Rachel's Profile

Hi I'm Rachel, I'm 34. I have had my aortic valve replaced twice, here's my story...I promise to expand more soon! I was born with aortic stenosis. They realised I had it after they detected a heart murmur when I had a school check up at the age of five. All was well, I couldn't do cross country running and wasn't allowed to eat sweets/candy so to look after my teeth, but all was pretty normal. Then, in 2000, after five months of being ill and getting increasingly worse, I was diagnosed with the serious heart infection, endocarditis. This turned my life upside down. By this time I had lost a lot of weight, was very ill and was in a dangerous situation. After weeks of IV antibiotics, they killed the infection. Sadly my heart valve and various parts of my heart had been heavily damaged and I had to have my aortic valve replaced within 8 weeks of first admission. Valve was replaced, various parts (walls etc) were repaired and it was a huge success! My surgeon and his team were my heroes. I chose to have a tissue valve, pig tissue. This was so that having children would be easier, as I wouldn't be on anti-coagulants. I was told the valve would last ten to fifteen years. Well it lasted ten years seven months. I lived life to the full and wore it out :o) I knew things were not right. I was growing tired, thing became more difficult and finally I began with full-time palpitations. They didn't stop for two months, not pleasant. I was finally brought in and it was decided that I needed to be operated on right away. I then had my second aortic valve replacement on the 11th July 2011 and I'm now recovering nicely! Again I had a tissue valve, as I had not yet had children. Next time it will have to be a mechanical valve! I'm only 31, so I hope I can help any younger or older patients face fears, talk though issues and thoughts... I've been through it twice and will have to go through it again, so I hope I can use my experiences to help others! I didn't heal as well as can be expected at my incision site, and I developed an incisional hernia! I am having surgery today to have my hernia fixed! More coming soon!