What were your symptoms if any?

[JohnnyV_46]

So, I found out about my BAV while they were checking me out after a mild heart attack. Thank god I went to the hospital over slight chest pain, excessive sweating and nausea. I never had the elephant on my chest or anything like that. I'd been having serious bouts of heavy sweating doing minimal chores and shortness of breath. I don't know if that was symptomatic of the blockage or the problems with the Valve regurgitation and or Aortic anneurysm? Non of my doctors I guess ever heard any problems with the BAV or if they did never said anything.

So how did most of you find out or what kind of symptoms and how old were you before you did find out?

Thanks
JohnnyV

 

[Natanni]

Bicuspid Valves

Bicuspid Valves

Hello

My husband is due for his aortic valve replacement at the end of this month for a bicuspid aortic valve. He has had a known heart murmur all of his life. He was a premature baby and we thought maybe his murmur was related to this. His father is a heart transplant recipiant for cardiomyopathy. It was felt that my husband's mumur was something more around 1997 and was found to have the leaking valve at that time (with no symptoms) and was put on a BP med to prolong life of the valve. Over the years, it progressed from mild to mild-moderate and finally moderate to over this summer, severe and then endocarditis. The endocarditis did not damage the valve that we know of. It was mentioned to us at the time of the endocarditis that our children be evaluated for the bicuspid valve as there appears to be some genetic predisposition and my daughter (9 yrs) was found to have a murmur similar to her Dad's (something about the 2nd heatbeat...I am nurse and it is hard for me to even hear at this point) My husband never had any symptoms from the bicuspid valve (decribed as a tri-leaflet with that didn't seperate properly) but he may have slowly lost some staminia at work but again it is hard to say what is age and what is valve. He is 34. Now the endocariditis on the other hand....that was terrible sweats, worse at night, malaise, roaming muscle pain, chills with shaking like I have never seen, and more.

 

[Guest]

*chuckles*

Easy Q for me ... I was born with my heart defect ... so, I didn't know anything else.....

But...in hindsite with regard to my last open heart surgery (Jan 2003), I got tired and weak more easily as the days passed. I initially wrote it off as the effects of losing my grandmother (October 2002) and having my 1st/only gf break up with me roughly 6 months prior to that. It wasn't until my checkup November 2002 ... and subsequent testing in December 2002 ... that I learned that there was indeedy another explanation .


Cort, "Mr MC" / "Mr Road Trip", 31swm/pig valve/pacemaker
MC:family.IL.guide.future = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/
chdQB = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/quilt.html
"I kept my heart hidden" ... Bryan White ... 'So Much For Pretending'

 

[epstns]

I never gave it a thought -- I thought "heart conditions" were for older people. Then, when I was about 54, I had a routine physical with a new doc -- because I had noticed my energy level declining over the past few years. The doc asked "How long have you had this heart murmur?" WHAM-O! I said that I never knew I had one. He advised me to "have it evaluated as soon as possible." One thing ( and one cardio) led to another, and for the past 4 years I have been under watch for aortic stenosis (now moderate to severe) and probable bicuspid valve.

So far my only "real" symptom as I near 58 years old is that my exercise tolerance has declined over the years. Some would say that this is normal, but I "know" different. I still jog 20 miles per week, but at a slower 9:15 per mile pace. (Used to do them in 7:30) I pace myself in other strenuous activities, and still work 50 to 60 hours a week (office job, though).

We're just "watching and waiting." I have annual echo's and twice/year office consult with my cardio, and we feel that at the present time surgery is still "some years" in the future. Not very specific, but good enough for me. Life is good. I do fear that it will get worse before it gets better, but the friends I%2've made here at vr.com have prepared me for what is to come, and I'm much more at ease with it than I ever thought I could be.

Welcome. I'm here in The Waiting Room if you need anything. A lot of us are here waiting, and it is good to hear from those who have "made the trip."

 

[maiae]

So, I found out about my BAV while they were checking me out after a mild heart attack. Thank god I went to the hospital over slight chest pain, excessive sweating and nausea. I never had the elephant on my chest or anything like that. I'd been having serious bouts of heavy sweating doing minimal chores and shortness of breath. I don't know if that was symptomatic of the blockage or the problems with the Valve regurgitation and or Aortic anneurysm? Non of my doctors I guess ever heard any problems with the BAV or if they did never said anything.

So how did most of you find out or what kind of symptoms and how old were you before you did find out?

Thanks
JohnnyV

Hello Johnny V-
A couple of years ago I went to my dentist for deep cleaning--since he was putting me under he asked if I had any heart problems and I told him I had a heart murmur when I was a child. He listened to my heart and told me I had MVP. He said not to worry, but suggested I go see a cardiologist. I began feeling tired most of the time when I was 34, but I assumed it was because I had a baby--Anyway, after years of blaming my exhaustion on motherhood and aging I finally went to a cardio seven months after my dentist's suggestion. I had my mvr a year later.

Kind regards,
Maia

 

[Ambience]

I was diagnosed at birth and lived a pretty healthy life. The only indicators for me was my mom constantly nagging me not to be a normal active child. Right before surgery I had some swelling in my ankles and was tired/depressed. Most of my symptoms were measured in sonometers or whatever cryptic unit of measurement they use during my echos.

 

[Karen7]

So how did most of you find out or what kind of symptoms and how old were you before you did find out?

Thanks
JohnnyV

Hi Johnny,

I didn't find out about my BAV or the attenuating aneurysm until I started having symptoms in my late 30's. I had always had a murmer that I was told was "benign." So when I began to have trouble sleeping and would wake up sweating with a racing heart, was dizzy with normal exertion and tired with very little stamina even for a regular day, they looked for every hormonal and metabolic source possible. I had so many negative scans and tests before I had a cardiac MRI and they found it. Every doctor and surgeon that I have seen, I have asked if they think it's the regurgitation or the aneurysm that causes the symptoms. They all seem convinced that aneurysms are silent unless they are big enough to push on your windpipe or another organ. But I am not so sure. I have always had the murmer but the aneurysm developed lately and with it, the symptoms. It seems unlikely that it's coincidental to me...