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csziggy

(34,189 posts)
Thu Jun 6, 2024, 05:58 PM Jun 2024

Saw my cardiologist today and got news and bad news - and good news [View all]

The back story - Last December I had an echo cardiogram which had my doctor send me for a CT scan. They found a thrombus (aka clot) on my aortic valve - which had been replaced via TAVR (TransArterial Valve Replacement) in 2017. So they put me on warfarin to dissolve the clot.

The night of January 5, I couldn't breath when I laid down to go to sleep. My husband headed us towards the hospital but on the way we stopped at the local fire station and they called an ambulance. I passed out before it got there. I woke up in the hospital the next day, intubated and doped up. Spent four days total there.

While there, to cardiothoracic surgeon who oversaw my TAVR stopped by. He told me about 10-15% of TAVR patients get clots. If the clots don't respond to warfarin, they have to do open heart surgery since they can't take the chance of breaking the clot loose which could cause havoc somewhere else in the system. Goody.

Yesterday I got another echo cardiogram. Today was the followup to all of that. The good news is that the clot is gone. The bad news is that the aortic valve is no longer working right and leaking so I am back to where I was before they replaced it.

The other good news is that they can do another TAVR and put in a new aortic valve! But I have to get additional tests before that can happen. So I am not sure when anything is happening.

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