davidswife
Well-known member
Hi,
Just wanted to introduce myself and my husband (who is at a baseball card show today after having a cath on Friday - he would have liked to have gone yesterday but I made him rest
!).
My husband, David, is 52 yo and was diagnosed with congenital aortic stenosis at birth. He had two caths at Columbia Presbyterian when he was around 5 yo and 9 yo and has been followed with no other medical interventions other than taking 5mg of lisinopril for about the last 5 years. He had an echo in March of this year which showed no significant change. We recently decided to take up tennis (me as a beginner and my husband not having played since college) and he complained of a pressure on his rib cage after playing for a short time. He went for another echo and a nuclear stress test and then had the cath two days ago. I am not sure of all of his numbers (I am just beginning to learn all the questions to ask after finding this wonderful support group!) but after talking to my brother-in-law, who is a cardiologist and whose group has followed my husband for the last 23 years, I found out that his aortic valve is between .6 and .7cm and he had a mean gradient of 45. From what I've read that is pretty much severe stenosis and we are meeting with a surgeon (who spoke with us briefly after the cath on Friday) on Wednesday and will most likely schedule the surgery at the end of this week or the beginning of next. He's known all his life that he would eventually need to replace the valve so this does not feel like we are rushing into this. His doctors feel that it is better to get it done now before his heart gets any weaker. It will also be easier on our family if he gets this done before our kids go back to school since the hospital is about an hour and a half away.
He will also have a CAT scan on Wednesday to see if a portion of his aorta needs to be replaced at the same time. He will be having the surgery done at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, NJ and it will be performed by David Johnson, who was my brother-in-law's number one choice to do the surgery and who I have read good things about on here. David (my husband) was leaning toward a tissue valve because he was afraid of bleeding on coumadin but his doctors are recommending a mechanical valve because of his age and after doing a lot of reading here and elsewhere we are now both leaning toward mechanical and the On-X.
Thank you all for sharing and for all your support. I'm looking forward to being able to help and support others with the knowledge and experience we gain as we travel on this road.
Nadine
Just wanted to introduce myself and my husband (who is at a baseball card show today after having a cath on Friday - he would have liked to have gone yesterday but I made him rest
!).My husband, David, is 52 yo and was diagnosed with congenital aortic stenosis at birth. He had two caths at Columbia Presbyterian when he was around 5 yo and 9 yo and has been followed with no other medical interventions other than taking 5mg of lisinopril for about the last 5 years. He had an echo in March of this year which showed no significant change. We recently decided to take up tennis (me as a beginner and my husband not having played since college) and he complained of a pressure on his rib cage after playing for a short time. He went for another echo and a nuclear stress test and then had the cath two days ago. I am not sure of all of his numbers (I am just beginning to learn all the questions to ask after finding this wonderful support group!) but after talking to my brother-in-law, who is a cardiologist and whose group has followed my husband for the last 23 years, I found out that his aortic valve is between .6 and .7cm and he had a mean gradient of 45. From what I've read that is pretty much severe stenosis and we are meeting with a surgeon (who spoke with us briefly after the cath on Friday) on Wednesday and will most likely schedule the surgery at the end of this week or the beginning of next. He's known all his life that he would eventually need to replace the valve so this does not feel like we are rushing into this. His doctors feel that it is better to get it done now before his heart gets any weaker. It will also be easier on our family if he gets this done before our kids go back to school since the hospital is about an hour and a half away.
He will also have a CAT scan on Wednesday to see if a portion of his aorta needs to be replaced at the same time. He will be having the surgery done at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, NJ and it will be performed by David Johnson, who was my brother-in-law's number one choice to do the surgery and who I have read good things about on here. David (my husband) was leaning toward a tissue valve because he was afraid of bleeding on coumadin but his doctors are recommending a mechanical valve because of his age and after doing a lot of reading here and elsewhere we are now both leaning toward mechanical and the On-X.
Thank you all for sharing and for all your support. I'm looking forward to being able to help and support others with the knowledge and experience we gain as we travel on this road.
Nadine
