endocarditas after OHS

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William

Has anyone ever got endocarditas after their valve replacement? If so, can you give some details as to the cause, symptoms, and treatment? I've read a bunch of stuff about it and just wanted to hear from a personal experience. Thanks for any info. Will
 
Not sure if the symptoms will be any different before or after OHS. Mine was was the cause of my OHS and as I recall the symptoms were:-

Vomiting
Loss of appetite
Chills with rigors
Nausea
Fatigue
Splinter haemorrages under the finger nails
Weight loss, due to lack of eating
Stroke, although I understand that is not too common
As I am diabetic, blood sugar out of control
 
Sue or anyone-

I have a couple other questions to ask about endocarditis that I would like to add to the list:

1. How long does someone have endocarditis before symptoms start to appear?
2. In what order do the symptoms appear (I doubt that they all appear at once)?
3. How long is it after endocarditis starts that the valve(s) begin to deteriorate? If it is diagnosed soon after symptoms start, can it be stopped before permanent damage is done?

I don't mean to hijack the thread - I just thought these questions fit in with the original one...
 
Bacterial Endocarditis

Bacterial Endocarditis

Mike I had bacterial endocarditis and it took 8 months until it was diagnosed. There are two types of endocarditis Acute and Sub Acute. Acute sets in very quickly a persons health collapses within a few days. Sub Acute can take weeks of months to build up and its symptoms can be vague like a bad cold or flu. I started with what felt like a sinus infection and a bit of bronchitis, like a bad cold. It wouldn't go after about 6 weeks I started to develop joint pain like arthritis. I went on antibiotics and things improved significantly, close to back to normal however after a couple of weeks the symptoms would return. The oral antibiotics kill the infection in the rest of the body but not in the heart, after they are discontinued the infection spreads to the rest of the body again. This is why endocarditis can be difficult to find from blood cultures if you have recently been taking antibiotics. I had my first lot of blood test 3 months before it was discovered. My cycle of antibiotics and relapses continued I would get worse each time I would perspire profusely at the slightest exertion and I would have night sweats which had to be seen to be believed and developed a bad cough that would go when I was on the antibiotics. I would develop a low grade fever however it never went over 38.5C. I did however have a loss of appertite and did have some weight loss. Because my valve hadn't completely been destroyed the surgeon wanted the endocarditis treated before he would operate. When they did operate not only was the valve damaged I had the most severe form of complication with endocarditis, 2 abscesses inside my heart.
Unlike Sue I had no splinter haemorrhages or Janeway lesions and didn't vomit.
Native valves can be saved if treatment is early before the valve is damaged or has vegetations. I am not sure if prosthetic valves can be saved. :)
 
Mine was also SBE. I first felt ill, as in the vomiting and intial 'unwell' episode about 10/11 days after the lithotripsy which is thought to have caused it. I was then unwell for about 10 days before regaining some appetite. After that it was another two and a half months before anything else happened, other than feeling'off colour', my next 'symptom' was a stroke when some of the vegetation broke away. The hospital knew that I had some infection, somewhere, as my white cell count was very high. It was about three days later that I had an echo following another lot of rigors - I was in hospital and rang for the nurse when they started and the cardiologist was in my room within minutes and ordered the echo immediately, they did it in my room. He then returned a few minutes later to tell me that I had endocarditis. I developed the first murmur about two weeks after my stroke and it galloped enough in a few days for me to be airlifted to England in case they needed to operate as an emergency. They decided to try to clear the infection before operating. I spent about six weeks in hospital with endocarditis.
 
OldManEmu said:
Mike I had bacterial endocarditis and it took 8 months until it was diagnosed. There are two types of endocarditis Acute and Sub Acute. Acute sets in very quickly a persons health collapses within a few days. Sub Acute can take weeks of months to build up and its symptoms can be vague like a bad cold or flu. I started with what felt like a sinus infection and a bit of bronchitis, like a bad cold. It wouldn't go after about 6 weeks I started to develop joint pain like arthritis. I went on antibiotics and things improved significantly, close to back to normal however after a couple of weeks the symptoms would return. The oral antibiotics kill the infection in the rest of the body but not in the heart, after they are discontinued the infection spreads to the rest of the body again. This is why endocarditis can be difficult to find from blood cultures if you have recently been taking antibiotics. I had my first lot of blood test 3 months before it was discovered. My cycle of antibiotics and relapses continued I would get worse each time I would perspire profusely at the slightest exertion and I would have night sweats which had to be seen to be believed and developed a bad cough that would go when I was on the antibiotics. I would develop a low grade fever however it never went over 38.5C. I did however have a loss of appertite and did have some weight loss. Because my valve hadn't completely been destroyed the surgeon wanted the endocarditis treated before he would operate. When they did operate not only was the valve damaged I had the most severe form of complication with endocarditis, 2 abscesses inside my heart.
Unlike Sue I had no splinter haemorrhages or Janeway lesions and didn't vomit.
Native valves can be saved if treatment is early before the valve is damaged or has vegetations. I am not sure if prosthetic valves can be saved. :)
Click to expand...


