Heart Health UPDATE
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:29 am
First, let me thank you all for the thoughts and prayers yesterday. I know I was completely in the Lord's care but your intercession on my behalf was certainly felt. Absolutely no anxiety or nervousness was felt; complete peace of mind.
I was scheduled to have a TEE (transesophageal echocardiogram, not a TTE as mentioned before) and an angiogram yesterday. Got underway with the TEE around 8:00AM; the sedation was enough to cause me to fall asleep through most of it, but did wake up for the last few minutes. Was surprised by hearing the staff talking, but really can't remember what they were saying. No pain or discomfort. Whatever they gave me was good stuff!
After the TEE, the anesthetic was wearing off and they moved me to another room for the angiogram. I had requested using my wrist instead of leg to which the doctor agreed; they even shaved my right wrist in preparation. But before the procedure, there appeared to be some confusion/doubt within the staff about the results from my TEE. It appeared it did not indicate a large amount of failure from my heart valve after all as the earlier echocardiogram indicated. They asked me a couple times whether I displayed symptoms known to valve failure (exhaustion, shortness of breath, etc.) which I had not had. Finally, the head cardiologist talked with me and said he didn't like to do procedures if not required. He surmised that what I'll need at some point in the future will be a valve repair, not a replacement. He waived the angiogram and told me that when I come in later for the valve repair, they'll do the angiogram then.
We have another appointment Friday to discuss these findings, so will wait until then for confirmation, but at this point, it appears surgery is "off the table" and we're all in a wait-and-see mode. Needless to say, Robyn and I were very grateful to the Lord for His blessing in this.
I will follow up on Friday with comments from our consult meeting with the cardiologist, but want to thank you all again. I'm humbled and grateful for each of you.
I was scheduled to have a TEE (transesophageal echocardiogram, not a TTE as mentioned before) and an angiogram yesterday. Got underway with the TEE around 8:00AM; the sedation was enough to cause me to fall asleep through most of it, but did wake up for the last few minutes. Was surprised by hearing the staff talking, but really can't remember what they were saying. No pain or discomfort. Whatever they gave me was good stuff!
After the TEE, the anesthetic was wearing off and they moved me to another room for the angiogram. I had requested using my wrist instead of leg to which the doctor agreed; they even shaved my right wrist in preparation. But before the procedure, there appeared to be some confusion/doubt within the staff about the results from my TEE. It appeared it did not indicate a large amount of failure from my heart valve after all as the earlier echocardiogram indicated. They asked me a couple times whether I displayed symptoms known to valve failure (exhaustion, shortness of breath, etc.) which I had not had. Finally, the head cardiologist talked with me and said he didn't like to do procedures if not required. He surmised that what I'll need at some point in the future will be a valve repair, not a replacement. He waived the angiogram and told me that when I come in later for the valve repair, they'll do the angiogram then.
We have another appointment Friday to discuss these findings, so will wait until then for confirmation, but at this point, it appears surgery is "off the table" and we're all in a wait-and-see mode. Needless to say, Robyn and I were very grateful to the Lord for His blessing in this.
I will follow up on Friday with comments from our consult meeting with the cardiologist, but want to thank you all again. I'm humbled and grateful for each of you.
