Good News Is Always Great

The human body is a miracle. When one thinks about the inner workings that keep us breathing and alive, it is too much to comprehend. I have always had a heart murmur. About two years ago I had an echo done on my heart and at the time they felt that maybe I had, at one time as a child, had rheumatic fever. I asked my mother if I had ever been diagnosed with it and her answer was no.

When my mother became ill and was diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis, her surgeon told us children that we all needed to have a baseline echo done on our hearts because the condition was genetic. I took my baseline that had been done a year earlier to him and he looked at it and said, "You do have aortic valve stenosis but it is mild, so you will need to have a cardiologist follow it and have the echo repeated yearly. Your aortic valve will need to be replaced in the future."

In August, I visited my doctor for my annual exam and he told me that my murmur was worse. He repeated the Echo and it showed some progression in the calcification and recommended that I repeat the Echo in 6 months. The blood flow over the valve was at 1.3.

I started to experience some swelling in my legs last month and my doc ordered another Echo. It showed the blood flow was at 1.1 and in some views less than one. My internist explained to me that when the flow is at 1, they replace the valve. I was terrified. I had seen my mother go through this surgery and pass away 7 weeks later. Granted she was 83, and I do know that it was the Lord's plan but the prospect of the surgery and its risks still frightens me. He referred me to a cardiologist.

Scott went with me to the cardiologist and he had not had the chance to see the echo. He asked me how I was feeling. Was I short of breath? No! Was my energy level good? Great! He explained that my heart has been compensating very well for 51 years for this defect. Eventually it will not compensate. Most patients with this defect have their valves replaced in their thirties. I had gone 20 years longer than that. Knowing that I will have to have the valve replaced in the future, he scheduled an appointment for us to come back after he had seen the echo so he could make an informed, educated decision.

Yesterday, we went back and he said, "Your echo shows that it is in the moderate/severe line. I think with you feeling well, we're going to walk a fine line as to when this needs to be done and we can buy some time." The good news is...I don't need to come back until August and they will repeat the Echo. I am more than happy to take it 6 months at a time.

I am grateful for the miracle of modern medicine. I am grateful for knowing in advance what to watch for. I am grateful that my children will be able to be tested and they will know if this is something they have to watch for. As for being terrified of the surgery? Yes. I can't control that I was born with a bad valve, but I can control the type of health I will be in when this needs to be taken care of and who knows...maybe we can buy 6 months at a time until I am 83.