Found out 3 years ago I had mild prolapse and mild regurgitation. No symptoms at the time. Last few months I've been short of breath during exercise, going up stairs, etc. I had my annual checkup with my cardiologist 2 weeks ago and the echo found that I now had severe prolapse and regurgitation. Cardiologist told me to stop all exercise. He had me come in last week for a TEE and angiogram. Angiogram looked great but TEE confirmed the prolapse and regurgitation were severe. I also met with the surgeon that day. Surgeon explained the procedure and then said he had an opening this coming Monday. I don't know if I'm being pushed through so quickly because it's that bad or if I just got lucky that he had an opening, but I'm going from finding out that my prolapse/regurg was severe to surgery in 2 weeks and a couple days.
M43, Mitral Valve Repair/Replace on Monday
- Thread starter Rick2
- Start date
Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:
jeffp
Well-known member
Looking good on the angiogram is excellent. I had MVR 18 years ago. The short story is it’s going to be an exhausting slog for the first few weeks and then it’s just healing and getting better and stronger. Good nutrition is important as is doing the exercises, especially the breathing stuff, right from the start (as able). Do have help for daily activities. Don’t try to be superman.
Good luck, do well.
Good luck, do well.
Well that escalated quickly huh? Severe ain’t great and you are symptomatic so I think you probably lucky you have the opening. Hope you had time to put post-op care in place?
Yes, very quickly. My wife is taking the week off work and the week after that is spring break (she works at a school) so she'll be home that week as well.
pellicle
Professional Dingbat, Guru and Merkintologist
Surgery isn't what anyone wants to go through, but this is a very well-understood procedure with typically excellent results. We'll all be here waiting to hear from you when you're able to post again (or sooner, if you have questions before you go in).
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2020
- Messages
- 2,789
I hope that your procedure went well Rick.
Please give us an update when you feel well enough to do so.
Please give us an update when you feel well enough to do so.
The procedure went well but not without a few complications. The repair was successful so I didn't require a replacement.
The main complication being that my heart was much worse than my TEE showed from only a week earlier. Then my EF was about 55%. But day of surgery it showed my EF was 35-40%. What this meant was when I came off the heart lung bypass machine, my heart was too weak to get going on its own so I went back on the heart lung machine until they were able to use a iabp to help my heart pump. Because of that I ended up being sedated for an extra 24 hrs and woke up Tuesday afternoon instead of Monday afternoon.
I was released from the hospital yesterday and I'm at home now.
pellicle
Professional Dingbat, Guru and Merkintologist
here's hoping for a smooth recovery
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2020
- Messages
- 2,789
Thanks for the update and glad that you've been released.
In your original post you said:
In your original post you said:
It sounds like they got you into surgery quickly for good reason and it is a good thing that they did not wait any longer, given how low your EF had dropped. Glad that you're doing ok.
Great news that you were able to have a repair instead of a replacement.
