Mike's Heart Valve Journal

Well I don’t have a date planned yet but got myself a brand new comfy electric recliner for post surgery. $250 is a steal of a deal. It is perfect for the time that I need it. Vacation starts tomorrow but have everything ready and planned for post surge

Coming To Terms!!

So it has been about 1 month since I decided to take an elective Echo to see how everything inside my heart was doing. I remember being born with a heart murmur and always told it will go away as you get older no need to worry about it. Well that was not true at all. Maybe that is why so many people that have our condition and never catch it till its too late are also being told. I have always been a healthy guy. Working out 5 days a week weight lifting, Cardio, and plenty of recreational sports. Never had a symptom of any kind and always feeling like I was still 20 years old.

Well the echo came back with a Bicuspid valve and an ascending aneurysm in my aorta. Then Mr. Google came to be my best friend or worst enemy when searching health stuff. Everything seems to either end in sudden death or sometime of cancer. But we still search it hoping to find the answer to our questions in life. For the next two weeks I began living in a life of panic and anxiety. Thinking I was just going to drop dead any second. Wondering and scared about everything I did. Losing sleep because I just wanted to wake up as much as possible and make sure that I was still alive. Bad dreams and also waking up worrying every single second about my heart and laying in the dark thinking when is the final beat going to happen. Then the tests started to be requested for me. My poor vein has had a needle stuck in it more this last month than in my total of 39 years of life. Everyday and thing a different experience from CT scans to MRA's to you name it (sure you all know all these tests). Finally got the chance to meet with a cardiologist. He made me feel 10x's better than I have felt in the past few weeks and also now I had a person I was able to email and ask questions to. After his appointment he told me to meet with a surgeon and discuss with him what he thinks. That meeting went a lot different from the making me feel better session I just had 5 days prior. I walked out again from the surgeon feeling doom was on my horizon again and there went my sleep again. But there is one thing he did that changed my story. He told me to come and check out this website that I am on today. He said there is a lot of information out there and it would be helpful to me in my journey. I started out just searching the site and reading some stories of people. Then I said what the hell lets just join and start talking about this with others.

Now 1 week later and after joining this site my entire perspective on this situation has changed. I see hope and restoration. Not feeling I am the only one out there with this. Listening to the stories similar to mine and even some much much different. Engaging with people that are here also for support and strength. Since then my attitude has changed. I have been able to get back to sleeping at night. Making lifestyle changes especially to my diet as I am eating more heart healthy. My exercise had to change but I am still doing it. Going to the gym and not working out so hard but still getting in my exercise. I am feeling happy again and more than ready to take on this bump in the road and move forward. And I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you on here since you are the reason I am back to feeling as normal as I can. Finding the hope and living in the faith of God you all have shared. Just keep up the good fight as we will all make it through these tough times together. Thank you for reading and God Bless!!

Deuteronomy 31:8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

Psalm 34:17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.

Another day in Minnesota as we got a few inches of snow. Quite the snowy winter this year. Thank God for good friends and neighbors to help me shovel out of this. 9 more days and off to Florida we go for two weeks. Hoping the snow is gone once we get back

Today I am having a high anxiety type of day. Trying to stay positive but worried all the time. Next meeting with a doctor is not till April 4th. Sucks I can’t get out of my own head sometimes thinking the worst will always happen to me. Meeting some friends maybe having some social time and a beer will calm down.

I have my first ever CT Chest Scan today. Quite the different experience taking all these tests that I have. I have never been through anything like this in my life. I am glad that they tell you what to expect before they do it since that contrast made me feel so weird and warm. I think I am going to get lucky enough to miss out on an angiogram or at least that is what I hope. One thing I was wondering was anyone told to stop exercising after they found out that they had these conditions? I have been told by my cardiologist and surgeon that I can keep exercising just nothing that is strenuous. This is hard for me as I have been lifting weights and doing cardio now 5 days a week for the last 12 years. I also play volleyball on Wednesdays in one league that I am in. I have moved on to light weights and cut the hard cardio down to keeping my heart rate between 115 - 125. I have a great resting at heart rate between 52 - 58 so that helps with some of these tests. Do you think I should continue working out as I do and will it help with my recovery when i have surgery? I know I read somewhere that Rob had stopped doing his exercise because he was worried. 12 more days till vacation in Florida so hopefully I can get away and have some time to relax and get my mind of this stuff. Also I need to get away from all this cold and snow up here.

Happy Wednesday to you all again. I have only been on this community for 1 day and I feel like I spend a lot of time out here reading everyone's stories. In ways I feel like I get excited to go and have it done since everyone has amazing stories to tell. I know the recovery to be 100% is long but it seems like getting back to doing some normal things in life can be pretty quick. I know I have only known of my issue for a short time I still feel anxious to get things going. I don't like living in the fear of having problems. Right now I am stuck in a spot of how I want to choose my surgeon. I have done a lot of research on the procedures and I have also done extensive research into the surgeon I met. He has outstanding reviews and everyone has seemed to have had great outcomes from the surgery. Then I think I want to wait and at least have a chance to talk to the doctors at the Mayo Clinic because I know that hospital does tons of these every year and is well known for how great they are. I am looking at doing my surgery at the end of April since we have a family spring break planned coming and the doctor said I am still good to wait off till then. We get back from vacation 4/2 and then I have an appointment with the Mayo on 4/4. Do you think I should just stick with the surgeon I met or wait to meet with the Mayo. I do not want to push this off but my surgery would not be scheduled till middle of April anyways. So I was not sure how quickly I can get one scheduled after I get back. I am not a patient person so I know something is wrong and I need it fixed I want to go immediately. But I also want to go to the best hospital I can. The other thing is the Mayo is 30 minutes further away from my house and I don't want my family to have to drive so much when they want to come see me. Either they drive 30 minutes to see me or 1 hour. I know I am overthinking this all because that is what I do as I let things consume me. Thanks for reading and also all your excellent posts that help calm the fears of my recovery. I am looking forward to get on that road to recovery ASAP!!

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Helen Keller

I was born with a heart murmur and all my life I was told by people that it would go away and nothing to worry about. My dad passed away at 47 from heart issues and I am reaching 40 this year. I recently thought that I would go and get an echo to see how my heart was doing and then setup to meet a cardiologist on how to manage my heart for the future. Well the echo came back with possible bicuspid valve and an aneurysm. I started doing some research and got myself almost to a panic attack. I finally pressured the cardiologist to get me in for an MRA to see how everything measured since the numbers were high in my echo. The MRA did reveal that I am bicuspid and have an aneurysm but not as big was initially shown in the echo. I finally met with a surgeon on 3/4/2019 and he wants me to get surgery in April. Everything has come so fast for me and I have not really had a chance to process this. I am also going to go to the Mayo Clinic to get a second opinion and also talk to their surgeons. I did some research and Mayo is 2nd in these surgeries next to Cleveland and they are one of the best in the world so I am hoping to get in there to have my surgery. Thanks for taking time to read my story and maybe help me through this journey.