Transcript On-X Mitral Valve Journey Mischel Satunas is an On-X valve recipient and this is her patient story. My name is Michelle. So Tunis. I live in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I was born with a heart murmur. I became very symptomatic at the age of 21. As I got older, the symptoms worsened. I was having trouble breathing and doing the simple things, like doing the stairs. My first open heart surgery was on June, the 25th of 2000 and one. It was a mitral valve repair. I was very, very sick after that repair. Much worse than I had ever anticipated that I would be. I started getting blue fingers and terrible dizziness, unlike any dizziness I've ever had before. I was losing my balance and falling. I just had no energy. I slept all the time. I had trouble breathing. My second open heart surgery was on October the 1st 2000 and two, and it was a metro valve replacement. Um, they took out the Gortex ring and replaced the metro valve with a poor porcine felt. I think that's how you say it. Sadly, um, just a few short months later, all of my symptoms returned with a vengeance. From 38 to 48 I lived sadly like I was 88. Um, I couldn't do a flight of stairs. I had to quit the job that I was working. I couldn't work anymore. I progressively got worse. Um, over time, I started to get bigger and bigger. I started gaining more and more way I felt like I was dying and I was so full of fear, I went to get up. I just made this decision. Okay, this is the day I'm just gonna have to get up and and go get ready for the day. And I got up to go brush my teeth and literally collapsed onto the floor. And my entire abdomen was this deep, dark, purposely color. And I'm pretty sure I'm dying. I'm 48 years old. I'm not ready to die. I don't want to die today. I so desperately wanna live. She said we have page the chief cardiothoracic surgeons who will be here momentarily. Chf. I knew what that meant. Congestive heart failure, and I immediately just began to cry. I kept asking myself, How did I get here? I remember I was crying uncontrollably the next morning. On October the 7th, 2000 and 11 I had my third and I believe most successful open heart surgery. I never expected toe survive that surgery. So when I woke up in that intensive care unit with my family standing around me, I literally had to pinch myself. I had the breathing tubes in so I couldn't speak. Um, my husband leaned over and kissed me on the forehead and said that my heart surgeon had hit it out of the ballpark for me that day and that I was so much sicker than we ever knew. And he said that my heart surgeon had replaced my my my porcine valve with a mechanical heart valve. Within a week or so, it's just a little over a week. I lost £42.1 day, and within a 12 hour span I had dropped £13 and with each day that went by, I felt myself getting stronger and stronger, and my breathing was incredibly improved. I've made friends with the stairs. Now I lunge up the stairs and I can ride my bike again, which has been wonderful. I'm a dancer. I like to dance around the house and I remember this moment where I was folding clothes and I was dancing around in my bedroom and caught a glimpse of myself in my mirror dancing. And I remember I'm going to get choked up thinking I know that girl. I've missed that girl. And I was so happy to see that person again because my quality of life just it just this operation this heart valve catapulted me too. Ah, healthy place. And I I have that part of my life back. I was very hopeless before having this third heart surgery. So getting this new lease on life has been incredible for me to be here with the people that I love has been an incredible gift. It's been the best gift I've ever received with life. I cannot say thank you enough to the CryoLife family because to me now they're gonna be part of my family. I mean, to have this blessing, my my goal, and doing this and in sharing my story is that I want people to know the options that they have. I want them thio to be able to see what you look like after you go through this procedure on the other side of it. Because I know what it feels like to be on the dark side of it and to not have the energy and not to feel like you're going to survive and just not knowing what's wrong with you and then getting this whole new lease on life. I I tell patients all the time who, um, when I volunteer at the hospital, get yourself a good pair of dancing shoes because you're gonna wear the treads off. You're gonna You don't realize how good you're gonna feel because you get so used to feeling so bad and you don't realize how bad you felt until you start to feel good. Created by
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