Did this appointment go ok?

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Luke4720

New member
Joined
Jul 2, 2017
Messages
1
Location
GA
Hello, first thanks to all who post and provide comfort, enlightenment, support and advise to all. I'm a 47 year old, who was diagnosed with an MVP with mild regurgitation when i was 13 years old (1983). During this long stretch i was followed by a Cardiologists once a year with no changes and asymptomatic. In February an Echo showed leakage in my Aortic Valve and an MRI was performed last week. Both of those tests show Moderate to Severe leakage in my Aortic Valve. The MVP has remained unchanged. I am still asymptomatic. During a visit to my Cardio last week, he asked me if 1) i experienced Shortness of Breath and 2) any Chest Pain. I told him NO to both. I go hard, live my life hard (because of my profession) exercise hard, very athletic. When he asks me about Chest Pain, i'm not sure if he means me being doubled over in pain (and needing a pain pill) and Shortness of Breath (not sure if he means gasping for breath when climbing stairs or putting on my shoes). I run about 10 miles a week (very slow) and have stopped the heavy weight training. My cardio asks me if i wanted to do a Heart Cath to see if that showed anything different from the two above mentioned tests. I told him it was up to him. My EKG was normal and he said i have no arrhythmia's of any kind, no heart muscle thickening etc.

I have since been more hypersensitive about my heart and not sure if i feel pain or not. By pain i mean i would characterize it as "feeling something" or on a scale what i currently feel would not fall into the Mild category. It would be below mild sensations. With regards to shortness of breath, if I'm not having shortness of breath then to me that means i'm not exercising hard enough. I can tell however that my stamina doesn't seem as where it once was (or is is this in my head?).

Cardio left me with a Lisinopril 5mg (my BP was 122/80 in his office without meds) and told me that he would speak with the Chief Surgeon and his colleagues to see what trends, new advances etc. in a case like mine. Cardio did tell me that sometimes those tests such as Echo and MRI will overestimate the amount of leakage and it may not be as bad as the tests indicate. Cardio could not hear anything with his stethoscope and told me that if leakage was Moderate - Severe, he should be a able to hear something.

My biggest concern is a school that i started back in May (2 days a week) and i will not finish that school until June 2018. I can only be absent for a number of days. I'm pretty confused and having to fill in many of my blanks by reading forums etc. such as this one. He told me that running/ jogging was fine and that i probably should not lift heavy weights, however, weight machines were ok. I read about people a lot here and there having AV replacement surgery that were asymptomatic. Then i will read that you do not need surgery until symptoms present themselves. Not sure if i should continue on this path of busting my but in this school 2x a week or plan for a surgery. Cardiologists almost seems confused as to why i would not have symptoms, why my heart would not be enlarged, why i'm not having arrhythmia etc.

Not even sure if i have the right cardiologists. I left and he told me to come back in 2 months, unless he called me back to schedule a heart cath. Cardio was almost asking me if i wanted a Heart Cath? i almost feel as though i should have said yes go ahead and do the damn thing. With all this said, i have not read about anyones condition that sounds similar to mine and was just not getting the answers by reading other posts. if anyone has any input i would greatly appreciate your time. Thank you.
 
Heart Caths look at coronary arteries and pressures are best measured with echos. Oh, and they make people very rich. My gut feeling is for you to go with your gut feeling.
 
Agree with above post from Agian and want to add that if you have a lot of questions you need a good cardiologist that can answer your questions enough that you feel comfortable with making your future decisions.

Take care of your heart. It is very important.
 
Not usually a fan of 'gut feelings', but he asked. Not sure why his cardio would push the Cath, other than to make more money in a hour than most make in a month. I always look into people's eyes. If they look 'dead' they've got no conscience.
 
Sounds like you could use a second opinion from a cardiologist with whom you have a better rapport. Agian is right, a cath won't give you the information you need. Maybe a TEE (transesophageal echo) would be more useful. (That's a TOE for those across the pond.)

As for shortness of breath, I had the same question you did when I was in the waiting room. I was used to exercising vigorously, and I didn't really know how to answer when a doctor asked if I had shortness of breath -- of course you get out of breath when you exercise if you're doing it right!

Eventually I developed true shortness of breath which felt very different. I had had an echo which showed that my regurgitation had gotten much worse and I needed surgery within the next two weeks. Just two days later I woke up feeling crappy. It's hard to describe how I felt, except that I felt weak, with little energy, feeling that if I needed to move quickly I wouldn't be able to do so. I just felt wrong somehow. So I had a friend take me to the ER, and I ended up having my surgery two days after that.

What was interesting is that my friend had experience as the mother of a son with asthma, and she said that the way I was speaking, with frequent pauses to take a breath, reminded her of how her son had been when his asthma was acting up. While I was in the ER I was given a dose of IV Lasix, and after I peed out an amazing amount of fluid (that IV Lasix is powerful stuff!), I immediately felt much better, and my friend said that I was obviously speaking more easily.

So shortness of breath may be a tricky thing to identify, especially for an exerciser, unless it gets extreme. But if it gets to that point, I think you'll know it.
 

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