About Me (In My Own Words)
30yo asian female from Singapore who was previously healthy with no medical history, now living with a tissue tricuspid valve and a pacemaker.
Sudden fever that did not subside despite taking paracetamol/ibuprofen and it aggravated to high fever.
Went to hospital and was diagnosed with tricuspid valve infective endocarditis (fyi, the majority of tricuspid valve infective endocarditis is associated with intravenous drug use, but I’m NOT). Doctors are as baffled as I am. Transthoracic echocardiogram showed moderate tricuspid valve regurgitation and a 7.7mm vegetation on my tricuspid septal leaflet.
The infective endocarditis had also led to endogenous endophthalmitis in my left eye. Almost had to undergo eye surgery too but fortunately the intravitreal antibiotic injections worked (and my eye condition improved greatly after the heart valve surgery).
Was on 4 hourly IV penicillin antibiotics daily throughout my entire five weeks stay in hospital, each session lasted for an hour.
Scheduled for tricuspid valve repair/replacement surgery the following week but was down with high fever during surgery week so it had to be postponed for another week.
During surgery, transesophageal echocardiogram showed not one but three vegetations on my tricuspid valve (3mm on septal leaflet, 2mm on anterior leaflet, 10mm on posterior leaflet). Surgeon tried repairing my valve but there was moderately severe regurgitation even after the excision of all vegetations so he proceeded to replace my tricuspid valve.
Was in the ICU/HD for a week as I had severe bradycardia due to a complete heart block. Eventually implanted a permanent pacemaker one week after my heart valve surgery. Spent another week recovering in the normal ward before I was discharged.
Full recount on FB
https://www.facebook.com/100013421040893/posts/1216765295447494/
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Singapore, Singapore
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My surgery date is:
April 8, 2021
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I was diagnosed with:
Tricuspid Regurgitation
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My surgery was:
Tricuspid Valve Replacement
Pacemaker Implant