You need another surgery.....oops I was wrong.

[kschul]

Just thought I would post this interesting bit of information. I was about eight weeks post-op when I followed-up with my cardiologist as scheduled with an echo. My cardiologist walks in the room and say Kris you may need another surgery you are in moderate to severe regurg and your ejection fraction is too low for someone your age. He then proceeded to tell me they are going to have to replace your aortic valve (mind you I'm only eights weeks post-op and ready to go back to work) He then proceeded to tell me I would need a TEE and cardiac catheterization to see what's going on I think you may have had a heart attack.

ONE WEEK LATER

Your cardiac cath/TEE look great you only have trace regurg and I think we'll just change your beta-blocker and you should be fine. Is it just me or does this seem very odd. What's the chances he was looking at my pre-surgical echo when he saw me?

Kris

 

[Kim B]

Wow!! Just....wow! I mentioned in another thread that I'm a bit inarticulate at the moment, but this pretty much leaves me speechless. I think your guess is probably correct, that he was looking at the old echo before running the tests. That week of waiting for results must have been really stressful. Sorry you had to deal with that.

 

[Nancy]

I believe this is a prime example of why no one here thinks echoes are the final test to use to determine surgery. Your cardiologist did the right thing and double checked it, and with the much better tests got a much better view of your heart.

So many things about the echo depend on how good the tech is, it's just not reliable. But it is non-invasive, which is why they are used first.

When Joe had his echoes, we made sure he always got the best tech in the hospital. She was so persnickety, and got annoyed when she couldn't get a good view of something, and she took forever and she was not one of the young ones, lots and lots of experience. But we knew that the results would be the best it could be. He was a very difficult one to do an echo on. Many of his valves just weren't visible enough.

 

[Nancy]

Forgot to add. This is one of the reasons one should not get all upset over an echo if there are other tests planned. The results could be all wrong.

 

[lb151]

Forgot to add. This is one of the reasons one should not get all upset over an echo if there are other tests planned. The results could be all wrong.

Exactly,,,I have spent the last 3 days talking to other doctors about my echo report.I had another doc from the same group I go to read it. It is not the end all we are sometimes led to believe. Before anyone does anything else to this body,there will be a TEE done. It is only done during one brief period in our life,,30-45 minutes,yet we do tend to put a lot of stock in it.

 

[Karlynn]

About all I can say is "Phew!!!!"

 

[ottagal]

I, too am speechless. Wow...I am sorry you had to go through this, but glad that it all worked out and you weren't put through needless surgery.

Frankly, reading your story, scared the daylights out of me. One of my concerns being scheduled for surgery next month is exactly your scenario. I go through the 'what if this echo isn't accurate and I really don't need the surgery'. I am getting a CT aniogram to check my dilated aorta; however, I understand that it does not measure the severity of aortic stenosis and pulmonary regurgitation. I am now thinking that I should be asking for a TEE to double check. Or...maybe it's just me being a chicken about the surgery and hoping that someone will say: "oops, we made a mistake and you don't really need it".

Once again, sorry you had to go through this, but thanks for sharing. It is a real eye opener.

 

[Ross]

Just thought I would post this interesting bit of information. I was about eight weeks post-op when I followed-up with my cardiologist as scheduled with an echo. My cardiologist walks in the room and say Kris you may need another surgery you are in moderate to severe regurg and your ejection fraction is too low for someone your age. He then proceeded to tell me they are going to have to replace your aortic valve (mind you I'm only eights weeks post-op and ready to go back to work) He then proceeded to tell me I would need a TEE and cardiac catheterization to see what's going on I think you may have had a heart attack.

ONE WEEK LATER

Your cardiac cath/TEE look great you only have trace regurg and I think we'll just change your beta-blocker and you should be fine. Is it just me or does this seem very odd. What's the chances he was looking at my pre-surgical echo when he saw me?

Kris

Better yet, what's the chance that he wasn't looking at yours at all?

 

[Freddie]

Hey Kris, when your Doc phoned you a week later, did you questioned him on what he said about the results the previous week?
Man, I would have drilled him.

 

[njean]

So sorry you were put thru this Kris! I bet you felt like you had been kicked in the stomach!

Drs. can & do screw up & it is very hard to find one that will admit it or own up to it!

Glad that everything is okay afterall!

Stay well!

 

[terodac]

Get a new doctor! I would not care what he was looking at before results, the person in the next room! He apparently is over worked or not paying attention! I just would not even go there, get copies of your records and find a new one!

 

[catwoman]

Better yet, what's the chance that he wasn't looking at yours at all?

That was my first thought. Still is.......

 

[Jkm7]

Whoa.... this is heavy duty IMO

What a mix of emotions. Relief you are fine, afterall, but the stress and anguish you suffered needlessly has to really sting.

I'd need a really good heart to heart with this doctor before (s)he'd have my trust again. I certainly hope (s)he had the decency to acknowledge what you suffered because of his carelessness.

 

[MaryC]

Kris,
I would want to get a copy of that echo. That sounds wild! On my last echo in May I was standing behind the technician when she was typing the result. I was glad I did because when I received a call from my cardio's office I felt they glossed over the results. I set up an appointment with the cardiologist to discuss further.

Chris

 

[Alex B]

Based on echo's from the time I was 6 until 30 including 2 percutaneas balloon valvulplasty's the Dr.s alwasy thought I was bi-cuspid with ~ 50% the valve area, but during surgery the Dr. looked at the actual valve and saw that it was a mono-cuspid and the best valve area ever was probably around 40%, but for most of my adult life I was probably only at around 30%. Needless to say, echo's are not that percise. I personally have never had any other test other than echo/ekg, but keep that in mind it is not an exact science.

If you are a math person this will help you understand one of the reasons it's so hard. Using doppler to measure distance in a cross section gives you the diameter, but then you have to use pie-r^2 to get area, so this estimated diameter is divided in half and then squared to get the area. A tiny mistake in the distance is compounded immensely.

 

[DebbyA]

I'm so sorry you had to undergo all that stress and testing--but glad you now have additional evidence of how well you're doing.

When I had my first surgeon appointment, I felt he kind of rushed through it. Found out later that the cardiologist's office had sent a year-old echo.

Ottawagal--if you have had echos from the same practice, not just one, you can probably relax some. Also, the cath you will have before surgery will be more definitive.