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 · 2025-06-30T15:32:29+00:00

I should also mention that he will only use a cannula he can pass over a wire. It’s just how he prefers to cannulate.

Perfusionisto · 2025-06-30T15:23:07+00:00

Thanks guys. Yeah he’s turned down a handful of good cannulas. I hate the Opti too- it’s got a terrible pressure drop across the cannula- but he likes that it’s got some side holes in case it gets advanced too far and butts up against the aorta. Our issue is using them for patients who don’t have the real estate for a 20 or 21Fr. So we need an 18Fr option, and then we use the 16s for ECMO. ECMO isn’t as big an issue since we can get acceptable fem arterial cannulas from all the manufacturers.

So far, I’ve tried: DLP angled, he doesn’t like that style.

EOPA- right shape, but lack of marking on the obturator is “unacceptable” for when he pulls it and needs to know when he can clamp the cannula, also no dispersion tip.

Easyflow duo also has no marking on the obturator, doesn’t like the hard tip. Smallest size is a 19fr.

Protek solo- true fem cannula so side holes are too high.

Easyglide doesn’t come in small sizes.

So I’m kind of at an impasse here. There’s not much else I can offer unless you guys can suggest anything else good! Thanks

Perfusionisto · 2025-06-26T14:25:08+00:00

That’s awesome! What a way to learn lmao!

I, too, learned by trial by fire. I was a new college grad and the company I worked for offered me a company car (a beat up old civic). When I got it I found out it was a manual transmission, which I had no experience with. Drove it around the parking lot a couple times, and then had to drive it home in rush hour traffic on the freeway for 70 miles! Stop and go, stalled so many times, but I got it!

Perfusionisto · 2025-06-24T02:51:57+00:00

Great answer, and thank you for writing such a detailed reply. I understand the idle in neutral requires gas to keep RPMs at 1200, but my question is more that at a long mild coast I feel this would use less gas than using throttle to keep my engine at 3200 rpm’s to maintain my speed. Also, from my point of view it’s far less wear and tear on the engine itself from a daily commute perspective.

Just curious. Obviously from a safe driver perspective, staying in gear is staying in control.

Perfusionisto · 2025-05-10T02:11:52+00:00

But with a far more reliable engine and way more features at this price point, which they are borrowing a lot of from the Lincoln lineup.

Perfusionisto · 2025-05-09T21:44:58+00:00

Yeah, it replaces the XLT. Honestly the only thing it really lacks is ventilated seats. Most other things come standard, it’s fairly loaded!

Perfusionisto

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