Week 3
How a bad mitral valve disrupted my healthy lifestyle.
Fortunately for me, week 3 was much better than week 2. The day after I was released from the hospital I had an appointment with my local medical team to go over the options of how they want to help me. The cardiologist came in first and he was really positive. He told me this repair was like “bread and butter”. He said there was no reason to go to a big city, or a teaching hospital where an apprentice would be doing the repair. He felt there was a 90% chance my valve could be repaired. He was then followed by the surgeon. I felt really comfortable with the surgeon. He has over 20 years experience and has repaired 100’s of valves. He said he was repairing 3 next week. He hesitated to call it a “bread and butter” procedure, but he did feel 90 to 95% chance of successful repair. He also recommended against a mechanical valve, if a replacement was necessary. He said bioengineered valves have gotten better and would last 15 to 20 years. He also said at that point if it started to fail, they could use a clip at that point to give me more quality years. Overall, I felt much better about having the procedure done locally and as I left the meeting, they said they would call within 48 hours to set up the surgery.
The next day, I had an appointment for an echocardiogram with Northwestern Medicine. I had called Northwestern for a second opinion. They were the top cardiac hospital in my area and the top surgeon, Dr. McCarthy, has performed thousands of successful repairs. When I first contacted them they told me the first available meeting with Dr. McCarthy wasn’t until June 10th. This was 2 weeks after my echocardiogram, so I was not hopeful that I would be able to get a surgery scheduled in a timely manner. Especially with my local team calling in 48 hours. Northwestern had access to all my local tests, but they said they needed a more detailed image that measured “strain” of maybe “force” and that my local procedure did not do that.
The following day, while waiting for my local team to call, Northwestern called and they said, “We can get you in with Dr. McCarthy in just over a week.” At first I couldn’t believe it. This was the best place to go, right up there with Cleveland Clinic, etc. Then I got a little worried. A lot of people wait over a month for these surgeries, how bad was my condition?? They simply said that while my heart is fully functioning, they were concerned with my enlarged left ventricle and it was simply time to get it fixed. I agreed, accepted the appointment, and thanked my good fortune.
I will say that I felt much better this week. I was getting more sleep and my anxiety had gone way down. There were still moments. Thinking about having to make it over a week without another episode of Afib was scary, as are the potential side effects of this new medication amiodarone. However the medication has really given my heart a rest with a resting BP in the low 60’s. (less than half of the 140 I was suffering during afib.). And I can’t feel the palpatations/regurgitation that I felt prior to taking the medicine. It is my hope that my last 48 hours in afib contributed to the dialated ventricle noticed in the 2nd echocardiogram and that this week of a restful rhythm has helped my heart to relax a bit before the surgery. I have 1 week to go before surgery, so I will detail that in week 4.