Hi all
I'm new here, and I've joined and posted in the hope it helps others. Sorry it's such a long story.
I'm a 51 year old male in the United Kingdom (Scotland), a never-smoker, light drinker, in good health.
In September my wife and I went on holiday to north Yorkshire in our caravan, arriving on a Sunday. I felt absolutely fine, no health issues. On the Monday we went for a short walk with the dogs. Around 6PM I started to feel a bit unwell, I didn't eat much dinner, and went to bed early. It was a really hot day, and a late summer heatwave, so I put it down to being too hot.
I woke in the middle of the night scrabbling around for blankets and duvets as I was freezing cold. My wife woke up and said "you aren't freezing, you are boiling". She found phone numbers for a local GP (doctor).
In the morning we went to the GP, who took my temperature. He imediately said "it's over 40C (104F), we don't deal with that here, get yourself to A&E".
I arrived at the nearest hospital, had a five hour wait (whilst feeling terrible), had a chest x-ray, ECG, two litres of IV fluids, and was sent away at 5AM with a box of Amoxicillin.
The next couple of days were a blur, I slept for much of the time. Then on Friday I had a very painful toe, and noticed a big black spot on it. So the next day I went back to A&E and they swapped my Amoxicillin for Flucloxacillin.
There was no diagnosis or explanation of what had happened.
By the following Wednesday (9 days after illness) I felt well enough to enjoy the final two days of our holiday!
Fast forward five weeks and I was moving some stuff in the garden and noticed I was getting short of breath and I felt a slight chest tightness. I felt fine otherwise. I got a GP appointment who referred me to my local cardio department in Perth Royal Infirmary. Soon after arrival I had a chest x-ray and a doctor listened to my chest and said I had a heart murmur (this was news to me). So he arranged for a TTE (Trans Thoracic Echocardiogram) the following day. I also had a dye-injected CT scan booked for next day too.
I went for the TTE and the registrar checked all my valves and then asked "have you had a high temperature recently?". I relayed the story and she said that it all made sense.
In summary, I had experienced Infective Endocarditis back during the September holiday, I had developed vegetation on one of the aortic valve leaflets, and it had caused a hole in the valve. This had resulted in severe aortic regurgitation and my heart was under stress (Traponin levels increased from 10 to > 100 over the following days). Surgery would be needed. And the black spot on the toe was linked; bits of vegetation can break off the valve and scatter to the bloodstream extremeties - toes and fingers. A subsequent TOE (Trans Oesophageal Echocardiogram) confirmed everything.
Due to this being bacterial, I was put on a high dose (2g) of both Amoxicillin and Flucloxacillin via IV every four hours, day and night. This wasn't good for sleep as each took 30 minutes to pump.
After two weeks I went via ambulance to Edinburgh where I underwent a six-hour procedure, via the sternum, to replace my aortic valve. The surgeons attempted a repair first but had to replace it.
I opted for a tissue value. Although I am relatively young, and might have to go through all this again in 15 years time (hopefully via TAVI/TAVR) I didn't fancy taking daily warfarin, and hearing the valve click would drive me nuts! So I now have a valve from a cow.
After surgery, my chest drains were taking out on surgery+1 day (I was still in ICU) and the pacing wires were removed on surgery+6 day. Day surgery+5 was the day where I "turned the corner" and started to feel better.
I continued on the IV antibiotics, which can only be given in hospital, for another two weeks, and that delayed my return home. During this time, Edinburgh managed to identify the bacteria from the old valve - gram-positive staphylococcus aureus - and that allowed the hospital to move me onto an oral antibiotic - Linezolid 600mg twice daily for four weeks. This gives a full course of antibotics for six weeks since surgery. Linezolid is pretty horrible but it's a small price to pay for being home.
As I write this, surgery was five weeks ago, my chest wound is healing nicely, and it still hurts (a lot!) to sneeze. But it's behind me.
Anyway, that's my story!
