About Me (In My Own Words)
It might be that I owe my long and healthy life to Dr. Harvey Crystal, who was my primary-care physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Group for many years until he unexpectedly passed away in his 70's in 2011. He first noticed a "murmur" during a routine exam with a stethoscope, and set in motion the tests that diagnosed my congenital heart condition.
Not long after that, more than a decade ago, I felt a dull pain in my chest. Dr. Crystal - again with just a stethoscope - correctly diagnosed the infection in my defective aortic valve, and treated it easily with antibiotics. Had I not been under his care, I most likely would have done what I did in the past: I would have gone swimming, and tried to "swim through it," under the theory that a little exercise is good, and a hard workout is even better. Dr. Crystal headed off that horrible and potentially dangerous idea.
I remained safe and fit, thanks to the efforts of many people since then, and despite my bicuspid aortic valve and gradually enlarging ascending aorta. But a CT scan, performed in February 2013, showed that my aorta has enlarged to 5.2 cm. As was recommended in an article published by the American Heart Association, "Those with BAV [bicuspid aortic valve] should have elective surgical repair of the ascending aorta when it reaches >5.0 cm ... because ascending aortas associated with BAV have fast growth rates and tend to dissect and rupture at a young age."
I don't have obvious symptoms: I have been monitored so long, my first cardiologist has retired and, when my new one asked if I had any complaints, I noted that, in December 2011, in my age group in masters' swimming, in the short-course 200-meter backstroke, I ranked 8th in the world and I said, "It would be nice to beat that."
My surgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center was March 12, 2013. After a few setbacks in the first week after the surgery, I have begun a new stage of the process that Dr. Crystal began a couple decades back. I left the surgery - and, a week later, the hospital - with a mechanical aortic valve and a Dacron ascending aorta under a fresh and very ugly scar on my chest. Now it is my hope that I can recover so that I can resume working hard, as before and as soon as I can; and that I will begin the slow process of trying once again to swim fast.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Santa Monica, California
