Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today was a big day! I had to do a test in the morning from a possible complication from my last round of tests. The good news is that everything came back good on that and no concerns going forward. That was a huge relief.

Then Rob and I met with the surgeon in the afternoon. It was a good meeting with a lot of overwhelming information to say the least. We are still digesting everything, but in the end we felt comfortable enough to go ahead and schedule surgery with him.

So, we are all set for Valentine's Day! I know this may sound crazy, but I was really excited about getting it scheduled for this day. As much as I am dreading the whole experience, I am looking forward to being able to commemorate this day afterwards and use Valentine's Day as a way to celebrate my healthy heart year after year.

So we now have a date and are starting to work towards it and make our plans.

Snow Delay

We were supposed to meet with the surgeon today, but wouldn't you know it...we had our first snow storm of the year and everything came to a screeching halt. It was a fun day playing in the snow with the kiddos in between work meetings, but alas, now we have to wait and see when we can get the appointment rescheduled.

It's not a huge deal given I have time to do this. Just annoying as I'm anxious to learn more and set a date so we can have a final plan. But since we can't, I'll just go out and play in the snow. I love living in a place that shuts down a few times a year for snow. It's a great excuse to pause your life and just play without any other worries.

Valve Job - To Repair or Replace?

Rob and I have been joking about my need for a "valve job." The biggest question we were waiting to answer was whether the valve would be repaired or if it needed to be replaced.

To answer that question and ensure I was ready for surgery, I had 2 final tests done today. One was a Transesophageal Echocardiogram (TEE) to get a better picture of my mitral valve and the other was a heart catheter to make sure the rest of the heart looked good and there wouldn't be any other surprises come surgery time.

After a ridiculously early morning and then 6 hours in the hospital, we got the answer we were hoping for... The valve does indeed look repairable and other than the wimpy valve, my heart looks great! This is wonderful news because a replacement comes with many more potential complications for the rest of my life. With a repair, I have hopes of not having to deal with anything significant again after the surgery. I'm super happy to say the very least.

Next stop on the journey is a meeting with the potential surgeon on Wednesday afternoon. With that we'll have more information and be another step closer to the final plan.

Good day!

The Heart Journey Begins

How in the world did I go from a doctor saying to me, “You have the most boring medical history!” to preparing for heart surgery in less than a year??

I’m not sure how that happened, but it did. And my happy and boring medical history is officially out the window.

In a routine physical early last year where I just wanted to meet a doctor and have someone to go see when I got sick later, I found out I had a heart murmur that might be something. I had been told that by doctors before, but it would go away and I never felt any symptoms. I didn’t think I had symptoms this time either. Little did I know, I was actually having symptoms that I just kept dismissing them as I just needed to work out more and get into better shape.

Many tests and a visit to a Cardiologist later, I found out I had Mitral Valve Prolapse with moderate-to-severe regurgitation. I was told I could control it with medicine for now, but I would likely have to have surgery to fix it one day. And that one day could be in a month, 6 months, a year or 10 years and that there was no predicting how long that would be so I should just go on living my happy life.

So I starting taking a bunch of meds and visiting my Cardiologist every month. And I gave up caffeine. Now, this would have been fairly easy for me years ago, except I now work at Starbucks! You can’t turn around without being offered a tasting of the latest and greatest offering. But I’ve managed to avoid most of it without offending too many people along the way.

And the rest of the year was great! And I felt like a hero when I told my Cardiologist that I did a triathlon this summer! And everything was good! And I was even told I could stop my monthly appointments… unless something changed.

Wouldn’t you know it, about 6 weeks later, something changed. And my first thought on that change was again, “I feel so out of shape, maybe I need to start exercising more…” I quickly realized this time though, I wasn’t out of shape. I was indeed feeling new heart symptoms.

So I starting paying attention to them, but didn’t tell anyone for a little while. Especially not Rob because he would make me call my doctor. And calling my doctor would make it real again, and I wasn’t ready for it to be real again. I was happy being a healthy person without any worries.

But eventually, I had to admit it. So I casually mentioned it to Rob while in the kitchen one day. And I said it was no big deal, and maybe I would call my doctor in a few weeks, after the new year. And of course, he insisted I call him immediately and wouldn’t let me off the hook until I did.

So, I did. And now, here we are. Many tests later and confirmation of the “unknown length of time until we need to fix this valve” has come. It wasn’t the 10 years I had hoped it would be, but it wasn’t a month either.

Let the journey officially begin...