Aortic Dissection at 30yo.

[Dan W]

Chris, I am still having the partial blindness in usually one eye. It is not even close to being as bad as it was right after surgery. It would usually be set off by seeing a bright light or a flash. It seemed like it would start with vision loss at appeared to be directly in front of me and it would work its way off to the side of my eye and then go away. The longes it would last was 3-5 minutes. It really freaked me out at first. Now if I see a flash or a bright light, it seems like it keeps flashing for about 30 seconds or so and then goes away. Hope this makes sense, its the best way I can describe it.

 

[CCRN]

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the family of bicuspid valves, aortic aneurysms/disections and other valvular disorders. There are a lot of nice caring people here. Thanks for your story. It's sure to illustrate the need for follow-up for people newly diagnosed who visit this site. I'm happy for you that you have have such a good outcome from you ordeal. Thanks for joining our group.

 

[kurli]

Hi
Im glad to hear that you survived all of that.
I dont have the problems that you have. I was born with my heart defect so anything happening to me heart wise wouldn't be as much of a shock as Im sure it was for you. Im much the same as you and some of the other Aussie here, heart support is mainly for parents (heart kids, which was great for my parents and friends of ours with heart kids) or for people with hear disease that has come on later in life. I guess Aussies are just more naturally healthier!!
Well its good to have another aussie on the site. Welcome and keep well.

 

[PJmomrunner]

Lynn, actually my surgeon did also say not to do anything that makes me go, "unh."

Chris and Dan, I can't believe you even survived the wait! I wonder what they did for you prior to your surgeries. Did they give you meds to lower your BP? I guess that would only have happened if they had a clue as to what was going on and it sounds as if they didn't until the CT. Yikes! I can't decide if you two should buy lottery tickets because you're the luckiest guys in the world or if you should never bother 'cause your luck's used up! There are a series of stories from the Wall Street Journal a couple years ago about people, some of whom actually had reason to believe they were dissecting (Marfan Syndrome, familial aortic aneurysms) who never lived long enough to get the CT after the initial ruling out of a heart attack. Apparently it can be difficult to convince emergency personnel to skip the heart attack assessment. Maybe the recent study someone posted from the journal Chest that said people with BAV's tend to have coronary arteries as clear as a kid's will change that.

I started this hours ago. Now it's nearing midnight and I've got to call it a day. Hope I made some sense.

 

[Dan W]

P.J. I was told that I was given alot of medication to keep my blood pressure as low as possible and I was told not ot move. I couldn't even move my head or arms. I went to see the top cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital after my operation. He evaluated me for Marphans or other connective tissue disorders. He said it looked like it was caused by the bicuspid valve and not by a disorder. He also said that the xray won't pick up the aneurysm but the catscan will. He is pushing for hospitals to do more catscans in these situations. He said the problem is that the insurance companies don't like paying for all the catscans.

 

[Granbonny]

I have posted many times about my wonderful age 50 year old Brother-in-law..Came home from work, cooked supper, went to bed to read..Sister said he hollared out one time.. Called for ambulance..Went to local rural hospital..he was better..Sent sister home for p.j.'s..Had a call, they were sending him over to larger hospital..30 minutes away.. Teenage nephew called me..Late at night..We flew over there..and nurse tried to write on her scrubs to me and sister..what was happening to him..Sister, nephew and hubby went back to see him before late-night surgery..He was free from pain ( I guess they gave him morphine)Around 4 a.m. they came out and told us..He was very sick..Saw him in ICU..Never woke up..Died that afternoon at 5 P.M. He was a very healthy person.And looking forward to seeing his 2 teenage boys..go on to college..Rural hospital treated him as he was having indigestion This was 15 years ago..Same age as me..My surgeon told my family..mine was 5.0..and he wanted to operate right away...Bonnie

 

[PJmomrunner]

Gee, Bonnie, I don't think I've actually heard the story before. Thanks for sharing. I do hope your sister and (especially) those nephews are screened periodically.

 

[Foxxy74]

I was also given Morhine and once they discovered what it was, beta blockers and told not to move. This continued until I was pretty much pain free and was transported to the second hospital. Once there, they were loading me full of god knows what, I do know alot of it was more beta blockers and also told not to move there as well.

