How common is chest pain for valve problems?

[oscarsonthepond]

Thanks for the post LEN - always good to have other ideas. My wife has had a number of blood tests for clots over the past year, and they've all come back negative, so it doesn't look like that applies to her (although who can say for sure). We have the surgery coming up, so hopefully that'll fix things

 

[Lynlw]

Blake, I was wonderring wasn't the cath this week? how did it go? NOT to be a pain about the adul CHd doctor, because I know you guys went thru alot of doctors before you found a card yo both trust and feel feel safe with, But I wanted to let you know i understand that entirely, Justin is 18, he got his ped card when he was 2 days old, and he is the only one that has done Justin's caths, both just to check things out or interventional ones w/ stents and balloons. Since he is 18 he also started seeing an ACHD card, who works in a different hospital, BUT he still sees his ped card since that is who he has the most faith in and knows him well. The 2 docs work as a team for Justin and discuss what's going on, so he has the best of both. right now there aren't nearly as many adult CHD specialists, it is still a pretty new feild, so many patients have their local cardiologist AND an ACHD specialist, that often they have to travel pretty far for and only see once a year or every few years depending how they are doing heartwise, so the ACHD docts are used to working w/ a persons main cardiologist, Justin had his first ACHD appt a few weeks ago and he is not only sending copies of his report to Justin's pc, but actually cds oF the echo and cardiac MRI so he can look at them himself, Actually one of the members here that lives in texas and has her card she loves in Texas, was asking about making travel arrangements to go see an ACHD at Mayo.
How are you doing? and your wife? I can imagine what a tough time this is for both of you, hopefully soon she will be feeling much better and you guys can just think about all the fun things young families w/ kids do, like should we go to the zoo or the movies, Lyn

 

[Janea]

I have had chest pain throughout my life and the doctors have said it was because of my prolapsed valve. I don't understand why either. I would sometimes have a dull ache but mostly sharp shooting pains on either side of my chest. Those pains who be VERY painful but also extremely brief with long periods (months) in between pains. Since my surgery I haven't had any pain.

 

[the art den lady]

Back Pain in Same Spot on Left Side

Back Pain in Same Spot on Left Side

Ruth - good luck on your surgery! If you have spare time beforehand to send me a link to such a website, I would sincerely appreciate it (obviously I'd understand if you don't). I failed to mention that my wife also has back pain in the same spot on her left side. We have begun assuming it was unrelated because I've never found anything that listed it as a symptom. Thanks!

Hi there-
I had to respond about the back pain and chest pains, because I also have that. The cardiologist had me cut back on lifting anything heavy (30# max.) and I rarely have anymore chest pains.

As for the back pain, mine is quite severe when it happens, and massage nor painkillers do anything. Mine is located about a hands length down from my left shoulder and about a hands width off of my spine. Where is your wives pain? The cardiologist didn't seem to be concerned.


-------------------------------------------------------

1995 - TIAs started, Aspirin started
2003 - PFO plugged, FVL diagnosed, Coumadin started
2/2007 - BAV w/severe stenosis, Mechanical Valve likely


Life's not all bad. Look into somebody's eyes, you'll
see that they're a person just like you, they also have
good and bad feelings, hopes and dreams.

I intend to live forever -- so far, so good.

 

[oscarsonthepond]

Just thought I'd give the update...she had surgery yesterday, 2/9/07 and the surgeon said everything went beautifully. It took a little while to get in there due to her having scar tissue and because her RV is enlarged and they didn't want to nick it on the way in. Other than that (which was expected) everything went "beautifully" as the surgeon described it. She got a homograft from Cryolife and the surgeon said it was just absolutely a great valve and couldn't have been a better fit. All in all it was about 4.5 hrs from what the liaison nurse told us - about 1.5 to get in there, about 2 for the procedure, and about 1 to put her back together. Of course she was only checking in every hour or so so those numbers could be pretty far off. At one point she said "yeah they're just working on the aorta right now" which sent me for a loop because it was the pulmonary valve they were replacing and they just checked everything else last week in the cath, so we started freaking out a bit wondering if they had to fix something else while they were in there. She said she'd go check again cause she wasn't really sure and then came back 45 minutes later to say "well whatever it was they were doing, they're done now because they're stitching her back up." Whew!

Anyways...recovery is going excellent, which is expected I suppose considering her age. She stood up about 2 hours post-op and w/in 24 hours was walking and in a regular room (out of the ICU).

As far as pain goes I'm guessing even if she still had the chest/back pain she'd have no idea right now since her chest just got sawed in half. However, I'll post again a couple weeks down the line.

I couldn't be anymore excited as I'm very confident that this new valve is going to provide our family with a dramatically increased quality of life. Thank you everyone for your answers/support along the way.



Janea -
My wife's pain is in the exact spot you are describing, and it's always in that same spot. Guess we'll find out soon if it was the valve or not Our cardio and surgeon both say that the chest/back pain could be related, but they are definitely not confident about it. Personally, I feel very confident that they are caused by her valve. Although most websites don't list chest pain as a symptom, the Mayo Clinic's site does for pulmonary regurgitation. Also, the main time my wife's pain starts really acting up is when she gets short of breath from walking around a store too much, etc. Hopefully we'll never have to deal with that again! I'll definitely be posting in this thread in a few weeks w/ an update on the chest/back pain.