...a little history

     I decided to write this because once I found out I may have to have my valve replaced, the first thing I did was start googling and searching out peoples stories and experiences.  I came across a lot of male points of view, which I appreciated reading, but I thought I could add to the mix my thoughts, feelings, fears and outcome.  I also thought this might be a great way to keep eveyone I love in touch with what is going on with me, the surgery and my recovery

    I will give you a little background for those who don't know me.  I am 43 (yes, I know, too young for this) years old.  I have 4 children ranging from 17 to 11 years old.  I just recently remarried to a wonderful guy who is the one who really pushed me to go to the cardiologist a month or so ago.  I have as real tendency to ignore and hope for the best.  Not a great quality......I'm aware.  I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve that has required me to be mindful and watch.

     In my teenage years I experienced a lot of tachycardia and that only got worse when I became pregnant in my late 20's.  I finally had catheter ablation in 2003 and that actually completely cured the tachycardia.  It has never happened again!  SO really my heart quieted down for a while and then in the fall of 2007, I started to not feel right.  I was having PVC's(new for me), I lost my breath alot and I lost my voice.  My cardiologist started me on a beta blocker....but honestly they made me feel worse.  He told me that they may just go away.  He did all the usual things...holter monitor, echo, stress test  and heart CT......My echo showed my aortic valve opening (AVA) was 1.6.  A normal one should be 3mm to 4mm.  So he called that moderate and sent me on my way. I had one morning that was pretty bad, enough to scare me and we went to the ER.  They saw all the PVC's and PAC's but really everything else was fine so I was not admitted.   He was right, the PVC's did finally stop within a month or so.

     My heart did not skip a beat or make a blimp until......