symtoms

[michael4281]

I am a 58 y.o. male in excellent physical condition, have had SBE in 1994 causing a mitro valve prolapse, and heart murmur. About 4 months ago I went in to see my cardiologist, he thought the murmur had worsened. He had me take an echo cardiogram, it indicated that my heart was larger, and that my aortic valve was 4.99. I don't really have any symtoms, except at times it is difficult to take a real deep breath, am still working out every day, ect. The Dr. thinks I am on the "cusp" of needing an aortic valve replacement, due to the size of heart, and valve, and my murmur.
I don't know much about valve replcment surgery, have read some, and read most of the stories on this very helpful site.
Any info would be appreciated.

 

[Mara]

Hi Michael

Hi Michael

Welcome to out little world!

I just had valve replacement in July. You might know that if you have been checking out the site.
My only real symptom was fatigue. I wanted a nap in the afternoon.
The cardio saw the changes he was looking for on echo and said it was time for surgery.
Listen to what the docs say they know.
The surgeon said that my aortic valve was so stenotic the opening for blood flow was the size of a pencil lead! Ugh.

There are lots of folks on here who are closer in age to you. i am 34 and my heart condition is congential, so I had a tricky operation called the Ross procedure. It's not for everyone. And they don't usually do it on folks over 50...not that you're old....cause you're not...it's just the way of the operation.

But, hey there are loads of great alernatives out there. I even considered other ops. The folks with the St. Judes valves rave about them.

Ask all questions, even if you think it's silly, because it's not.

The initial thought of heart surgery is scary, but it really isn't that bad....if you consider the alternative! No really it's not that bad. It's sore and inconvenient and aggravating, but it gets you off work for 6 weeks and then you feel so much better after it's over!

Good luck and welcome
-Mara
congenital AS/AI
Ross Procedure 7/12/01

 

[Nancy]

Welcome Michael-

This is a marvelous site. There's a wealth of info. here from all types of valve conditions. You'll be able to educate yourself quite well here. Also the people are very friendly, so feel free to ask all you want.

I'm Joe's wife, who has had three open heart surgeries. He has 2 mechanical valves, an aortic and a mitral and just had a repair on the mitral. He also has a pacemaker and has had 2 lung surgeries.

He had rheumatic fever as a teenager.

 

[Christina]

Hi Michael,

Welcome to the VR.com site. The people here couldn't be nicer and have been a great help to many, many people including myself. Without the support of this forum it would all be so much more difficult. It looks really scary at first when you don't know much about it, but when you become well informed you'll feel so much better about it. You'll be able to ask the correct questions and will feel at ease.
I am one year post op and have had two AVR surgeries within eleven days. The last one because of a blood clot. I did fine. The surgery is still no picknick but far not as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, there is discomfort but really not mcuh pain, and if you feel pain, don't be afraid to ask for more morphine. Start walking as soon as you are able and use the sperometer. You'll do fine.
It takes about a year to get over the whole thing, but we all heal at different speeds. It all depends if there are more problems in addition to the heart valve replacement.

Take care, and ask away.

Christina
St.Jude's mechanical
AVR 8/7/00 & 8/18/00
Coumadin, 19mg a day.

 

[tnboomer1013]

Welcome Michael,

Welcome Michael,

Yes there is wealth of info here along with some great support from people just like you that have gone before. At 44 I also Just had AVR ( aortic valve replacement ) in July, I was not only feeling drug out (excuse the southern terms) but I was also feeling sharp pains on the left side of my chest. My aortic valve was leaking approximatly 70%. Hence the feeling lousy all the time. Sounds like your doc. is using the wait and see treatment. Which is ok just as long as you keep it checked. Hope everything works out, keep us posted.

 

[Jean]

Welcome!

Welcome!

Michael,

Go to the section "Heart Talk" . Scroll back to the Peter Easton entries. He did an amazing amount of research about the different valve choices for replacements and shared them with us. He just had his surgery yesterday.

Learn as much as you can and be very proactive in following your treatments. You are the boss. Find the best hospital and doctor and surgeon you can and then trust in God.

Keep us posted and let us help where we can. This is a great bunch of people.

 

[michael4281]

Symtoms

Symtoms

Thank you all for your very helpful replies, I appreciate your comments.
A good friend is V.P. with a company called Berkley Heartlab in S.F. The founder of the company is an Cardio, Dr. Robert Superko, he has referred me to a surgeon in the Bay area by the name of Vince Guadiano. I have an appointment 9/18/ for a "counsultation", he wants to do a cat scan. I am also getting another "echo" on 9/1/0 to check if there has been any changes in heart of valve size.
I guess the question is, should I be doing anything else prior to making a decision to have this condition operated??

 

[Andrew Harriss]

Hi Michael
I had AVR in March 98. Mechanical St Jude. My Cardio did a Heart Catherization to determine the exact condition/performance of the aortic valve and at the same time also obtained info on any possible heart disease. He also did a Trans Esophagal Echo(TEE) to obtain further data.
I have no idea if these are the correct tests. The Heart cath is relatively simple but required an overnight stay in the hospital to insure proper plugging up of the incision in the femoral artery where they start the catheter. The TEE was easier as they give you a drug that causes temporary amnesia so you won't remember swallowing the apparently rather large size probe.
Good luck. Check out the Docs and ask lots of questions.

Andy Harriss