Justin's symptons were alot like yours, I had him to the ped a couple times a week and they would diagnosis, virus, cold ect he always saw a different ped in the group, finally after a month I had a temper tantrum and said this is NOT different things every week, (they told me since he was run down from the first virus he was catching everything else) that I think it is the same thing and he gets a little better from the antibiotics but not cured so it comes back, and demanded blood coultures before I would fill the next antibiotic they wrote for. luckily it was picked up in the blood cultures and he was started on the 6 weeks IV before any permanant damage was done. Lyn
 
I had the SBE also. Went through the antibotics and got the same results. The low grade fever diring the evening that can be controled by asprin during the day. The night sweets are unreal, so bad that your pillow and sheets are soaked. I think that is the advanced stages. I had one tiny black dot under one of my fingernails and one on my Eye Ball. these were blood clots being flicked off the heart valve. This had been going on for about 4 to 5 weeks. I would take my temp when I woke up with the sweets and it would be around 101. My wife woke me up one night I was sweeting so bad and running 102 fever, took me to the ER. I got up and could not walk, the infection had settled into one of my Disks in my lower back and enflamed it. The ER sent me home with a back ache and headache. I went straight to an internist who diagnosed me in 10 minutes and had me in the hospital in 30 minutes. a couple of more days and I would have been dead so they say. It took 6 weeks of IV antibotics to clean me up. Obviously my case was far advanced, but it was enough to destroy my mitral valve. Yes it can be stoped prior to serious valve damage, or so im told.
 
I had the acute form which led to the MVR. THe first recognizable symptoms were sudden loss of appetite and feeling sick. That happened around midnight. The same night I woke up to shaking chills that went on for a few minutes. In the next few days, I vomited, had another seizure-like chills, headache, fever, nose bleed, a stroke somewhere in there (I did not feel this), called the ambulance twice and went to the hospital three times, all of the times got sent back home saying I had a flu. Finally got admitted, had another stroke in the ICU, and got a new valve. Oh, and my friends told me I looked greenish purple before I got admitted.

All blood cultures were negative, and the only indication of infection was a low platelet count. I believe my white blood cell count was normal.

I don?t know how long I actually had the endocarditis. I felt fine up until that specific time. Feeling sick came first for me, then the chills (but that was in a matter of hours). In retrospect, I did have a headache and some weirdness with the period cycle before the sickness, but even now, I wouldn?t know if endocarditis was the cause. Anyhow, I ?had the flu? for about a week, and in total about 12 days from the onset of a recognizable symptom to emergency surgery. Ended up spending a month in the hospital for the antibiotics regimen afterwards.
 
My husband had vague symtpoms for about a month after aquiring BE (diagnosed July 17 2005). It is believed that he was infected June 9th of last year. He became fatigued, appetite became more poor, and he had a dull headache he thought was sinus. He began to have night sweats (with the shaking), maybe a couple a week which gradually got worse. Many trips to the doctor. His vision became affected, things began to look 'dull'-this was not as apparent until after 2 hours of IV Vanco, when his vision became very clear. The worst I remember was this roaming pain. One day in his leg, the next in his elbow. WBC was always normal, and he would be sent home. Once diagnosed with BE, he had 3 TEEs which didn't reveal any vegetations on his valve, but they were there. This was confirmed at surgery. He had 6 weeks Rochephin at home via a PICC line prior to surgery. His hemoglobin was low, liver enzymes high. Husband's regurgitation was moderate June 9th, and then severe at the time of his surgery in Sept.
 
Thanks for all the info, folks! Is there any normal method for pre-dental treatment? I take 4 pills of Clindamycin 150mg 1 hour before treatment, nothing after. Cheers, Will
 
I had an infectious disease specialist on me with my cardiologist in the hospital with the endo infection. He told me 600 Mg prior to any dental work.
 
William said:
Thanks for all the info, folks! Is there any normal method for pre-dental treatment? I take 4 pills of Clindamycin 150mg 1 hour before treatment, nothing after. Cheers, Will
Click to expand...

That is exactly what and when I take (Clindamycin instead of Penicillin because I'm allergic to Penicillin). My dentist said it takes about an hour for the antibiotic to get into the bloodstream, and it stays there for about 4 hours.
 
No one ever really said what my infection was after I got home. They told me immediately after my surgery that I had a Staph infection in my ear. Which I told them about the ear ache before my surgery. They put a pic line in before they sent me home and was giving me Vancomycin....I got home...infection got into my blood..uncontrollable shakes....went back to hospital. They took out the Pic line and kept me in for 8 days....Told me I had Sepsis...Sick as a dog for 4 days....my mother died from Sepsis due to ruptured Gall Bladder. Infectious disease was in charge of me after I returned to hospital. They did lots of blood work. Cultured Pic line and said that it was the cause of the infection spreading to the blood......I dunno. Just glad that after 8 days back in the hospital, they finally cured me. I think the Infection really slowed my recovery. After reading some of the other people here talking about up and about and going hard at it 3 or 4 weeks after surgery...I don't want anything to do with Endocarditis....
 
Not Again

Not Again

I have had severe Cold and Sinus problems for the last month like I had 2 years ago when I had endocarditis, I have had a number of antibiotics, and as I was instructed 2 years ago if anything like this occurs again go to the casualty (ER) and get it investigated. Well today after a month of ongoing severe cold and flu like problems I went to the hospital that originally diagnosed and treated the endocarditis. After a full blood work up and other tests they determined I wasn't reinfected endocarditis again and have prescribed a course of long term antibiotics which will hopefully clear up the upper respiratory tract infection. :)
 
OldManEmu said:
After a full blood work up and other tests they determined I wasn't reinfected endocarditis again and have prescribed a course of long term antibiotics which will hopefully clear up the upper respiratory tract infection. :)
Click to expand...

That's good news!
 
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