debster913
Well-known member
Hi, all--
Haven't written in a while; the past few weeks have been one heck of a rollercoaster ride! Here's an update (my apologies if it's a little long...):
Had the angiogram on April 25, which showed moderate leakage in my mitral valve as opposed to severe from the echo. (Some of you may remember my frustrated post on that). Then, my cardiologist decided to do another TEE the following week to compare it to the one from last year. What's funny is that this time around, I remembered the whole thing: swallowing the probe, everything. The TEE showed moderate to severe leakage. My cardio had even artificially raised my blood pressure during the test to simulate stress/activity. After the TEE, my cardio put me on limited activity since the rise in BP makes my valve leak more severely. Finally, just to make sure, my cardio had me do the Pulmonary Function Test to see if possibly my symptoms could be caused by asthma. Thankfully, I don't. He even said he thought I didn't have asthma, but he still wanted to make sure before he referred me to a surgeon. (But not before teasing me about being 25 even though I'll be 31 in a couple months. He's always been reluctant to pursue surgery for me because of my age.)
I saw the surgeon on May 9th, and he was very straightforward about wanting to go ahead and do the repair now. He even alluded to the fact that he believed my valve is worse than what my cardio thought. The surgeon can perform a minimally invasive surgery to repair my valve, though there is a possibility that I may have a mechanical put in if my valve is beyond repair. After ten days of waiting for a callback, I finally got my date: June 14th.
As many of you know, I've been symptomatic since April 11th. In the past month, I've learned that my valve is degenerative (myxomatous). I've always known that I'd need a repair/replacement someday, but was never clear on the whole dynamics of why other than the fact that the heart attack I'd had as a baby affected my valve (guess I hadn't been paying much attention to the details.)
The thing that is confusing to me is that I have my good days and bad days. There are days when I'm asymptomatic, but if I get cocky and start thinking I can "tackle the world," so to speak, I get worn out. Then, I have days when I wake up short of breath and have absolutely no energy all day. I have family members who believe that perhaps my valve is getting better on its own and wonder why I'm even having surgery if I'm feeling OK.
Have any of you ever experienced this with friends/relatives/co-workers? How do you react to something like that? Have any of you felt like that where you're OK one day, and couch-bound the next?
Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me on the surgery...I've had a few stressful periods where tests have had to be canceled and rescheduled...hope that doesn't happen in this case! (I am very much looking forward to the day I can do things I haven't been able to do in a while!)
Thanks for your replies!
Debi (debster913)
Haven't written in a while; the past few weeks have been one heck of a rollercoaster ride! Here's an update (my apologies if it's a little long...):
Had the angiogram on April 25, which showed moderate leakage in my mitral valve as opposed to severe from the echo. (Some of you may remember my frustrated post on that). Then, my cardiologist decided to do another TEE the following week to compare it to the one from last year. What's funny is that this time around, I remembered the whole thing: swallowing the probe, everything. The TEE showed moderate to severe leakage. My cardio had even artificially raised my blood pressure during the test to simulate stress/activity. After the TEE, my cardio put me on limited activity since the rise in BP makes my valve leak more severely. Finally, just to make sure, my cardio had me do the Pulmonary Function Test to see if possibly my symptoms could be caused by asthma. Thankfully, I don't. He even said he thought I didn't have asthma, but he still wanted to make sure before he referred me to a surgeon. (But not before teasing me about being 25 even though I'll be 31 in a couple months. He's always been reluctant to pursue surgery for me because of my age.)
I saw the surgeon on May 9th, and he was very straightforward about wanting to go ahead and do the repair now. He even alluded to the fact that he believed my valve is worse than what my cardio thought. The surgeon can perform a minimally invasive surgery to repair my valve, though there is a possibility that I may have a mechanical put in if my valve is beyond repair. After ten days of waiting for a callback, I finally got my date: June 14th.
As many of you know, I've been symptomatic since April 11th. In the past month, I've learned that my valve is degenerative (myxomatous). I've always known that I'd need a repair/replacement someday, but was never clear on the whole dynamics of why other than the fact that the heart attack I'd had as a baby affected my valve (guess I hadn't been paying much attention to the details.)
The thing that is confusing to me is that I have my good days and bad days. There are days when I'm asymptomatic, but if I get cocky and start thinking I can "tackle the world," so to speak, I get worn out. Then, I have days when I wake up short of breath and have absolutely no energy all day. I have family members who believe that perhaps my valve is getting better on its own and wonder why I'm even having surgery if I'm feeling OK.
Have any of you ever experienced this with friends/relatives/co-workers? How do you react to something like that? Have any of you felt like that where you're OK one day, and couch-bound the next?
Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me on the surgery...I've had a few stressful periods where tests have had to be canceled and rescheduled...hope that doesn't happen in this case! (I am very much looking forward to the day I can do things I haven't been able to do in a while!)
Thanks for your replies!
Debi (debster913)
