Another update:
I talked to the people at Cedars-Sinai today and it appears that I do qualify for the THV (sometimes called TAVR) procedure. It seems that I'm technically not a 'low-risk' patient for open-heart surgery. Now I'm NOT 'high-risk' either, but what they classify as 'intermediate-risk', probably due to my Type II diabetes. What this means is that based on the recommendation of the surgical team, I can have my aortic valve replaced using the less-invasive approach. This is technically the best news that I could have gotten. Even if I had qualified for the research study, my chances would have been only 50-50 that I would get the THV procedure versus conventional open-heart surgery.
Anyway, the surgical team is now looking at their schedule and we should get a firm date in the next day or two. They think they will be able to get me in sometime next week or the week after. My hospital stay should be no more than two nights, max.
I'll provide another update when we get a firm date.
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