Thank you for your repiles. So I just have to play the waiting game.. It could go bad in the next few months or in the next few years then. They found the heart mumur when I was 26. I am 49 in october. All I know at the mo is I have a bav and it will need replacing at some time.
I think you can get a much better time frame from the cardiologist. Have you had an echocardiogram? Can you get ahhold of the details of your echo?
If you have stenosis; the hardening/calcifying of the valve, then your valve is crusting up and closing little by little. They measure the Aortic Valve opening. I think a normal valve opening is somewhere around 2mm squared. Don't know why they use the squared...that's just how it is done. My cardiologist said that once the measurement gets to 1.0 mm squared it is generally around 1 to 3 years until valve replacement.
Then there's the potential damage that may be occuring to your heart as it works to compensate for weakening valve...whether it is stenosis, or the opposite -- regurgitation (loose, flappy opening and closing). This is very slow damage and as far as I can tell VERY individual. The cardiologist watches this piece of the picture very closely. Your heart is a muscle. The harder it has to work, the thicker it becomes. Unlike all our other muscles (which we may wish were more taught and firm) the heart likes to stay the way it was built. So if your system begins to have to work extra hard, and the wall of the heart become thickened or enlarged to a certain extent ( a numbers game) then surgery will be advised.
For me, my murmur was discovered in my late 20's. Stenosis began 20 years later. Aortic valve opening found to be 1.0 and 3 years later had closed to .53 and I went in for surgery. .53 was deemed critical. My cardiologist said she likes to call in the surgeon at .7. I suddenly had to push my date 4 months away for other medical reasons and the change (the closer it gets, the faster it goes) was rather dramatic in that time frame. But it had already dropped below that magic 1.0.
So please get some more information from your cardio. You have a right to understand the probable progress of your condition in much better detail. Depending on the severity of your current state, and what they are finding, you can learn to rest easy about the waiting (well, sort of!!! the waiting is the hardest part!!)
Please ask us anything. We can help you to understand. Best to start new threads with each new type of question, then more people here on the forum will see it.
Best wishes.
Marguerite