New with endocarditis and possible valve replacement in the near future

[brijeshb]

I take Acitrom which is equivalent of Sintrom . Acitrom 0. 5 mg is available in India .

 

[MattyO]

Hello, everyone!

I am Eni, 46 years old, living in Albania, Europe.

I have been recently diagnosed with infective endocarditis. It all started with high fever, chills, abnormal endless sweating, strong headaches, fatigue. Two days later, lab tests I have performed resulted in a septic shock. The cause of the IE is still unclear in my case since my blood cultures came out negative because I’ve been treated several days prior to have them checked with antibiotics.

I have been hospitalized for the first three weeks and now I am in a combination of oral antibiotics, finishing this week the required six weeks protocol of antibiotics’ treatment. In the judgement of my doctor, I will continue taking oral antibiotics for two more weeks, so eight weeks in total. I do weekly blood tests and everything is under control until now. The vegetation has turned into a calcification mass of 0.9mm-10mm near my left mitral valve. This mass is immobile until now and with no risk of embolism causing only have a minor regurgitation.
I am a mother of two beautiful daughters and my only worry is how much this condition will affect my life and the ability to serve my family the way I used to. I am a very active person, I used to weight training 4-5 times a week. Will it be possible to continue a fitness regimen after all?

I would appreciate any kind of feedback!

Thank you in advance!

 

[MattyO]

Hi Eni, sounds as though you are having excellent treatment. That’s the treatment (Intravenous AB and then oral AB) I had when I was diagnosed with endocarditis first time around. It’s really important to look after yourself (especially teeth). People are often surprised how important it is - my first bout of endocarditis came about as a result of an infected tooth. I had all those symptoms you described. Always important to check out unexplained temperatures (although that was possibly me being a bit paranoid!) I found that the sweats continued for a bit, even after the vegetation in the valve cleared up.

I managed to get endocarditis for a second time around 7 years after the initial time around. This (as with endocarditis itself is very rare!). That was through a cut in my foot, which resulted in emergency aortic valve replacement. Even though I was in a bad way, the drug therapy and care ensured I pulled though. This was 22 years ago and I can only imagine how much medical science has advanced since then. All the very best with your recovery, it sounds as though you’re in good hands.

 

[pellicle]

Sintrom has a half-life at 7 hours, if I take 2 mg and the next 1 mg the inr will be yo yo,

I'm so glad that people don't just hear this from me, as if somehow its my crazy theory (rather than published well researched pharmacology.