Welcome Vince
Welcome Vince
Sounds very familiar Vince. I'm an avid athlete, not world class at anything, but I play competitive basketball, softball, football and run and lift weights. I'm 30 now but just like you at 29 began the valve replacement process. I've known all my life about my bad valve, up until I moved out of the house at 18 I had it checked yearly, they always told me the same thing. Mild leakage of the aortic valve and my heart is enlarged about 5% to try to compensate. I let it slide and didn't see a cardio until after I dislocated and tore up my knee playing ball last year. I had a PE (blood clot in my lungs) the night of my knee reconstruction. The tests for the PE also showed that I had an aortic aneurysm of 5.1cm. Further tests showed my aortic insufficiency had gone from mild to severe.
My cardio told me I would definitely need the valve replaced, but it would probably be about 5 years, he said the aneurysm was a concern but was not to a point to be operable yet (6.0cm was the figure he gave me.)
The doctors I have seen went by test numbers and daily activities to decide on surgery time frame. They thought if I was still able to climb stairs and run that I was fine. But I had seen my athletic capacity cut in half or worse and that was not acceptable to me.
Over the next few months I had many episodes of chest pain, most of which were followed by ct scans to be sure I wasn't having more PE's, they all turned up negative and the aneurysm consistently measured at 5 cm. After my knee was rehabbed I started playing basketball, softball and running again. I found it much more difficult and had minor chest pain on exertion. When I went back to my cardio and told him all this he reviewed the tests and said 3-5 years and that most of it was in my head. He said because I knew I had the aneurysm and the bad valve that I was being hypersensitive to any chest pain or shortness of breath.
I gave it a few more weeks, trying to do all the normal things I always did. Then I carried my 55lb 7 year old up a small hill (something I could have done 50 times a few years ago) and almost blacked out, I had to sit down for 10 minutes before my head cleared and I could get up.
The next day I called my primary care and told him I need a new cardio. The new cardio said within a year and wanted me to see one of the local surgeons to discuss valve type. The surgeon review the data and said based on symptoms I should have it done within 6 mos. So I went home and researched.
I decided I either wanted a Ross procedure or a Cryolife Synergraft valve, I was not going to accept being on coumadin and worrying about strokes all my life and was also looking for something that would last. I was in good shape and still had a healthy heart so I knew I could handle a longer surgery.
I called Dr. Kenton Zehr at Mayo from another VR.com person's recommendation. He was very helpful and prompt with return calls and emails. I was able to get answers from him and his staff much easier than my own local cardio and surgeon.
Anyway, we got the surgery scheduled, I had a AVR and root on 5/23/02 and at 6 weeks after surgery I was back doing everything that I was before, except heavy lifting. The only difference is now I don't have the chest pain or shortness of breath.
I've found there is no substitute for doing your own research and paying close attention to your symptoms. Every doctor will interpret your test results differently, and you are the one that needs to decide when enough is enough and get it done. I was back to work 2 weeks after surgery, driving at 3 weeks and playing softball at 5. I was certainly lucky to have a good surgery with no complications, but I was also prepared and healthy going in.
my email is
[email protected] if you want to chat about anything.
Good luck,
Brooks McIntyre
Synergraft AVR, Dr. Zehr - Mayo 5/23/02
