Well, I just had my yearly cardio appt yesterday. I had to start all over again with a new cardio this year. Last year I had a new cardio too. In the last 4 1/2 to five years I have had three cardios. I hope I keep this one awhile. They all seem to leave UVA and go somewhere else.
Well here is how things went. He started off by telling me that I have already beat the odds and he finds my story to be very very interesting. I have my aortic valve replaced with a St. Jude and I had my ascending aorta replaced with dacron. He said that what happened to me usually happens to people with Marfan's and I do not have that. He told me that everything sounds just fine to him and that I am doing well. The only thing he wanted to do was an echo. I haven't had one since November of 2002. My surgery was September of 2002. My previous cardio didn't think it was necessary to do echos every year because he would be able to hear a change before I would even notice any symptoms. My new cardio agrees with that but he says he wants to do an echo every few years. He doesn't feel an echo every year would be beneficial in my case other than to cause me anxiety. He said what he is looking for is any leaking around the sutures of the new valve and any clots that may be on the valve. He actually had me leave my appointment and have the echo done right away so I wouldn't have to drive an hour again on another day.
The only thing now is waiting for the echo results. I am a mess now. I keep thinking they are going to find something wrong since I haven't had an echo in so long. They told me I would have the results today or Monday. I just feel like a bomb is going to be dropped.
My echo seemed to take awhile to do. The tech told me she couldn't tell me anything. She seemed to be having trouble when she was looking around the mitral valve area. That is the area under the breast isn't it? She told me to hold my breath a couple of times and then she really had to push hard on the underneath area of my breast to get what she was looking for. This is what has me thinking something is wrong. Then again it could just be my BIG BOOBS were just making it difficult to get a good picture!!
I just wanted to run this by you guys to see what you think. I'll let you all know how things go.
Take Care!
Gail
Well here is how things went. He started off by telling me that I have already beat the odds and he finds my story to be very very interesting. I have my aortic valve replaced with a St. Jude and I had my ascending aorta replaced with dacron. He said that what happened to me usually happens to people with Marfan's and I do not have that. He told me that everything sounds just fine to him and that I am doing well. The only thing he wanted to do was an echo. I haven't had one since November of 2002. My surgery was September of 2002. My previous cardio didn't think it was necessary to do echos every year because he would be able to hear a change before I would even notice any symptoms. My new cardio agrees with that but he says he wants to do an echo every few years. He doesn't feel an echo every year would be beneficial in my case other than to cause me anxiety. He said what he is looking for is any leaking around the sutures of the new valve and any clots that may be on the valve. He actually had me leave my appointment and have the echo done right away so I wouldn't have to drive an hour again on another day.
The only thing now is waiting for the echo results. I am a mess now. I keep thinking they are going to find something wrong since I haven't had an echo in so long. They told me I would have the results today or Monday. I just feel like a bomb is going to be dropped.
My echo seemed to take awhile to do. The tech told me she couldn't tell me anything. She seemed to be having trouble when she was looking around the mitral valve area. That is the area under the breast isn't it? She told me to hold my breath a couple of times and then she really had to push hard on the underneath area of my breast to get what she was looking for. This is what has me thinking something is wrong. Then again it could just be my BIG BOOBS were just making it difficult to get a good picture!!
I just wanted to run this by you guys to see what you think. I'll let you all know how things go.Take Care!
Gail