Jim
I'm new here, and I've joined and posted in the hope it helps others. Sorry it's such a long story.
I'm a 51 year old male in the United Kingdom (Scotland), a never-smoker, light drinker, in good health.
In September my wife and I went on holiday to north Yorkshire in our caravan, arriving on a Sunday. I felt absolutely fine, no health issues. On the Monday we went for a short walk with the dogs. Around 6PM I started to feel a bit unwell, I didn't eat much dinner, and went to bed early. It was a really hot day, and a late summer heatwave, so I put it down to being too hot.
I woke in the middle of the night scrabbling around for blankets and duvets as I was freezing cold. My wife woke up and said "you aren't freezing, you are boiling". She found phone numbers for a local GP (doctor).
In the morning we went to the GP, who took my temperature. He imediately said "it's over 40C (104F), we don't deal with that here, get yourself to A&E".
I arrived at the nearest hospital, had a five hour wait (whilst feeling terrible), had a chest x-ray, ECG, two litres of IV fluids, and was sent away at 5AM with a box of Amoxicillin.
The next couple of days were a blur, I slept for much of the time. Then on Friday I had a very painful toe, and noticed a big black spot on it. So the next day I went back to A&E and they swapped my Amoxicillin for Flucloxacillin.
There was no diagnosis or explanation of what had happened.
By the following Wednesday (9 days after illness) I felt well enough to enjoy the final two days of our holiday!
Fast forward five weeks and I was moving some stuff in the garden and noticed I was getting short of breath and I felt a slight chest tightness. I felt fine otherwise. I got a GP appointment who referred me to my local cardio department in Perth Royal Infirmary. Soon after arrival I had a chest x-ray and a doctor listened to my chest and said I had a heart murmur (this was news to me). So he arranged for a TTE (Trans Thoracic Echocardiogram) the following day. I also had a dye-injected CT scan booked for next day too.
I went for the TTE and the registrar checked all my valves and then asked "have you had a high temperature recently?". I relayed the story and she said that it all made sense.
In summary, I had experienced Infective Endocarditis back during the September holiday, I had developed vegetation on one of the aortic valve leaflets, and it had caused a hole in the valve. This had resulted in severe aortic regurgitation and my heart was under stress (Traponin levels increased from 10 to > 100 over the following days). Surgery would be needed. And the black spot on the toe was linked; bits of vegetation can break off the valve and scatter to the bloodstream extremeties - toes and fingers. A subsequent TOE (Trans Oesophageal Echocardiogram) confirmed everything.
Due to this being bacterial, I was put on a high dose (2g) of both Amoxicillin and Flucloxacillin via IV every four hours, day and night. This wasn't good for sleep as each took 30 minutes to pump.
After two weeks I went via ambulance to Edinburgh where I underwent a six-hour procedure, via the sternum, to replace my aortic valve. The surgeons attempted a repair first but had to replace it.
I opted for a tissue value. Although I am relatively young, and might have to go through all this again in 15 years time (hopefully via TAVI/TAVR) I didn't fancy taking daily warfarin, and hearing the valve click would drive me nuts! So I now have a valve from a cow.
After surgery, my chest drains were taking out on surgery+1 day (I was still in ICU) and the pacing wires were removed on surgery+6 day. Day surgery+5 was the day where I "turned the corner" and started to feel better.
I continued on the IV antibiotics, which can only be given in hospital, for another two weeks, and that delayed my return home. During this time, Edinburgh managed to identify the bacteria from the old valve - gram-positive staphylococcus aureus - and that allowed the hospital to move me onto an oral antibiotic - Linezolid 600mg twice daily for four weeks. This gives a full course of antibotics for six weeks since surgery. Linezolid is pretty horrible but it's a small price to pay for being home.
As I write this, surgery was five weeks ago, my chest wound is healing nicely, and it still hurts (a lot!) to sneeze. But it's behind me.
Anyway, that's my story!
Jim
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