Aortic root replacement - ten years!

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Dorsai

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 6, 2009
Messages
60
Location
Alpharetta GA
I'm happy to report that my aortic root replacement was performed ten years ago today by Dr. Edward Chen at Emory University here in Atlanta, and all is well.

Er...as far as the aorta goes, anyway. But I just got back from a visit to my cardiologist, who informed me that my coronary plaque was more appropriate for a 77 year old than for my 49 years. 😦 So...diet, exercise, baby aspirin, cholesterol medication, here we go.

I'm just glad to still be here to worry about all that. 🙂
 
I'm happy to report that my aortic root replacement was performed ten years ago today by Dr. Edward Chen at Emory University here in Atlanta, and all is well.

Er...as far as the aorta goes, anyway. But I just got back from a visit to my cardiologist, who informed me that my coronary plaque was more appropriate for a 77 year old than for my 49 years. 😦 So...diet, exercise, baby aspirin, cholesterol medication, here we go.

I'm just glad to still be here to worry about all that. 🙂

Make sure your cardio is right about the plaque.

Before my AVR, I took a test ($50) that my insurance company didn't support and it showed I had lots of plaque. I think it was a CT scan with stress test. A nurse told me some serious things. They wanted me on fish oil and cardio vitamins. When I had the angiogram a few years later for the AVR, they told me my plaque was fine. They said I didn't have to eat the hospital's cardio meals. I had plaque but it was thin layer (i.e. normal for my age) and not creating any significant blockages. The test could see the plaque but not how thick it was. When I asked about the test that showed I had a problem, they told me the test had a lot of false positives and that's why my insurance didn't cover it. It was a test advertised by my cardio's group practice. They also sold me the vitamins and fish oil....
 
Make sure your cardio is right about the plaque.

Interesting, thanks for sharing your experience.

Mine's been a little different so far. I've had a couple of friends have heart attacks recently, one of whom is younger than me and seemed in perfectly good health. That worried me enough that at my next regularly-scheduled cardiologist visit, I asked him about what tests were out there that could let me know if I was headed for a heart attack myself. He said he didn't think I needed it, but that if I really wanted to I could pay $150 and get a coronary CT scan.

So he definitely wasn't pushing the test or particularly encouraging me to get it, but he was unhappy enough with the results that he scheduled me fairly quickly for blood work and a followup exam. He doesn't see any signs that I've got an impending blockage leading to a heart attack, but he does want me to work harder at getting my cholesterol under control. I've got a followup scheduled for three months from now, we'll see what happens.
 

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