Some of you have been following my story, so I think it's appropriate to update you guys.
I went to Chicago and drove downtown where everyone uses their horns as morse code to get to Northwestern Memorial hospital. I had an MRI/MRA and a surface echo, and a consult with a prominent, well known surgeon.
The MRI showed my aorta to be 4.1 cm. The UofM ct scan 1.5 months ago showed my aorta to be 4.2cm. The local yocal's ct scan in March showed the 4.5cm diameter because of a motion artifact. There's a school of thought that says if you're a bigger person, you need bigger blood vessels... which makes me a little more comfortable with 4.1cm. If I was a 4'9" 100 pound woman, I would probably need surgery soon.
The echo at NWM measured a mean gradient of only 10 mmhg. For those of you that aren't savvy, that's pretty darn close to normal. However, my valve is very truly bicuspid. The lady was very nice and she did a good job of letting me see an excellent view of valve where it fused (or remained fused) together. I'll never forget it. My other valves are for the most part unremarkable.
So I'm done. No mas. Finite. No more. I'm also locking my doors more often so you guys can't kidnap me and try your hands at doin it yourself
This is just something I have to learn to accept. I also need to learn to accept my mortality, refine my faith and work within the constraints of my restrictions. 30 lbs. It's kinda sad, but I have dreams now where I'm doing physical things I shouldn't do in real life. I used to be able to lift the back end of small cars.
Ya know, ironically, I've prayed less since I found out about my aorta problems than ever before. I pray for other people, but I don't think I said one prayer for myself since March when I found out. It's almost like I thought that if I was "ready", he'd take me. I also feel like I shouldn't pray only for myself when I'm in trouble too. Maybe it's superstitious garbage or hyperbole, I don't know. I've always leaned a little toward agnosticism, anyway.
In any case, I live just 3.3 miles from mid-michigan's best hospital. Pretty sad, but distance from the hospital and emergency services is definitely going to be a selling point for future relocations.
But anyway, thank you everyone for your support on my journey. Thank you for pushing me to get answers, and for giving me answers. I've learned so much, and I intend to pay it forward, so to speak. When I came to this forum I was completely wigged out, and with your help I've reached a decent level of closure and certainty.
I went to Chicago and drove downtown where everyone uses their horns as morse code to get to Northwestern Memorial hospital. I had an MRI/MRA and a surface echo, and a consult with a prominent, well known surgeon.
The MRI showed my aorta to be 4.1 cm. The UofM ct scan 1.5 months ago showed my aorta to be 4.2cm. The local yocal's ct scan in March showed the 4.5cm diameter because of a motion artifact. There's a school of thought that says if you're a bigger person, you need bigger blood vessels... which makes me a little more comfortable with 4.1cm. If I was a 4'9" 100 pound woman, I would probably need surgery soon.
The echo at NWM measured a mean gradient of only 10 mmhg. For those of you that aren't savvy, that's pretty darn close to normal. However, my valve is very truly bicuspid. The lady was very nice and she did a good job of letting me see an excellent view of valve where it fused (or remained fused) together. I'll never forget it. My other valves are for the most part unremarkable.
So I'm done. No mas. Finite. No more. I'm also locking my doors more often so you guys can't kidnap me and try your hands at doin it yourself
This is just something I have to learn to accept. I also need to learn to accept my mortality, refine my faith and work within the constraints of my restrictions. 30 lbs. It's kinda sad, but I have dreams now where I'm doing physical things I shouldn't do in real life. I used to be able to lift the back end of small cars.
Ya know, ironically, I've prayed less since I found out about my aorta problems than ever before. I pray for other people, but I don't think I said one prayer for myself since March when I found out. It's almost like I thought that if I was "ready", he'd take me. I also feel like I shouldn't pray only for myself when I'm in trouble too. Maybe it's superstitious garbage or hyperbole, I don't know. I've always leaned a little toward agnosticism, anyway.
In any case, I live just 3.3 miles from mid-michigan's best hospital. Pretty sad, but distance from the hospital and emergency services is definitely going to be a selling point for future relocations.
But anyway, thank you everyone for your support on my journey. Thank you for pushing me to get answers, and for giving me answers. I've learned so much, and I intend to pay it forward, so to speak. When I came to this forum I was completely wigged out, and with your help I've reached a decent level of closure and certainty.
