Pregnancy with Mitral Regurgitation

[Karlynn]

How utterly precious!!!!! Another few years and he'll be ready for college Christian. Don't blink!!

 

[labguides]

What a DARLING baby!

Enjoy that baby. Babies are SO special.

 

[momshell7]

What a cutie!!

What a cutie!!

Colin is so adorable!! He looks so happy!! Is he cheering on Big Ben? I am so sorry about the loss last night. All of us here in this part of Ohio were pulling for him!! Keep those baby pictures coming they are certainly a bright spot!!

 

[Christian]

Crap!

Crap!

Well, good news and bad news.

The good news is that we had an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic yesterday and Jill's pregnancy had no affect whatsoever on her heart function. Here's a summary of her echo results:

EF 65
LVIDd 4.8
LVIDs 3.1
Left Atrium 3.8

3+-4+ regurgitation

The bad news is that they're not going to let us do it again. They were happy to let us take some small risks since we were a childless couple. But now that we're not a childless couple, they think we should be a little more careful.

Additionally, Jill's regurgitant orifice is over .40. If you've read Sarano's recent article in the New England Journal of medicine, you know what that means...

Yup. Jill's now "on the clock," as an elective mitral valve repair attempt was recommended over the next year. Despite the fact that Jill's doing great, we're not going to ignore our doctor's recommendation.

We're going to talk about scheduling this weekend and have chosen Dr. Cosgrove as our surgeon. We'll have to choose a backup valve type, since her odds of repair were quoted by our cardiologist at 85% (we haven't yet heard what Cosgrove himself thinks). Our cardiologist doesn't have a strong preference for mechanicals or biologicals in a 32 year old, but he seemed to lean slightly towards a mechanical. In any event, we'll have to make the choice ourselves.

Jill's been registered here as jaydee (a play on her initials) and likely will have some questions about the procedure. Keep an eye our for her over the next few days.

This will be my last post on this thread, as this chapter of our life has closed. We have a wonderful, beautiful baby boy and we consider ourselves very very lucky. Having him was the right decision and an unqualified success. We couldn't be happier. I hope we pull through our next challenge as well as we did this one.

I'll see you all on the other boards.

 

[hensylee]

Christian, thank you for being a BIG part of VR and sharing the pregnancy and birth of your dear baby boy. You are wonderful, caring parents and your son is a lucky child to have the two of you - and you and Jill are lucky, too. Your posts will be a big help for other couples who are contemplating pregnancy. The question is asked from time to time and now we have a direction to send them.

We understand that this is over for you and know that you are getting on with things. Please come back and see us now and again - and let us see your little one.

We look forward to talking with Jill - as jaydee.

 

[Christian]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm not leaving -- I just figured I'd move over to "pre-surgery" with Jill and close out this particular thread since if we have another baby it will hopefully be "without regurgitation."

Trust me -- there's no way I could stay away from this board with a surgery on the horizon.

 

[bvdr]

Thanks for the update, Christian. We'll be with you and your wife as you wait for the surgery. I'm glad she came through pregnancy and childbirth as well as she did and do agree that doing it twice may be asking a little too much out of her body.

 

[geebee]

Christian,

Thanks for the update. I will be praying for Jill (and you and Colin) that all goes well and Jill will be "fixed" up well enough to try for another baby (assuming that is what you want). I am sure her health is foremost but we do surgery to make us healthier.

Look forward to discussions with Jill and posts "down the road" from both of you.

 

[hensylee]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm not leaving -- I just figured I'd move over to "pre-surgery" with Jill and close out this particular thread since if we have another baby it will hopefully be "without regurgitation."

Trust me -- there's no way I could stay away from this board with a surgery on the horizon.

oh, okay. See you over there.

 

[jaydee]

Hi everyone! My husband has been posting here for several years, as most of you probably know. We have that BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS baby boy who could not be more perfect!!!! (I am happy to post more pics any time you guys want!!! ) As you know, it has been recommended that I undergo surgery for my MR in the next 6 months (which I think we are going to extend to 9 months with the Dr's blessing). Anyway, at some point, I will probably be seeking info about recovery. But, for now, I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

So...Hello!!!

 

[geebee]

Welcome Jill.

Glad to hear from you directly (not that we objected to hearing from Christian).

