About Me (In My Own Words)
The person affected is my wife Lisa. She underwent a minimally invasive procedure which succeeded in repairing her mitral valve but has recently led to tachycardia.
After surgery, the ICU staff had problems managing her blood pressure and pulse, which were quite low. Among other things, they put her on intravenous dopamine, which caused her heart rate to spoke over 150. Fortunately, removing the dopamine reversed the effects. However, her BP and pulse remained too low until they put her on Theodur, which did increase her BP and rate sufficient for hospital release.
A week ago, after ending Theodur and successfully treating a spike in fever with two courses of antibiotics, her heart rate has risen and is now consistently hovering around 103. Her blood work showed no indication of infection and her latest echocardiagram looks good.
I've read that elevated heart rate is not uncommon after surgery but can be a risk factor for valve repair failure so we have just began a very low dose beta blocker, which has reduced her rate to the mid-90s without compromising her BP.
We'll continue experimenting to determine the optimal beta blocker dose (which we started at a lower dose than prescribed since she always has extreme reactions to medications).
I'd very much appreciate information or resources anyone can share about post-surgical tachycardia after valve repair. In the meantime, we're changing cardiologists. Dr. Daniel Klee of Valley Heart Associates has been completely negligent with respect to post-surgical follow-up. Earliest appointment offered was more than two months after hospital release despite reported complications and when we insisted were pawned off on a temporary stand-in who knew nothing about the case and offered no suggestions re heart rate.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Gilbert
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My surgery date is:
July 19, 2017
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I was diagnosed with:
Mitral Regurgitation
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My surgery was:
Mitral Valve Repair
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My surgeon is:
Dr. Robert Riley
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My hospital is:
HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center
