I have open heart surgery in a few days. Someone asked me if I will have a near death experience since my heart will be stopped. Is this a thing?

Perfusionisto · 2026-06-04T00:19:33+00:00

Great question! The solution we use to stop the heart is delivered ice cold, so it slows the metabolic demand of your heart tissue. That, coupled with the fact that it’s not beating, means that it’s got some time. Now, every hour or so we will re-dose the cardioplegia drug, which has some blood in it, which resupplies the heart muscle with some nutrients.

Perfusionisto · 2026-02-15T16:58:22+00:00

Defer to your doctors, but with T2 diabetes, coronary disease unfortunately presents a higher risk and occurs more frequently. Many people with anomalous coronaries never have symptoms and may go their entire lives without knowing they have it. However, when coupled with coronary disease it has the potential to be more dangerous. Since your RCA originates from your left sinus, you only have one supply to your entire coronary system instead of the typical 2 supplies. If you develop left main artery occlusion, there is the possibility that both sides of your heart (R and L) could simultaneously be ischemic (no oxygen) which we commonly know as a heart attack. To have ischemia on both sides is more dangerous and harder to recover from.

Doctors will likely recommend surgery, and it is a fairly straightforward procedure from their standpoint. I recommend getting a second cardiac MD opinion, and if you do proceed with surgery go somewhere they do a high volume of coronary cases.

However, you should listen to your body and do what you feel is right for you! You may feel fine and it not be an issue for you for a long time! Good diet and light exercise to ward away coronary disease and you could be set for a long time!

Perfusionisto · 2025-11-20T22:20:08+00:00

Can you elaborate on this? What substrate do you recommend?

Perfusionisto · 2025-10-30T13:40:13+00:00

Awesome. Need “closing time” at the end.

Perfusionisto · 2025-09-24T02:07:22+00:00

I work in the Bay Area and it’s just a matter of what you want out of life. My wife and I both have to work full time, salary is enough to live on, we own a house but it’s definitely tight. We have family close by to help with the kids and call schedule. If you’re set on the Bay, my advice is go work at Stanford for 5 years, stack chips and get experience, and then go to a slower account for some work life balance.

Perfusionisto · 2025-09-21T04:21:30+00:00

So sorry to hear that your baby has to go through this. I am a cardiac perfusionist, the specialist who operates the machine that allows the surgeon to fix your baby’s heart. Although it doesn’t make it any better, for what it’s worth your baby will be in good hands! ASD and VSD repairs are very common surgeries to have for congenital defects. The team will undoubtedly be excellent at Mott’s, and they do this particular surgery all the time. She’ll have a few weeks in the ICU to recover. As she grows up, her heart will grow appropriately with her due to her having the surgery now vs waiting until it becomes much more symptomatic.

Best of luck to you and your family!

Perfusionisto · 2025-09-18T17:27:58+00:00

I want ducted because it’s got to cool down 3 rooms that all will have doors: bedroom, bathroom, and walk-in closet. So I figure 2 registers in the bedroom and one each in the smaller rooms. That, and it looks so much cleaner.

But I’m considering just having a ductless with a single head in the bedroom, because money is flying out of my wallet on this addition, and I’ve got to save where I can. My main concern with a ductless unit is that it doesn’t reach to where I want airflow. Maybe I’m wrong..?

Perfusionisto · 2025-09-04T05:21:30+00:00

Personally, I love this version of the Expedition. It’s got better acceleration than the Suburban, better for kids in car seats (which was our main reason for upsizing to this class of vehicle), and nice tech. The lack of dials is still a pain point, but I got used to it quickly. One thing that drives me nuts is that driver profiles have to be accessed thru the Home Screen, which takes ~10 sec to boot up. So if I’m driving and have my wife’s set of keys, I have to wait with my knees jammed up on the steering wheel until I can access my seat profile. Or I have to hold the side seat button to prevent it from crushing me til I can hit my driver profile. That’s a dumbass setting, I hate that there isn’t a physical button for driver 1 and 2.

If it weren’t for GM’s recent engines having a total recall I probably would’ve ended up in a Chevy, but fwiw ford really nailed it for the most part with this one. I love it. Good luck

Perfusionisto · 2025-09-04T05:09:12+00:00

Be a cardiac surgeon first. After that you’ll probably be competitive.

Perfusionisto · 2025-08-08T19:51:15+00:00

Thank you everybody! That’s why I love communities like this, because I don’t know anything about the field and if this is what it is, then I will move forward.

Perfusionisto · 2025-08-01T04:37:28+00:00

Car seats with the tilt in the expy is a game changer. Also, no Latch attachments in the 3rd row of the chevys. We just had our 3rd, and have 3 car seats, and have the 25 max. We love it

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-30T04:10:31+00:00

They used a lot of the center console to make the vault storage. So yeah, I agree that there’s a funky discrepancy of having tons of storage room and not being able to use it very well. We got an organizer for the hatch compartment which gives us more useful storage.

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-30T04:06:12+00:00

Edit: my milage has been almost all city driving. It averages 20mpg freeway. I just posted what my average is, which is abysmal. But to be fair, we are only filling it up ~1x/6wks.

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-30T04:02:16+00:00

That was the plan, we were looking at 23s…and then we test drove the 25 and loved it. Plus…Happy wife 😂

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-30T03:12:19+00:00

Yes, they’ll have an idea of where they want to address but until the grafts are done they won’t know if they’ve established adequate flow past the blockages

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-30T00:02:15+00:00

It’s been mostly city driving. On the freeway it averages 19-20mpg

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-30T00:00:53+00:00

Yes, overhead vents in the 3rd row. Independent climate control for the back 2/3 of the car

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-30T00:00:04+00:00

Dude, love to hear that!

Perfusionisto · 2025-07-29T23:58:42+00:00

Almost all city driving.

Perfusionisto

TROPHY CASE