Recent content by Olive

Thanks, pellicle! His exercise regimen has been pretty dismal - maybe on average twice a week, 20 min on elliptical or light weightlifting. He very rarely drinks alcohol. He agreed to do at least 20 every day on elliptical, and no more than 1 cup of coffee a day. I agree with you that we...

My husband is 36 and had his aortic valve & ascending aorta replaced almost 4 years ago, in Oct 2010. He was born with a bicuspid aortic valve. Prior to surgery, his heart rate & blood pressure were normal. After surgery, his heart rate was always high (low to mid 100's I think) at rest...

Hello all, My 34 year old husband had an AVR in 2010 (mechanical valve). He was born with a bicuspid AV. Yesterday his heart was racing at rest (130-140), tightness in chest, shortness of breath, some sharp pains. Obviously we went to ER, they did EKG and diagnosed a "Left Bundle Branch...

Oh, absolutely. I would hate to have anyone worry that their current or future On-X valve could cause problems like this. Thank you again. Off I go to a sarcoidosis forum. :confused: And if anything else comes up with his valve, I will come back and let you know.

Well, the TEE & Chest CT with contrast were done today. The good news - the TEE did not show any problems with the heart, the valve, the aortic graft, nothing. The bad news - the chest CT shows several "nodes" in the chest. The cardiologist gave a "differential diagnosis" of sarcoidosis...

Thanks for sharing, and very glad to hear you're doing better. Chris took topamax, too, for a couple weeks, but had some weird mind-altering side effects. He's currently taking amitriptyline and gabapentin (plus of course, warfarin, and metoprolol). He even did a 2.5 day hospital stay where...

Thank you all so much. I can't believe how supportive and kind you all are. And to Magnacruz - they actually did draw 4 bottles of blood on 3/22. (blood culture bottles). And nothing grew, even 5 days later. I don't know how long they keep them, but everytime I talk to the nurse, she...

Thanks, I'll ask for that.

Update: I raised a little hell over the phone at the hospital. The Dr. finally called me back and I must have conveyed to him how serious I am about getting this figured out ASAP. So he managed to take time out of his busy schedule to actually review my husband's echocardiogram immediately...

Thanks again. STILL have not heard back from the nurse - the Dr. hasn't even looked at the heart MRI I dropped off on 3/26. However, that MRI was done in September 2011, and his headaches started after that, so maybe that MRI is too old anyway. Maybe he should get another one. Can an...

Thank you both so much. I agree that the Dr. was a bit hasty in his "diagnosis". He seemed slightly arrogant, with a "I've been doing this for 30 years and I know everything" kind of attitude. I'm willing to give him a chance, though, mainly b/c he is the director of the cardiology imaging...

My husband, 34 years old, had his aortic valve replaced in October 2010. He also had about 5 inches of his ascending aorta replaced with a graft. About 4 months ago, he began suffering from daily headaches, lightheadedness, periodic numbness on one side of his face, and about 2 weeks ago the...

Thank you so much everyone. Sorry it took me so long to respond. My husband was able to come home on Sunday night and so I've been pretty busy taking care of him and I was also having trouble getting my pw reset :-) I will post more later, have to go into work for a little while. Thank you...

Hello, This is my first post. My husband had an aortic valve replacement done Oct 29 (On-X valve) and his aorta was replaced up to the arch with a Dacron graft. He is 33 (congenital bicuspid valve). His recovery was complicated by a lot of fluid in the lungs so he is on lasix. His heart rate is...