I am just glad that I was close enough to the best public cardiac hospital in Queensland if not Australia.

I am also unbelievably thankful to Dr Trevor Fayers who performed my Surgery. Infact, all of the staff that I had contact with at the Prince Charles were awesome and word certainly dont express my thanks enough

 

[jax3172]

Welcome to our "club"

Welcome to our "club"

I have a new dacron ascending aorta (aneurysm balooned but did not disect) as of 7/21/05 and I'm now being told that I need beta blockers to keep my BP low to "protect" all the grafts. Have you others from the "Dacron Club" been told the same thing? I'm also getting different opinions from the cardio and the surgeon on the extent of future activity (scuba, weightlifting, etc).

 

[PJmomrunner]

Hi Jax:

I'm glad to hear (from your post in another thread) that you are nearly all better. I hope you continue to improve.

FWIW, my experience with my beta blocker (Toprol XL) is that it hasn't had all that much effect on lowering my average blood pressure--2 or 3 points systolic. It has eliminated the highs, however--I used to have highs up to the low 200s (yikes!) and now my highs are around 130 systolic. My lowest lows have not really changed. My heartrate average went from 64 to 59. Since I am still in the waiting room, none of this is post-op data, but if the same principle applies, the chief benefit is in eliminating the most forceful "bursts" of pressure. It also slows the heart's rate of change of pressure (dP/dt), which is desirable for protecting the arteries because the (lower) highs that do remain don't come on as quickly.

I don't know if this info helps, but maybe it will give you help in formulating questions for your doc.

All the best to you.

 

[Creed3]

Hi Jax!

Hi Jax!

I had a Dacron Graft put in to replace my ascending aortic dissection & anuerysm. I also have a mechanical aortic valve.
I was told by my docs at Cleveland that I will not have any problems with the graft. The reason they have me on Toprol is because I have been borderline HBP for many years and they still don't know what caused my dissection. They said they want to keep my bp down some just in case there is another weakness somewhere along the rest of the aorta that does not have a new graft. My question to you is did they just wrap the anuerysm or did they cut out the aorta with the anuerysm and then replace it with the graft? I have heard about someone here that had their aorta wrapped with a dacron graft instead of replacing the aorta with the graft. I guess I just don't understand why they would just wrap the aorta instead of replacing. That seems to me to just be putting a bandaide on the problem and not fixing it. If anyone has any info on this wrapping I would be interested to here about it.
Jax, I don't know if this has helped you but I just wanted to let you know that my docs told me there would be no additional problems with the grafted area.

Take Care!
Gail

 

[Foxxy74]

I have been put on Beta Blockers (Atenolol) as well since the Op. I started on Metoprolol in hospital and then at home twice a day but changed to Atenolol for a 'once a day' fix. I had never suffered from high blood pressure previous to the event. The Cardiologist has told me that the Beta Blocker will 'prevent' the blood pressure from getting to a higher level and possibly putting additional strain on my descending aorta and the graft of the ascending aorta. It also helps to control heart rate. All have been working well since the Op though I still have occasions when I get a little light headed at times.
The advice I have received from my Dr's is no heavy weightlifting anymore, though light weights are fine as long as I monitor my blood pressure. During my Cardiac Rehab Program they found my Blood Pressure actually decreased most of the time after lifting light weights. No more 110kg bench press though .
As for Scuba Diving, I too am getting conflicting advice. Some people say it shouldnt be a problem, others are saying that a thoracotomy basically excludes me from further diving. I am planning to speaking to the Dr that runs the local Hyperbaric Chamber who specialises in Dive Medicine to confirm before I finally give up my dive licence.
If anyone else has any advice on the Diving side of things, it would be great to hear from you.
As for the Aorta being wrapped in Dacron, I seem to remember reading about this in my research, but I think it was more, the dacron was used to replace the damaged section of aorta, but that section of aorta was not removed, but wrapped back around the dacron, I could be wrong though.
This is an awesome online resource I found not long after my op and I needed to know what had been done to me.
http://cardiacsurgery.ctsnetbooks.org/
Basically steps out the entire process, from diagnosis to the surgery to the recovery. Awesome find I thought.

