About Me (In My Own Words)
I had been telling doctors for years my heart was noisy, took a long beat sometimes, that I had tachycardia 24/7. Not until it got noisier, I guess, was anyone interested. I ran long distances for years with tachycardia. Now that Bicuspid Aortic Valve and stenosis have been diagnosed, I wonder if 30 years' worth of extra heartbeats hastened my situation. (The tachycardia disappeared 10 or so years ago, oddly.)
Now I'm in the Severe Stenosis category, 72 years old, and over the last 6 months have begun to feel it. I've had a terrible cardiologist, then an okay one, and now I belong to the valve team, where I feel generally well taken care of, so far. I scored a perfect zero on the frailty scale, I'm almost done with the scans and MRIs, yesterday's angiogram was rescheduled for the 19th. I guess they don't think it's an emergency.
I'm pretty freaked out about all this, kind of mad it wasn't taken seriously a long time ago, and shocked that while I was told it would be a TAVR procedure by my cardiologist, he had no information to validate that. In my ignorance, I didn't ask more at the time. Now I'm told my age makes it a tricky decision: I'm too young to never need another valve if I get a tissue valve, and too old to ever want heart surgery in 10 years. I've no idea what will be decided, but I know I must have a new valve.
For now, I'm just putting one foot in front of the other, hoping I'm not damaging my heart with the work I do outdoors. Soon I'll be meeting with the valve team again, to discuss options if any, the relative merits of procedures and valve materials, etc. I find the choices an unnerving circumstance.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Cornelius, Oregon
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I was diagnosed with:
Aortic Stenosis
Bicuspid Aortic Valve
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My surgery was:
Aortic Valve Replacement
