I forgot to post about my mitral valve. Here's a mitral valve:
Mine wore out, basically. I had mitral valve prolapse for several years, and in the past 18 months, it got worse. In September I had it replaced at Mayo Clinic in a minimally-invasive procedure. While it's better to repair than replace, mine was just flopping all over the place (Barlow's disease) so now I have one that is part cow, part artificial--a bioprosthetic. It works great. I was out of the hospital on the 5th day and back to work a month after that.
During the workup for surgery, the doctors found out I have stage 3 follicular lymphoma, an incurable but treatable blood cancer. Right now we're just watching it, because multiple studies have shown no benefit to treating before the cancer causes problems. In prostate cancer this is called "watchful waiting" or "active surveillance." In lymphoma they call it "watch and wait." Some patients never need treatment, but most do within a few years. Treatment is a combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
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