Surgery is in near future

[Kodiak]

This is my very first post and I am very excited to be a member of this wonder site. I have reading these post for a while and been inconspicous. I am really glad that I found a group of such wonderful people.
I have a mitral valve stenosis and regurgitation with a slight enlarged left atrium due to Rheumatic fever in childhood. PVCs are my worst symptoms and I hate it. Although I feel fatigued as well almost everyday. Just dont have a quality life anymore.
My surgery could be as close as June. I however have questions for those experienced folks out there;
If my mitral valve was repaired, is this repair will last lifetime since my Doctor thinks that repairs on valve damaged from rheumatic disease does not last long enough (may be 7 to 10 years)compared repair done mitral valve damaged due to other reasons. Are there people out there who had rehematic diseased valve repaird that last longer than 10 years?
Are my PVCs and PACs symtom will go away after surgery? I dont hear people talk about having this arhythmia post surgery. My biggest fear is that I dont develop some additional arrhythmia post op since they cut your open.
Any Help on these issues by experienced folks will be greatly appreciated.
Sam,

 

[Ross]

Welcome aboard and glad to see you come out of lurk mode!

I'll leave the others answer most of this. A repair can last a lifetime or only a short time. It's one of those "Wait and see" type of calls. As far as post surgical stuff, Afib seems to be the most common and I think just about all of us have had it in some degree at some point. It almost always subsides in time, but there are others who still have problems. Again, it's a hard call and not really predictable.

Look forward to seeing you post.

 

[Nancy]

Hi Sam-

Welcome to the site. It's just a great place.

My husband had rheumatic fever also. He has an aortic and mitral mechanical and has a repair on his mitral for a small leak. But in his case his valves needed replacement instead of repair. Rheumatic fever can do a number on the valve tissues, so I would bet that whether a repair would be possible would have to be left up to the surgeon when he sees what the actual tissue looks like. I think a lot of repairs are people with congenital defects.

I hope we see you here often. And I'm sure you will have many answers.

 

[Christina L]

Sam,

I can tell that you have done your reading up on your situation, as most awaiting heart surgery do.

Whichever way you go, repair or replacement of your mitral valve, your heart will thank you for it. Your left atrium should shrink a bit in size and your heart will work so well, you will feel like a new person. My heart is SO quiet now - I used to feel it pounding all the time as I had severe regurgitation.

I had my mitral valve repaired on November 6. I had congenital mitral valve prolapse. However, my anterior and posterior leaflets were floppy and redundant - so my repair was considered a complicated repair, although I was left with trivial regurgitation and it was considered a "successful" repair.

Ross is right, with a repair a person never knows how long the repair will last. You just cross your fingers and (worry) and pray a lot as I do. However, your cardiologist is right in stating that a repair with rheumatic damaged valves is more difficult to perform and may not last as long.

As for the arrhythmias, I had lots of PACs/PVCs also before my surgery and recently have had an increase in my PACs over the last week. Other than irritating they are not supposedly dangerous.

I did have one bout of a-fib after my surgery (two weeks out) for which I was electrically cardioverted and am now on Rythmol. I did not have a-fib before my surgery, but your heart will be majorly irritated with what was done to it during the surgery and it takes a while to get back into sync.

Glad you found this board - it was such a Godsend to me. The people on this board are the most wonderful you will want to "meet."

God bless -
Christina L.

 

[weekycat]

Welcome Kodiak!

Welcome Kodiak!

I had a mitral repair almost 21 months ago. I've been told it should "last me a lifetime". I'm not really sure what caused my valve damage though. I didn't have rheumatic fever that I know of, however I was told it looked like I had. I believe they determined it was congenital.

I don't recall ever having arrhythmia's prior to my surgery either, but I've sure got them now. This was confirmed by a Holter monitor a few weeks ago. I'll be able to tell you more about what type they are after I see the cardiologist next Wed. Until then, I've been put on Toprol, but it doesn't seem to be helping much.

My PCP seems to think the extra beats may be caused by scar tissue from the repair. I don't know of anyone off-hand on this site that has had a repair more than 10 years ago. I would be interested in knowing that too.

You've come to the right place, we'll try to answer your questions and calm your fears as best we can.

 

[Kodiak]

Thankyou Every one for your input. It definitely a good site to learn through people who have been through surgery.
Christina,
I understand that Dr. Cosgrove was your surgen. He would be my surgen too. How was your experience with Dr. Cosgrove and his staff? Do you have increased number of PACs post surgery than pre-surgery?
Is it true that post surgery, you dont feel PACs or PVCs as much (or as intensily or being aware of them since the heart problem has been fixed) as you do before surgery?

Jean,
Please keep us posted what you find out on wednesday.
Part of the reason I want to have a surgery so I can get rid off PACs and PVCs or at least not feel them as intensily.
Thanks for your inputs and God bless you all.

Sam.

 

[Debrinha GT]

rheumatic fever

rheumatic fever

Hi Kodiak and everybody interested in the subject , the only person I know whose heart wasn't affected by rheumatic fever was my former cardiologyst's daughter''s in1974 just after I too was a victim of it. Like inmany cases, my heart got seriously damaged by it and on those days people didn't have access to all the information we have today and here in Brazil MVR surgery was something they'''d never performed on a young child (I was only ten whin I had the first one) and my condition was pretty precarious. I was the first child in the country to receive aMVR which only lasted four years. A repair was never considered at the time but it must,ve been due to the seriousness of my problem. As for the duration, noone can tell precisely how long it can last but I suppose that if your doctor thinks it's the best for you, take his advice for it's always better to stick to the parts of our own body before trying something else, that's only my opinion of course! If anyone wishes to find out more about me and my heart history you can logon to my home page and it's all there. See you around. Débora