Amy lou's Journal

Richard Munson  I had minimally invasive mitral valve repair in massachusetts in january. I believe i am doing very well to date in my recovery but i will receive my second post surgery echo in early september. I am 79 but a hearts a heart i think. I am on the treadmill every day. I am not that technical but in a nutshell i believe repair trumps replace and robotic/ minimal invasive beats
Sternum splitting if feasible. Its all about access and speed of recovery, the surgery itself is pretty much the same. Less invasive, faster recovery. If i said anything wrong here someone will correct me. I had zero symptoms so it sounds like you need to get busy. Good luck.

Amy lou Spangler  Thank you both so much. I feel my cardiologist now hasn't been taking me seriously and with my symptoms so bad I got a surgeon to agree to meet with me without a referral from them. I will definitely check out your stories. Its very helpful and calming to read others heart stories. Thank you all so much. I hope this surgeon will help me🙏

Susan Lynn  Amy - Welcome! I had minimally-invasive mitral valve surgery in 2017. I went into the hospital on a Friday morning and was out by lunch time on Monday. Every piece of the process was completely tolerable. You can do it! ❤

Tracy Fallu  Feel free to check out my story, I had mitral valve repair. The cardiac surgeons are incredibly talented at what they do.

Richard Munson  Personally i believe that you are your number one health advocate. You have to go into this thing feeling that the ball is in your court. The days of nodding in agreement with the doctor just because he is a doctor is over. You do your homework ahead of time, ask your questions, question the answers and get a couple of medical opinions. Sometimes they can be radically different. Unless you live in the boonies, there is always another qualified doctor to ask. I was lucky, my cardiologist and surgeon were in the same hospital. Even after 6 months i still ask them questions . And yes, you will be scared about heart surgery. We all were.

Richard Munson  Susan you were only in the hospital 3 days? I was in a week and had the same thing. What a baby i am. I cry when i get a splinter though.

Susan Lynn  Yes, Richard - I might have been running initially on adrenalin, but I honestly felt really good. I didn't have any pain, did a lot of walking, and couldn't believe that the waiting was worse than the procedure! I started back to working part-time from home the next day and actually never told anyone at work (and most of my friends) that I had heart surgery. They still don't know to this day. It's our secret! ❤

Richard Munson  Today is a huge day for me. A game changer. Making my first in person sales call since all the covid restrictions and my heart surgery combined. Yes, a mask is required but i am very excited. Zoom meetings don’t cut it for me.

Amy lou Spangler  Thank you all so much. 🤗Doing research and hearing others stories like yours has really incouraged me to get through this .Now that I think about it I haven't ever felt normal since I was in my early 20s I used to get dizzy short of breathe and Chest pain but I had a cardiologist tell me I was too young to have anything wrong and to go take ibuprofen. I'm going through similar situation with my cardiologist now. We saw the mitral valve leak and has to be at least moderate if not more regurgitation on the echo and all of my symptoms and they are acting like it's no big deal. Do they want me in Heart failure before we do anything???.. But I was able to make an appointment with a top surgeon in Indiana on my own without them. I will find out what the surgeon thinks Aug 26th..in the mean time do you all have any advice how to take Care of myself better. I get dizzy walking and pulse goes up really high so my dad and bf have been helping me alot. What are some things to look for to go to the ER. The beta blockers are helping pulse go down in my sleep I am still getting palpation and chest pain. Thank you all so much. I'm ready to see the surgeon now!