Many people are surprised to learn that there are over 50 types of heart diseases. With the increase of heart disease, more people are resorting to Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery. Dwight's talks about his procedure, medication and complications.

I was scheduled for some ear surgery and during the pre-admission exams they detected a pretty serious heart murmur.



Hi my name is Dwight, I'm from New Jersey. I was referred to a cardiologist who determined that my aortic valve needed to be replaced. After that was done that particular valve that they replaced, wore out about 12 years ago. They had to replace that -- that valve again. I was a little more concerned at that point then I had been originally because now I had kids and I was really concerned that it was going to leave me with some sort of a permanent disability of some sort. They go in through -- through your chest cavity and they stop your heart, they put you on a by-pass machine and they -- they replace the valve.



Now I have what they call a mechanical valve which is man -- all manmade.



Actually I'm on three medications; one is a blood thinner because of the type of valve I have. The other is a blood pressure regulator, and the third makes the -- the heart work more efficiently.



I could tell you this the -- the blood thinners are -- are a major hassle. Any other doctor is always concerned that a patient is on blood thinners because of bleeding. Any kind of even dental work, it's kind of taken a lot of the mystery or -- or magic out of -- out of how -- how I guess I think a lot of people think of their bodies. When you have problems you know physical problems you just need to -- to address them and be able to somehow put your fear aside because it's counterproductive.