Jill's Profile

I actually started following this site over 10 years ago, but it has taken me until now to finally decide to post. Over the years, I have learned so much from this community and those that were willing to share their stories, so I thought it was time that I pass it on so that others might benefit from my experience as well. A little background on me…. In February 2011, I was diagnosed with endocarditis. I had been sick for about a month with flu-like symptoms and all tests continued to come back negative. After weeks with a diagnosis of "fever of unknown origin" and symptoms that progressively worsened, it was discovered that bacteria had somehow entered my bloodstream and had gone to my mitral valve. Weeks of IV antibiotics finally cleared the infection, but I was left with "mild to moderate" mitral regurgitation. Over the past 10 years, I had been monitored with regular echos and although I continued to feel pretty great, the leaking slowly progressed. For the last couple of years, my regurgitation had become "severe", but I remained asymptomatic with no structural changes to my heart. At my regular appointment in March of this year, my LV and LA had started to dilate and so the surgeon said it was time to fix the valve. I'm scheduled for robotic mitral valve repair on June 9th with Dr. Robert Smith II at Baylor Scott & White Heart Hospital in Plano, Texas. Pre-admissions testing is schedule for this coming Monday and so the journey officially begins. I'll do my best to update on my progress over the next few weeks!