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Hi SB - I have two goals at the moment: 1 - to make sure my son, who is on the autistic spectrum, gets good and appropriate support this year….so far his support has been pretty poor so he gets all his support from me and DH, but he's in his thirties now and like to be more independent from us...

Hi Kethi, not only is my HDL high but my trigycerides are very low, just 35. The low trigycerides is a reflection of the low amount of carbs I eat, and judging from what I posted the high HDL is due to low carb too.

Hi - I have high HDL (averages around 135) it’s not genetic as it wasn’t always that way, but it rose steadily when I adopted a very low carb diet to control diabetes (now in remission). The rise was a bonus. I just found this from a couple of websites: From Medical News Today: HDL...

Hi TellTaleHeart - welcome to the forum ! The key to the measurements is asking your cardioogist for a copy of your echocardiogram results. I had no symptoms prior to surgery so really everything was based on the increasing pressure gradients and the decreasing size of the valve area, plus left...

Hi Paul - I'm in the UK too ! I'm based in Surrey. Been on this forum for the past 11 years and got so much support and knowledge and help from everyone here prior to my AVR (2014) and since. As to your original question - no I didn't get any kind of discomfort anywhere prior to surgery, in...

No, no indication of why the pressure gradients got progressively worse although they have stabilised for the past three years at the current mean of 35, peak 56. In annual echos they keep a specific eye on the ventricles, atria and heart size and also an eye on the valve leaflets themselves -...

Hi @MarkZ - my pressure gradients have been high post AVR, initially mean was 18, peak 33, but at 2 years peak was 21, peak 46, and at 5 years it was mean 35 and peak 56, and has stayed like that, now 7 years post op - it's virtually the same measurements as pre surgery. At three years post op I...

Hi Amy, I still get pain along my sternum, it's not got better. I've since had an MRI which showed an effusion on my left sternoclavicular joint which would have been caused by the retraction during surgery. But I still get pain where the wires are - I avoid touching that area - plus pain...

Oh Superbob - so happy to read about the success of your operation ! You had great care from the surgical team, and your daughter. What a fortunate outcome with that pesky form - lucky you thought to look at it later and got it all sorted. Make sure you continue not to lift anything heavier...

Hi SB - wishing you well for your surgery ! And I hope the vet can help Ellie. Nothing much going on here, it's pouring with rain outside at the moment, that after a few very hot days.

Wearing a seatbelt - put a cushion between your chest and the belt, that helps a great deal.

That’s because they’re all such specialists they’ve forgotten everything else. A very good GP I had once posted this short sketch "the best 'medical' quote from comedian Kenneth Williams ever”: If you’re lucky you will find a good specialist who is good at most other medical fields too. I am...

Following the link in that article for more information about the Polivalve: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2020/bm/d0bm00412j it mentions testing 19mm valves: "Four valves of the latest prototype J6 (two 19 mm and two 21 mm ID) have been tested for durability.” "the EOA of the...

I had problems with my left shoulder which were caused by the surgery, diagnosed incorrectly at first as partially torn tendon and impingement syndrome and made worse by the physiotherapy I was given for that. Eventually, five years after surgery, due to pain in my sternum, an MRI of it revealed...

The reason I know the exact time of my surgery is that I'd asked the anaesthetist the night before AVR if he would write down for me the times of start and finsh of surgery - nurse on the ward gave me the paper the anaesthetist had written the times on which I have kept - he also wrote that I...

My surgery was just under 3 hours, from 1.30pm until 4.25pm.

Hope the dentist can work out a plan soon....all the very best.

Thanks @maisiejane and @ottagal Yes it's good that all's stable - high pressure gradients, small effective orifice area, but all okay. Shows that once you've had AVR they have to look at echos in a different way from when it's a native valve.

All the best for the big day and for a speedy recovery after !

Hi @ToniT - After aortic valve replacement for bicuspid aortic valve my echocardiograms showed increasing pressure gradients and small effective orifice area of the replacement valve. After three years the gradients were, "in terms of numbers", in the moderate stenotic range and have stayed...