Aspen's Ascending Aorta Aneurysm at 32 years old

Thursday June 25, 2020 Four-thirty came early as my alarm indicated that I needed to take a shower and wash with chlorhexidine gluconate soap before my surgery. I had a difficult time falling asleep in our hotel room the night before, mainly due to the lack of control I had with putting my family in this fearful position.  We opted to stay in Seattle prior the surgery rather than getting up at 3am in Olympia and driving up. Wednesday afternoon we drove to USMC to take my third COVID-19 test (negative!) at a drive-by clinic. Afterward I went a pre-anesthesia appointment to have a doctor look at my throat. It had been irritated from the breathing tube a week ago from my first surgery. Finally, we went to my cardiology appointment with Dr. Aldea to sign consent paperwork and go over sternal precautions post-surgery. We ordered Indian food and enjoyed an early night in the hotel room drifting off to the Discovery Channel.  Chuck drove us to the hospital and I was admitted around 5...

Friday June 19, 2020 I can't think of a better way to celebrate my 33rd birthday than to be discharged from the hospital and be with our critters and friends at home!   Everything went smoothly with the post-op, thankfully. I was moved out of ICU on Thursday afternoon and was home the next day. There was very little pain and only a slight tightness when turning my head to the left. I did continue to have a sore throat, but there's an abundance of popsicles to ease the pain.  I'm incredibly blessed to have such compassionate friends and colleagues shower me in gifts and flowers upon my arrival home!                 I'm so grateful to get to spend the next six days at home to recover before the open heart surgery to replace my ascending aorta! Today is the start of summer break and if all goes as planned I will have my next two surgeries before the start of the school year in September. In the meantime I'll keep finding teaching oppor...

Wednesday June 17, 2020 No food or liquid leading up to the surgery wasn't too bad. Difficulty struck after I came out of anesthesia and I felt like I could drink all the water in the Pacific Ocean!  The COVID-19 test thankfully came back negative. The nurse had me wash by body with a special soap before surgery and swabbed my nose with a topical to reduce the chance of contracting MRSA. My sister called around 10:30am to wish me luck with my 3pm surgery. Thankfully, she was able to get in touch with our folks to have them call me afterward because at 11am they took me down to the pre-op room.  I ended up waiting there for five hours... A nurse put an inflatable warming blanket on me which felt like I should be in a pool instead of a hospital.  Nurse Laura brought me in a word search on Egyptian vocabulary. While lying there people continually came in to introduce themselves and ask a few questions. Dr. Sweet came in and signed his signature on the right side of my neck w...

Tuesday June 16, 2020 Chuck went home Monday night to take care of our pets, water the garden, and get a nice long run in after being cooped up in the hospital room since Saturday. That gave me an opportunity to call my school district's HR to update them on my medical adventure. I also needed to clean out my classroom to meet the district's COVID-19 standards. An amazing group of colleagues rose to the occasion and helped knock out that looming chore in an hour! I felt so blessed!  At 10am a doctor in residency (DIR) came in to have me sign a consent form for the surgery. As he explained the possible complications of the surgery I noticed that I started to get black spots in my eyes. I sat down and explained that I wasn't sure what was going on. A minute later I stood up again to take notes and as he continued to state the side effects I suddenly lost my vision, got immensely hot & sweaty, and felt like throwing up. Thankfully, I was able to sit down in time before los...

Monday June 15, 2020 Dr. Burke, a cardiothoracic surgeon, stopped by this morning to explain what he would be looking for in the echocardiogram. A normal aortic valve has three leaflets that open and close to pump blood from the heart and up the aorta. Some people are born with a bicuspid valve (two leaflets). The use of the echocardiogram would indicate what shape my aortic valve was in and if it would be spared or replaced.     The radiologist at the Tacoma ER speculated that it was a bicuspid valve but UWMC wanted a second look.  The echocardiogram machine was soon wheeled in and the sonographer spent the next hour taking pictures of my heart from every angle possible. Dr. Burke returned just as the image of the aortic valve was displayed. They determined that I had been born with a tricuspid valve but over time the top and right leaflet had fused together to create a bicuspid valve. The body is so peculiar...          Afterward, Dr. Sweet...