JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A funny thing happens when you hit middle-age, mentally you still feel in your 20s. Sometimes the body doesn’t always agree.
That was essentially my case the last few years, as I felt I could skip that annual physical. I mean, I’m still in my 20s. Well, 40s. Maybe the physical isn’t a bad idea.
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So, last February, sitting there during my physical at the doctor’s office in Mandarin, he pulled out the stethoscope. It’s the easiest part of the physical; I was sure there would be no problem. Well, that supposition was wrong.
The doctor told me he heard a “murmur”. This was a first. I still couldn’t get past the mental gymnastics I was doing to remind myself I was young. Reality reminded me... “You’re not as young as you thought.”
Then I started getting more tests. When I had the echocardiogram, that’s when they found something. My mitral valve was leaking. That’s when a cardiologist sat me down to let me know that if this was left untreated, the blood could back up into my lungs and I could die.
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If you were watching the news last February and thought Scott looked a little pale... well, there you go.
Anyway, we ran more tests, and I met with a surgeon. The results weren’t great, but they weren’t awful, relatively speaking. I was told my problem was totally fixable. That was the good news.
The not-so-good news was that I was going to need open heart surgery to either repair (best case scenario) the valve or replace it.
I could either have a mechanical valve put in and likely be on blood thinners the rest of my life, or I could have what they call an “animal valve,” which may be better. But I could feasibly need another surgery in my 60s or 70s.
The day I was scheduling that surgery, I decided on a long shot, in the Channel 4 newsroom. I talked to Bruce Hamilton. I know Bruce had some similar issues many years ago. Bruce sent me to see his cardiologist, Dr. Majdi Aschi, over on University Blvd.
I assumed Aschi would just reiterate what I had already been told. I was wrong. He threw me a curveball and told me, “You need to go to Emory”.
I didn’t know what that was. Turns out he was talking about Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta. I discovered they do more mitral valve repairs using robotics than anywhere in the world.
So I took a day and drove myself to Atlanta, Georgia. That’s where I met with Dr. Douglas Murphy. We sat down, and most importantly, he said he could fix me with robots. That meant, no open heart surgery, a quicker recovery, and most importantly, I would likely not need any other surgeries.
“You would be working in the yard or playing pickleball or swinging a golf club in 90 days,” Murphy told me of the recovery for open heart surgery. Then he described the benefits of robotics. “If you have it robotically, you’re back at work in three weeks, and you’re out in the yard, but the recovery is the same; it’s just faster.”
Then he told me the complication rate was extremely low. He also told me (estimating) that going to get my annual physical and detecting this may have added ten to 15 years to the end of my life.
That’s because I didn’t know I had a problem. I was asymptomatic. But at some point over the next several years, I was told that would likely change. Without surgery.
So, I dropped everything and planned my surgery in Atlanta on Oct. 1. These tiny robots were able to use my own heart tissue to repair the valve, and I wouldn’t require an artificial valve.
When I got there, all the prep went as you might expect, and the anesthesiologist put me out. I was unconscious for about six hours and then woke up.
Unlike the full open-heart surgery, I didn’t have a huge scar down the center of my chest. Rather, there were two much smaller wounds near my right shoulder. Turns out the surgery was successful. My valve was fixed, and I’ll live a full life.
The two surgical wounds remain today and continue to heal. I don’t even notice them anymore, and they’ll eventually be gone.
The funny part of this story came a few days after I was released from the hospital. They had me stay at an Atlanta hotel for a few days before a follow-up, and they sent me home.
That happened the week the Jaguars were playing Monday Night Football. I had to watch the game in the hotel lobby. If you’re not familiar, the show “The Walking Dead” was filmed in the Atlanta area. Well, I looked like one of their zombies. I was better, but you don’t look your best after heart surgery. While everyone in the lobby stared in disbelief as I sat down, I cheered the Jags as best I could. And, we won!
I want to close by just writing that this was my experience. Every heart issue is unique, and you need to speak with your medical team. In fact, I spoke with multiple cardiologists who all told me a cardiac surgeon needs to determine if robotics works for you. They can’t know without major testing.
The outlook is good going forward. I’ve had two precautionary echocardiograms since, and both came back perfectly. I’ll have an annual one and have to take one baby aspirin a day for the rest of my life. That’s all. No other meds. In my opinion, not that bad considering the alternative.
And now, I won’t be taking those annual physicals for granted ever again. See you on the news...