Thursday, August 17, 2017

Valve Dilemma

Last night I spoke with Rich Hodel who happened to have the same exact surgery I need and learned some new facts about mechanical or animal tissue valves that pretty much sent me into a bit of a tail spin. The pro about mechanical is it won't wear out. The pro on the animal tissue is you don't need blood thinner.
The con's are what really bothered me. With the mechanical and taking the blood thinner it is really going to cramp my life style. I MUST not get kicked or fall off a horse, or get slammed into a wall and have internal bleeding. This year alone I was kicked hard enough to get slammed into the barn wall and tear something in my knee. The bruising was so bad that at the doctor's office they took one look at the leg and were horrified, exclaiming "how many times did he kick you?" and that was without being on blood thinner, just a baby aspirin. Many many times dealing with the foals I've been stepped on, pushed hard into the wall or found myself bleeding. Will I  have to give up my job? Will I ever be able to ride again?
The con with the tissue valve is they just don't last. After doing research some have failed as soon as 7 years but one lasted for 17. The average is around 10 years. I'm pretty sure I will NEVER want to have open heart surgery again but maybe a new technology will come within those years so open heart surgery does not have to be done to replace a valve. Should I take a chance on that happening?
I was upset enough last night to even forget that the blog hadn't been updated.
We had a really good day at the Berean office. Robin and Carol came to help. Robin stuffed, wrapped, labeled and stamped all the Bibles going out
while Carol folded studies.
I got all the labels printed while they were working. The Bibles are now ready to be mailed and we have plenty of studies to get by for next week's work.
At the farm I moved a round bale into the pond pasture, locked the mares and foals into that pasture while moving another bale into the far paddock. Then took the old bale out of the short shelter. That bale looked good but the horses were not eating it. After pulling it out and smelling it I understood why. It just didn't smell right. It didn't look moldy but smelled bad. The hog panel was taken off that bale, that bale dumped into the manure pile and a new bale put in the short shelter. Bunni and Missy were put in the paddock next to Evan's as I don't worry about the lime, they won't eat it. The others were let back into the far paddock and the bale in the pond pasture moved under a shelter so it won't be wasted.

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