Christina L
Well-known member
Hi All -
I just had my 4-year post surgery echocardiogram. They faxed the results here to our home and I was literally shaking like a leaf as the papers were coming across the fax.
A lot of you know my history: Mitral valve repair of both leaflets by Dr. Cosgrove in Cleveland 4 years ago - then some bumps in the road, i.e. one 2 years ago where I was told my right heart was enlarged, etc.
This echo: All heart cavities normal size except for a slightly dilated left atrium (4.3 - it has not gone down in size appreciably since my surgery), TRACE mitral regurgitation and trace tricuspid, aortic valve no regurg and normal, pulmonic valve not well visualized. The mitral valve area which was read as "stenotic" last year (from the mitral annular repair ring) is still the same size at 1.44 cm sq. My EF was 64% which is improved from last year. Nothing mentioned about pulmonary hypertension which has been a fear of mine ever since the mention of right heart enlargement.
I now am on a CPAP machine at night for mild sleep apnea and also am being treated for thyroid, so I would guess those things have helped my heart.
We are still in the adoption process (now of a baby girl from Vietnam) and are expecting a referral in January so before we fork out the big bucks to accept the referral, I wanted to have my 4-year echo done a month early to make sure that we can still move ahead with the adoption.
After crying tears of joy for several minutes and thanking God for my blessing of staying stable heart-wise, I thought those post mitral valve repair or in the waiting room for mitral repair might get a lift reading of my personal saga.
Oh, and thank you Dr. Cosgrove.
I love that man!
Merry Christmas all!!!
Christina L
I just had my 4-year post surgery echocardiogram. They faxed the results here to our home and I was literally shaking like a leaf as the papers were coming across the fax.
A lot of you know my history: Mitral valve repair of both leaflets by Dr. Cosgrove in Cleveland 4 years ago - then some bumps in the road, i.e. one 2 years ago where I was told my right heart was enlarged, etc.
This echo: All heart cavities normal size except for a slightly dilated left atrium (4.3 - it has not gone down in size appreciably since my surgery), TRACE mitral regurgitation and trace tricuspid, aortic valve no regurg and normal, pulmonic valve not well visualized. The mitral valve area which was read as "stenotic" last year (from the mitral annular repair ring) is still the same size at 1.44 cm sq. My EF was 64% which is improved from last year. Nothing mentioned about pulmonary hypertension which has been a fear of mine ever since the mention of right heart enlargement.
I now am on a CPAP machine at night for mild sleep apnea and also am being treated for thyroid, so I would guess those things have helped my heart.
We are still in the adoption process (now of a baby girl from Vietnam) and are expecting a referral in January so before we fork out the big bucks to accept the referral, I wanted to have my 4-year echo done a month early to make sure that we can still move ahead with the adoption.
After crying tears of joy for several minutes and thanking God for my blessing of staying stable heart-wise, I thought those post mitral valve repair or in the waiting room for mitral repair might get a lift reading of my personal saga.
Oh, and thank you Dr. Cosgrove.
I love that man! Merry Christmas all!!!
Christina L
