News Feed For Patients With Heart Valve Disease

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Deena Z A technically competent ICU nurse is great and one that is additionally compassionate is extraordin ... Read more

Richard Munson Nice to see smiling faces

Aaron Bader You're looking great Kimberly! Wonderful to see!

And could not agree more about those amazing nurse... Read more

Melinda Donahue Hi !!! So happy to see you. You will get better a little each day. The ccu nurses are the very best. ... Read more

Fidel Martínez Ruiz "Face is the mirror of the soul" is said and you look great, Kim, I'm glad you are improving every d ... Read more

Adam Pick Kim, Great to see this!!! Step-by-step... No need to rush anything. Take it nice and easy.

Rose Madura Great picture. I had terrific nurses. Some more outstanding than others but all great. My fav was A ... Read more

Kimberly Eisenhut Thank you everyone. Definitely good hours and not so good ones, but figuring out right med routine is ... Read more

Richard Munson Thats what mothers are for. Home sweet home.

Rebecca Vaughan Wonderful to hear you are getting better day by day. So nice to be on the recovery side. Congratulati ... Read more

John Cook You’re looking great. Congratulations on getting to go home!

Melinda Donahue Speedy recovery. Love sent your way. So happy this
part is over.

Grace Mason You look great Kim. Welcome to the other side!!
You have a lot of wonderful people taking good car ... Read more

Pamela Gregory Soooo happy to see you looking so well! I'm sure it has been tough but you look amazing. So proud of... Read more

George Gardopee You look amazing. You remind me of the disaster recovery service whose advertising slogan is “Like ... Read more

Fidel Martínez Ruiz Hey Pamela, just when getting up in the morning here I´ve read your story. I had my mitral valve ... Read more

Pamela Rubino Hello Fidel,
I’m so glad you’re doing well after your valve replacement surgery. If I felt fi ... Read more

Thomas Brusstar Hi, Pamela. I agree with you that the low heart rate doesn't seem like a problem. Mine has always been kind of low, and at rest mine will still dip below 50.

The extreme fatigue seems like a bigger red flag.

I had a mitral valve repair in 2018. I had MVP that doctors could hear forever (first identified when I was 20), but it got worse and then it went "flail" with several broken chordae in 2017. After a slow diagnosis (a failing mitral valve can feel a lot like pneumonia -- shortness of breath, wet cough), I got a repair. My valve still doesn't leak much after 7 years, so my repair was great.

I think a few failed chordae just increase the stress on the remaining ones, and I think your cardiologist will agree that the risk of the valve going "flail" is not something you should take. You are still young (my age!) so you would recover perfectly from a valve repair, and then it would never need repair again. If you wait until more chordae break and you need surgery urgently, you will also be older and a weaker patient.

My MVP surgery involved basically resecting the middle leaflet of one side of the valve (very common), and it was the chordae to the leaflet they removed that were broken in the first place. So they didn't put any artificial chordae into my heart. Your surgeon might find that your broke chordae are also the ones to the floppy valve leaflet, so you don't need fake chordae.

So obviously I'm not your doctor, but you should definitely see a cardiologist. I wish I'd seen one earlier! (My primary care people were happy to give me antibiotics for pneumonia when I needed hear surgery!) My valve was such an obvious candidate for a textbook mitral repair that I saw a cardiologist for the first time, he looked at the external echo (trans-thoracic) and got me a meeting with the surgeon (who had a cancellation) an hour later, and the surgeon took one look and said I need to get on his calendar. He didn't need a trans-esophageal echo to diagnose this, and said it was just an easy one but needed doing sooner rather than later.

Your cardiologist might tell you to get ahead of this structural problem, which is now symptomatic for you (fatigue). I would just tell you the surgery is not as scary as it sounds, and you will be energized by how quickly you heal.

Pamela Rubino Hello Thomas,
Appreciate your detailed message. Very glad to hear that your repair was successful. From what I recall, I have 2 broken chordae (one on each valve). I’m not sure if they are completely torn or just stretched.

Fortunately, I do not have pulmonary hypertension, and I rarely get short of breath. The only time I might get short of breath is if I’m going up a very long flight of stairs. I’ve always lived an active lifestyle and stay fairly fit.

... Read more

Thomas Brusstar Oh, that's actually good that you do not have pulmonary hypertension. I now know that I had bad PH ... Read more

Fidel Martínez Ruiz Agreeing with Thomas, you look like being a candidate to a mitral repair. Wishing you the best!!

John Cook I think they generally don’t worry about bradycardia unless you have symptoms. I’ve been in the ... Read more

Pamela Rubino
i’m so sorry to hear that your husband has Covid. I just recovered from it. Managed to avoid ge ... Read more

Rebecca Vaughan Thank you so much, Pamela. I am sorry you had to go through it and glad you are feeling better. We wi ... Read more

Robert Miller Your husband will be in good hands with Dr. Castro. Another echo in 2 years seems a long time. As for ... Read more

Rebecca Vaughan Thank you so much, Robert. It is reassuring to know about Dr Castro. He is doing ok and will hopefull ... Read more

Kimberly Eisenhut I'd think as long as it's between 60-80 you're good. Reach out to your team or Dr . Don't ever feel y ... Read more

Melinda Donahue Glad you are back !!! I hope you have a great recovery.

John Cook Mine was a different valve, but I went from 50 - 70 pre-op to 60 - 90 post op for the first 4 weeks.< ... Read more

Kimberly Eisenhut My heart rate leaving hospital is in 80s and my normal is 50s-60s resting. They said at my follow up ... Read more

Melinda Donahue Mine is around 94 on metoprolol 12.5 am and pm. Doctor said heart rate is normal but wondering what y ... Read more

John Cook I started on 50mg of Carvedilol 2x/day and I’ve managed to get down to 12.5mg 2x/day. The odd thin ... Read more

Yumiko Ishida Mine was around 110 and I was told it is high normal and sent home without a beta blocker. 110 was ce ... Read more

Richard Munson Personally i would pick a hospital that had shorter wait period as long as they were equally capable ... Read more

John Cook I think you are right to be concerned. I would worry that if he waits too much longer, he’ll end u ... Read more

Sue Maize To me his gradient seems moderate but other markers like BP are high—-but important distinction, I ... Read more

Rose Madura Hi Heather and welcome. I'm sorry that your Dad needs an aortic valve replaced. His symptoms so soun ... Read more

Heather Stricker I can't thank you enough for the responses. I truly appreciate your time and this community! Thank yo ... Read more

Susan Lynn What a wonderful idea! You're amazing, Richard!

Ana Brusso So proud of you my hvs brother. The pictures will reach them I am sure. You said it, they fought for ... Read more

Marie Myers What a great thing to do!

Rose Madura How wonderful. Proud to know you, my friend.

Richard Munson I felt young in the lobby being a somewhat spry 83. For the moment anyway. Some of these folks have e ... Read more

Deena Z What a thoughtful gesture, Richard.
You just made two Veterans feel appreciated for their sacrific ... Read more

Kimberly Eisenhut Very nice of you Richard❤️ you have such a good heart.

Richard Munson Think of it this way kimberly, you got to join me because i had your key ring with me. Hope you are w ... Read more

Kimberly Eisenhut I have walked down hall and did steps to be able to go home. Thorecotomy is definitely extremely pain ... Read more

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