Travel with moderate to severe stenosis of aortic tissue valve?

[tigerlily]

Hello everyone, I had my last echo February 16. The one before that was last June. I have an 11 year old Edwards bovine valve that will be 12 on Mar. 6. Almost birthday time! I knew that this valve was showing deterioration after last summer's echo. We had been thinking about traveling to Ireland and Scotland late this spring but I wanted to see how this Feb. echo looked. There has been some more progression and I've gone from moderate to moderate severe in 7 months. My cardiologist said he thought the valve would need to be replaced within the next 2 years. I thought he was being optimistic but who knows. I'm 65 and I don't want to be sitting in the waiting room for as long as two years until this valve is replaced before I can travel. We were actually thinking of postponing until next fall before seeing the results of this most recent echo because I've been so busy with adjusting to a new cochlear implant but now I'm thinking we should go if it doesn't seem to risky. I actually forgot to ask my cardiologist what he thought. The results of the echo are below. You can see where in a couple of cases the numbers I got on last June's echo are compared to where I am now. Anyone have some thoughts or experience with this sort of situation? As far as how I feel, I feel pretty good but it is harder to walk up a hill than it use to be. Thanks.

Summary:

1. The left ventricular chamber size is normal.
2. The EF is estimated at 60-65%.
3. The peak gradient across the aortic valve is 62mmHg. (c/w 58 mmHg
6/2017 )
4. The aortic valve area by VTI is calculated at 0.9cm2. ( c/w 1.06 from
6/2017) the DI is 0.30
5. There is moderate to severe aortic stenosis.

Aortic Valve:
Mild aortic regurgitation is present. The peak gradient across the
aortic valve is 62mmHg. (c/w 58 mmHg 6/2017 ) The mean gradient across
the aortic valve is 30mmHg. ( c/w 31 mmHg 6/2017) The aortic valve area
by VTI is calculated at 0.9cm2. ( c/w 1.06 from 6/2017) the DI is 0.30
There is moderate to severe aortic stenosis. A bio-prosthetic aortic
valve is present. The bio-prosthetic aortic valve appears stenotic.

 

[pellicle]

Myself I feel you should be good to go.
Do what you'd normally do in a day and you'll be fine.

The flight itself essentially poses no more danger to you than anyone else on board.

Knowing nothing else about your health and fitness I'd say the biggest risk (for everyone) is deep vein thrombosis.

So get some compression stockings, perhaps pop a baby aspirin pre flight and take the stockings off only when you get to your hotel after the flight. I use them on all long haul flights (and I make a few)

Drop in to see my grandmother's town and see Trim along the way.
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2014/05...at-delvin.html

Lots of fantastic history, so dont miss the national museum

(Says the Irishman)

 

[tigerlily]

Thanks so much pellicle. Now I need to see if I can pull this trip off in a couple of months of planning. I've been wondering if I should get a waiver for pre-existing conditions on my travel insurance. Do you have any experience with that?

 

[pellicle]

I've been wondering if I should get a waiver for pre-existing conditions on my travel insurance. Do you have any experience with that?

never bothered
what they don't know womt kill me is my wild colonial boy approach

 

[pellicle]

I've been wondering if I should get a waiver for pre-existing conditions on my travel insurance. Do you have any experience with that?

nope, never bothered
what they don't know won't kill me is my wild colonial boy approach

 

[pellicle]

Cool. Triple weird score on vr Scrabble

 

[rnff2]

Thanks so much pellicle. Now I need to see if I can pull this trip off in a couple of months of planning. I've been wondering if I should get a waiver for pre-existing conditions on my travel insurance. Do you have any experience with that?

I buy travel insurance with pre-existing condition for our cruises. You never know when you may need medical care and your insurance may not cover you when over seas. If you google travel insurnace you will find a lot of options. You can also find reviews on the different companies, just take some time and do a little research before you book your trip. Also you usually have to purchase the insurance within a few days of your initial trip deposit to qualify for pre-existing coverage and there is usually a look back period. Will you be using a travel agent to book your trip? Mine is amazing when it comes to answering questions or helping me with with this type of thing.

 

[tigerlily]

I buy travel insurance with pre-existing condition for our cruises. You never know when you may need medical care and your insurance may not cover you when over seas. If you google travel insurnace you will find a lot of options. You can also find reviews on the different companies, just take some time and do a little research before you book your trip. Also you usually have to purchase the insurance within a few days of your initial trip deposit to qualify for pre-existing coverage and there is usually a look back period. Will you be using a travel agent to book your trip? Mine is amazing when it comes to answering questions or helping me with with this type of thing.

Thanks for the advice. I think since I've seen my cardiologist recently, I will look into pre-condition travel insurance. I'm on my own with the planning. We have to do our trips on a budget and I've never used a travel agent before. It would be great to have the help of one though.

 

[honeybunny]

My first thoughts upon reading your post were very similar to pellicle's. I'm no cardiologist but I wouldn't stenosis severity to make a critical difference in air travel, particularly if you are not symptomatic (shortness of breath for example). Still, I'd run the plans by my cardio just to feel better about the whole thing. And of course have a great time!

 

[Savymom]

Wouldn’t think travel would pose any risk- On another note, has your dr. Given an insight as to why you valve is already deteriorating?

 

[tigerlily]

Just in case anyone wonders, I took the trip. 3 weeks in Ireland and Scotland. There may have been some risk to it but I'm glad I went. :Smile:

 

[pellicle]

Just in case anyone wonders, I took the trip. 3 weeks in Ireland and Scotland. There may have been some risk to it but I'm glad I went.

Good to hear.

As nothing bad happened it was worth doing

PS: I think this is a good example to understand risk. There is always risk in everything we do. Risk in driving a car is probably the highest we take daily (higher to my mind than the risk you took in taking your trip). We ignore those risks most of the time (rather than think about them). So in the end this makes us often poor judges of risk (which is why Lotto is still finding buyers for the tickets)