Brian Leonard - Heart Valve Journal

My Journal

108 days ago

Has anyone had a Branch Retinal Ocular Occlusion since receiving their valve? I recently had one it's basically an "eye stroke" I only lost a tiny bit of peripheral ...Read more

Has anyone had a Branch Retinal Ocular Occlusion since receiving their valve? I recently had one it's basically an "eye stroke" I only lost a tiny bit of peripheral vision but wonder what is coming next? Was told that mechanical valves shed tiny particles of plaque?

Ann T Sorry to hear that! I have a mechanical valve, and I had a small stroke in October. They suspected th ... Read more

Ann T Sorry to hear that! I have a mechanical valve, and I had a small stroke in October. They suspected that it was because I was on a very small dose of Coumadin that needed increased (Clot broke off of valve). My coumadin range has since been increased to 3 to 3.5 when it was 1.5 to 2. 5. I'm really hoping that is what was needed, and it solved things. Are you on Coumadin?

Brian Leonard Thanks for the reply - yes I am on Coumadin and have been having some trouble staying in range - get ... Read more

Brian Leonard Thanks for the reply - yes I am on Coumadin and have been having some trouble staying in range - getting readings of 1.3 several times when my range is supposed to be 1.5-2.5 - Ill probably need to raise that to where you are - somehow I dont feel like that is the issue though - I could be wrong and will be talking to my cardiologist - how bad was your "small stoke?" you know you are in the game when strokes are small - lol

Ann T Yep definitely in the game lol. I got a tingling sensation down one arm for a couple of seconds and t ... Read more

Ann T Yep definitely in the game lol. I got a tingling sensation down one arm for a couple of seconds and then could not speak correctly for about 24 hours. I'm just glad it wasn't worse, and I was able to recover from that. I also have episodes every once and a while where my vision goes blurry for a couple of seconds too, but that has happened ever since my surgery, and I have had a lot of work up about that and never really got any answers except it seems to have to do with blood flow. Seeing the comment about shedding particles makes me wonder about that.