read on this site, he won't listen. Makes snide comments about, " I guess we'll see, you don't know".

Sorry I went on forever. Just wanted to thank all of you for the welcome and let you know what I found out. I will let you know when I know more. Thank you all again. Your info has been much needed and appreciated.:) Alysha

[mbcube]

Alysha - Glad you have a date set. I have never met your doctor, but have done time at mayo. My doctor (Dearani) brought out the plastic model, discussed the incision, recovery, etc. ask if I had questions & asked my wife & son who were also in the consult room. This was the day before my surgery & perhaps thats why Shraff was rather quick with you.

You likely see him again & perhaps you should write down any questions you or your husband have. You'll be nervous & its easy to forget little things. As far a your husband's response, we all handle stress & worry differently. My wife has no idea of what I went through, and I have no idea of her perspective as well. We all deal with it differently.

[Cynaburst]

The one thing that I remember Dr. Dearani telling me about the apical myectomy is that because it requires a second incision through the bottom of the heart, the additional scar tissue could later prove to be pro-arrythmic, but that since I have an ICD and since I would be on beta blockers or other meds forever, he wasn't too worried about it.