I Would Have Thought

So, 2 months have gone by and I haven’t posted a thing.

After my last post I spent a month researching the various possibilities. Who, where, how, what type of valve. I went and saw the cardiologist again and had another echocardiogram. No further deterioration but no improvement either.

Although I’d had several CT angiograms in the past, the cardiologist explained that, before they would embark on surgery to replace my valve, they would need to perform a conventional angiogram. I had that done 2 weeks ago. On the plus side it revealed that my coronary arteries were in a better condition than reported by the CT angiograms. It also showed a valve that was restricting the flow and also allowing blood to leak back into the heart. We discussed surgeons and I decided which surgeon I wanted and made an appointment to see him.

After a full discussion with the surgeon we agreed on the hospital, the method and the valve type.

The surgery will be in 2 days time.

Although I intended to write these notes contemporaneously, I really haven’t felt like doing so.

Let’s see how I feel after the surgery.

I’ve been told (3 days ago) that I’m going to need heart surgery. Apparently the main valve where the blood leaves my heart to go round my body doesn’t open fully, so it needs replacing. Not something I wanted to hear.

I have started to look into it. I’ve been told that there’s no immediate danger and I have time to consider options so I will be as thorough as I can. I am very fortunate in that my employer provides pretty full health insurance so I will be going privately. I assume that this will enable me to make choices about where and how the surgery is performed and, very importantly, who will be taking a knife (and a saw) to me.

My intention is to write a reasonably contemporaneous blog about it all – right the way through to recovery. Hopefully it will be useful to others.