Ashley's Profile

I'm 33 years old and recently moved to the LA area after almost a decade in San Francisco. Just 3 months before moving, my endocrinologist found a murmur and sent me to get an echocardiogram at the hospital across from his office; the diagnosis came back as Mitral Valve Prolapse. I wasn't too concerned: my mother had MVP and had been doing just fine with it all her life! But two weeks after moving into our new lovely house in the South Bay, I finally had my heart examined by a cardiologist. That was nearly 5 months ago and I'm still reeling from the shock that what I thought was just a 'minor murmur' turned out, in fact, to be an enlarged and very leaky heart: I had severe mitral regurgitation. And I needed to get it fixed. Soon. Several echocardiograms, a MUGA exam, numerous blood tests, a chest xray and multiple adjustments to my thyroid medication later, I'm now preparing to have heart surgery on April 20th at USC hospital in downtown Los Angeles.