Had my planned half year cardiology check-up today. Which included an echocardiogram. All looked good on the valve front. Everything seemed tuned nicely.
Cardio says everything has remained stable since my last echo. My gradients looked fine and have stayed reduced, thanks to the warfarin. Which is good news.
It seemed my heart rate was a tad too low. I mentioned I’d been experiencing fatigue and episodes of dizziness. Cardiologist told me to stop taking the (1.25 mg) bisoprolol going forward. My daily warfarin prescription is to continue permanently, along with my daily atorvastatin.
All in all, a good result.
There was one other thing of note today. The cardiac sonographer doing my echo said she was suspicious of one of my readings and showed me something on the screen. She said she thought the reading showed a possible PFO - patent foramen ovale. She wasn’t sure, so was going to get a colleague to double check and pass the info to the cardiologist, who I was seeing after the echocardiogram. A PFO (hole in the heart) can be a source of strokes (which I had in December 2023), among other things.
Later, after looking at the echo results, the cardio said that although she couldn’t be totally certain, she felt I probably didn’t have a PFO. But as it wasn’t her particular area of expertise, she’d refer my echo to a congenital heart specialist and report back. Either way, it will be good to get the congenital specialist’s opinion.
As all is stable with my heart valve (and potential PFO aside!), the cardiologist wants to see me again in a year’s time, which is great.
Cardio says everything has remained stable since my last echo. My gradients looked fine and have stayed reduced, thanks to the warfarin. Which is good news.
It seemed my heart rate was a tad too low. I mentioned I’d been experiencing fatigue and episodes of dizziness. Cardiologist told me to stop taking the (1.25 mg) bisoprolol going forward. My daily warfarin prescription is to continue permanently, along with my daily atorvastatin.
All in all, a good result.
There was one other thing of note today. The cardiac sonographer doing my echo said she was suspicious of one of my readings and showed me something on the screen. She said she thought the reading showed a possible PFO - patent foramen ovale. She wasn’t sure, so was going to get a colleague to double check and pass the info to the cardiologist, who I was seeing after the echocardiogram. A PFO (hole in the heart) can be a source of strokes (which I had in December 2023), among other things.
Later, after looking at the echo results, the cardio said that although she couldn’t be totally certain, she felt I probably didn’t have a PFO. But as it wasn’t her particular area of expertise, she’d refer my echo to a congenital heart specialist and report back. Either way, it will be good to get the congenital specialist’s opinion.
As all is stable with my heart valve (and potential PFO aside!), the cardiologist wants to see me again in a year’s time, which is great.
