Ben's Profile

I was diagnosed with Ebstein's Anomaly at birth, and lived pretty normally. I was always told I would need surgery at some point to replace my valve, but it was always a wait until it gets worse scenario. In my early 20's I started experiencing tachycardia, infrequently at first, then increasing in frequency to at least once a month when I was 37-38. At age 38 I had a cryoablation done, which has been successful to date. I've always been pretty active, but started focusing a lot more on physical fitness after the ablation. In 2019 I went for a run with a group of folks and at half way through the run I started dropping back in the pack, then was at the tail end, then was walking. No palpitations or anything, I just couldn't move any faster than a walk. After that, I didn't have the energy to work out for 3 days. I chalked it up to coming off a rest week, just getting over a cold, and running with a group of folks half my age, but did tell my cardiologist about it at my next appointment, which was about a month later. He ordered a stress test and MRI, and after some fighting with my insurance company and some scheduling issues, I finally got it done in January. In the interim I had another run that kicked my butt more than usual, but all my other running was normal. My stress test was fantastic, went longer than my previous stress test (10:03 vs 11:28), and performed at over 100% of expected. But... The MRI showed that the right side of my heart was larger, and the regurgitation was much worse than my previous MRI. My cardiologist said this put me at a 2A for surgery recommendation, I.e. it is more beneficial to have surgery than to wait for things to get worse. I got a referral to a heart surgeon, with a recommendation from my cardiologist to have a cone procedure done on my tricuspid valve, reduce the size of the right side of my heart, and likely a MAZE procedure due to my past history with arrhythmia. At my cardiology group, cases for surgery are presented to a surgery team/board who review the case and make a recommendation for surgery or not. My case gets presented on 2/25, and the surgeon's assistant will call me that afternoon to schedule an EP study (for the MAZE procedure), a TEE, and a consult with the surgeon. I'm 41 now, and really didn't think I'd have heart surgery at this age.