We will all be happy to help you through your surgery. Just be sure and start a new thread so we know it is a request for assistance rather than an update to Colin's journey into life.

Take care and talk to you soon.

 

[hensylee]

Mornin, Jill. Welcome to Vr. Of course, we all know you already. Christian had made a really great contribution to the forum because of his ongoing thread of your pregnancy and birth of your precious beautiful child. Lots of families in your 'predicament' want to know about having babies while they go through the valve thing and now we have a full and complete thread - all in one thread alone - that we can direct them to read. Thank you both. We have been honored to be a part.

(Ross, maybe a copy of this post from Jill could be put in a new thread so nobody will miss it?)

 

[Debrinha GT]

Nice to have you here!

Nice to have you here!

Hi Jill, I'm the Brazilian member and I'm very pleased to meet you. I've had three mitral valve replacements so far and I only had my daughter Bruna, who's now eight, after the third operation. By the way, I'll be needing a fourth within a couple of years. I remember how frustrated I was before that because we'd been trying for a baby right up to the last minute, but the operation came first. Well, there's a reason for everything in life and now I'm happy it happened that way. The way my valve was then, I don't think I would've managed. As for your pending surgery, I know you must feel quite confused at this point. but believe me, it's not as bad. Hope to see you posting more and I'll be very happy to be of help. Feel free to ask me any questions regarding my surgery and I'll do all I can to clear up any doubts you may have from now until your time comes. Say hello to Christian and the wee one for me. Take care.
Débora

 

[KimC]

Hi, Jill.

Of course, you know that you're in excellent hands at the CCF.

What a mixture of emotions you must be feeling! We're "here" to support you and Christian. You'll find a remarkable community of people at VR.com.

Best,

 

[Innercalm]

Names of experienced mitral valve surgeons

Names of experienced mitral valve surgeons

Thanks for the update Christian. Sounds like things are well in hand. I'll keep rooting for boring if you wish, but I hope alot of noneventful excitement is to be had by both of you.

Christian: thank you so much for the information. I was told that Dr. Cosgrove is not doing surgery since becoming the CEO of Cleveland Clinic. I would love to have him operate on my son. We chose Dr. Lytle because we thought Dr. Cosgrove was not doing any surgery. Is it difficult to arrange an appointment with Dr. Cosgrove? Susan

 

[Christian]

Here's what we've been told: He's doing between 5 and 15 surgeries a month these days. That's much less than before. Getting an appointment for surgery was not difficult, but we haven't met him face to face (we deal with his horde of assistants), and we did start the process about 7 months before our expected surgery date. They wouldn't give us the actual date until about a week ago. If you're interested in using him, I'd call his office and have your son's echos sent up for an evaluation.

Our Cleveland Clinic cardiologist told us that Dr. Marc Gillinov (who learned under Cosgrove for years) was basically "another side to the same coin" when it comes to mitral valve repair. We would have been happy to have him had Cosgrove become unavailable.

I'm sure Dr. Lytle is great too. He just wasn't presented to us as a mitral valve specialist.

 

[Lynlw]

innercalm (love the name )

innercalm (love the name )

Susan , I think I read somewhere that your son is in his 30s? if that is the case, IF he hasn't already please get him to fill out the HIPPA forms, that you can know all his info for every doc hospital you are looking at (and yes in my experience everyhospitals hippa form is different,at least the 4 hospitals my son uses why can't there just be one universal form?) other wise it will be pretty tough for you. W/ the HIPPA laws now, they can't give out any patient info w/out the forms, a few months ago my friends son turned 18, she has been taking care off all his med stuff since he was born w/ CHD, the month after his birthday she called the doc to find out his coumadin result like she has for about 10 years and they couldn't give her the info since her son didn't put her on a HIPPA form.
I keep reminding myslef about this since Justin will be 18 next year. Good Luck I hope you can find a surgeon you both have faith in. does he have any preferences? Lyn www.caringbridge.org/nj/justinw

 

[dmoses1]

You were right, Kim. The ultrasound estimate was 22 inches long and 7 pounds, 3 ounces. Everything else was normal too. Jill just has a small belly.

We got verification that he was a boy too. Jill asked, "is that an ear?"

"Nope," said the echo tech. "That's actually one of his boy parts."

I have been pregnant 5 times (4 live births); and I still can't tell bottom from belly on that ultrasound.