 

[Georgia]

Decidedly awsome resource, Foxxy - thanks for sending it on.

 

[Eric]

Dacron Club

Dacron Club

I have a new dacron ascending aorta (aneurysm balooned but did not disect) as of 7/21/05 and I'm now being told that I need beta blockers to keep my BP low to "protect" all the grafts. Have you others from the "Dacron Club" been told the same thing? I'm also getting different opinions from the cardio and the surgeon on the extent of future activity (scuba, weightlifting, etc).

I'm almost 3 weeks post op and have a new dacron ascending aorta. Like you, I'm surprised that my doc has me on 5mg Norvasc, 320mg Diovan, 100mg Atenolol and Ecotrin tabs. Before the surgery my blood pressure was about 110-115 and now with all the medicine it is the same - about 110-115. I don't know if things will settle down after a while but the doc told me I would be on these medicines for the rest of my life. I'd like to hear about other's experiences.

 

[Eric]

I have been put on Beta Blockers (Atenolol) as well since the Op. I started on Metoprolol in hospital and then at home twice a day but changed to Atenolol for a 'once a day' fix. I had never suffered from high blood pressure previous to the event. The Cardiologist has told me that the Beta Blocker will 'prevent' the blood pressure from getting to a higher level and possibly putting additional strain on my descending aorta and the graft of the ascending aorta. It also helps to control heart rate. All have been working well since the Op though I still have occasions when I get a little light headed at times.
The advice I have received from my Dr's is no heavy weightlifting anymore, though light weights are fine as long as I monitor my blood pressure. During my Cardiac Rehab Program they found my Blood Pressure actually decreased most of the time after lifting light weights. No more 110kg bench press though .
As for Scuba Diving, I too am getting conflicting advice. Some people say it shouldnt be a problem, others are saying that a thoracotomy basically excludes me from further diving. I am planning to speaking to the Dr that runs the local Hyperbaric Chamber who specialises in Dive Medicine to confirm before I finally give up my dive licence.
If anyone else has any advice on the Diving side of things, it would be great to hear from you.
As for the Aorta being wrapped in Dacron, I seem to remember reading about this in my research, but I think it was more, the dacron was used to replace the damaged section of aorta, but that section of aorta was not removed, but wrapped back around the dacron, I could be wrong though.
This is an awesome online resource I found not long after my op and I needed to know what had been done to me.
http://cardiacsurgery.ctsnetbooks.org/
Basically steps out the entire process, from diagnosis to the surgery to the recovery. Awesome find I thought.

Foxxy74,

I'm about 3 weeks post op after having my ascending aorta replaced with a dacron graft. I just found out that I had a heart condition last December. I have always been very active. On your two questions regarding lifting and diving, my doc tells me that I can lift weights so long as I can carry on a conversation at the same time - meaning from now on I'm lifting light weights and doing high reps. As for diving, I spearfish. I don't dive with tanks but my doc tells me that I will be able to resume spearfishing at some point. I told him that I don't dive below 40 feet and he was not at all concerned.

 

[Foxxy74]

Hi Eric....Yeah I imagine free diving would be fine as long as you can still hold your breath that long. I am thinking that since the surgery you might struggle to do so, I sure did, but I had a Plurel Effusion and had to have alot of fluid drained from my lungs. I have had mixed responses regarding the Scuba Diving with compressed air, so I think I will consult the Dive Dr before I take plunge again. Very keen to though, nice and relaxing down there.

I have found that light weights are great as well. If nothing else, they certainly make me feel better about myself again, which is the main thing.

Chris.

 

[zztimeout]

Foxxy74.... Is it possible that you can contact me as I have a few questions for you... I am going through same operation as you will possibly the same surgeon..
Ta
Dave

 

[Lynlw]

Foxxy74.... Is it possible that you can contact me as I have a few questions for you... I am going through same operation as you will possibly the same surgeon..
Ta
Dave

Dave, this was from 2005 and under foxys name it says guest so there is no way to contact her and she most likely won't see your post