My 69 year old husband had surgery for a mitral valve repair and aortic valve replaced with an On-X valve on July 29, 2009. His ejection rate is 25% and the cardiologist wants him seen by as specialist to consider a biventricular pacemaker with defibrillator. He had indicated that he has left ventricular cardiomyopathy that might be a separate condition and not secondary to the valve issues. He also has left bundle branch block. My husband had surgical complications as well as anemia and is an asthmatic and so I am concerned regarding invasive procedures. Our GP has just put him on some supplements (d-ribose, magnesium, Co-Q 10, L-carnitine) as the cardiologist doesn't "deal with those sorts of things" and didn't know about them to even discuss their value. He is on Coreg, Lisinopril, Coumadin, 81 mg aspirin and Advair along with fish oil, vitamin D. My husband is slowly recovering his functional skills though, as expected, fatigue and shortness of breath with a certain level of exertion persist. I should add that in Oct. of 2008 this man worked 3 1/2 -4 hours lifting and splitting wood so that the functional impact of all of this has been astounding. I guess my questions would be: 1. What would be the expected time for recovery to see the full impact of internal healing? 2. How long before the impact of the supplements should be apparent? 3. How long has this device been used and what is the complications/issues with it? We are meeting with the specialist on Tues. and want to be prepared. Also if there are recommended readings or sites about this device, it would be appreciated. Thank you, Jane