update
update
Hello my friends,
Just an update. I had a consultation with the surgeon who initially operated on me in 2000. He was not brought up to speed on my case until after I returned home from the hospital. So here is his assessment in a nutshell.
1. I have grown bacteria in my blood cultures.
2. On my first TEE a dark spot was visible right next to the Aortic Valve.
3. Shortly after my first TEE I went in 3rd Degree Heart Block for around a half a minute in the hospital.
4. I also went into heart block with a drug induced stress test.
5. On the second TEE the spot was not visible
Where the spot is located is right over a node that sends message to the lower portion of my heart. He said with the above information, you can pretty much put two and two together and say I have an abscess. He said speaking as a surgeon with 28 years experience and around 10,000 heart operations; ?you would have already had heart surgery had if been my call.? Now we are on this course of anti-biotic, so will give it a chance, but he wants another TEE done by the end of the week. If he sees any breach on the Aortic Valve, or change around it, surgery will be forthcoming.
The one thing he explained to us, is that if the endocarditis has caused an abscess to form, that abscess is in the heart tissue. The chance of IV anti-biotic to kill this abscess is very slim too nothing, although there has been a handful of cases with mechanical valves, where there has been some success; although very limited in number. Their seems to be more success with pig valves and cadaver valves in treating endocarditis, but that does not pertain to me.
The good news ? if there is a surgery, a good surgeon can clean up the abscess and with anti-biotic have a fairly reasonable chance of success. I would not be out of the clear for around 6 months after the surgery.
In his opinion, something caused the heart block; and the edocarditis culture; and where the spot on the Tee was located; all seem to point at an abscess. He normally is very aggressive the artificial valves and endocarditis, because of the damage to the surrounding tissue. The more scraping the more grafting.
I am still pretty swollen where the pace maker was put in, but it is going down, and the pain has greatly diminished.
Well that is it in a nutshell. Where this ?whirl wind ends is in Gods hands. I am just along for the ride. Thank you for all of the prayers, words, and good thoughts.
Love Mark
