To have surgery or not? that is the question...

Hello everyone. My name is Andrew, I am 33 and from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. The question I would like some help answering is when is the best time to have valve replacement surgery?

I was diagnosed with leaking Aortic Valve at the end of January 2009. My family and I had been to stay with my wifes sister and her Husband over the Christmas Holidays and during our stay with them I felt some pains in my chest. I didn't think much of it, however they continued upon our return home. We were going through a stressfull time money wise and I put the pains down to the stress. One paticular evening I could feel the pain and it felt to be moving and through my left shoulder so my wife insisted I spoke to NHS Direct. They advised me to go straight to A&E where an over night stay, an ECG and a chest x-ray revealed that my heart was enlarged. I was sent for an echo which revealed the leak.Since then I have been under the care of a cardiologist and have bianual echo's and consultation's. From the first consultation I was told that at some point I would have to have the valve replaced.

I have become quite a keen cyclist over the last year and have lost a lot of weight and feel as fit as ever. I only very rarely get the pain which is very mild when I do feel it, so I was quite shocked when I attended my appointment last Friday and the registrar asked me how I felt about surgery. Shocked was the honest answer as I said I feel great. I told the registrar that while I wasn't having any symptoms then i would prefer not to have surgery yet, but he advised that risks were minimised while I am not suffering any symptoms. We agreed that I would make another appointment in 6 months as usual but I have not thought about much else since.

I have found the posts on this web site very informative about what happens post op but just wondered if there were any other members out there who were asked about surgery while they felt no symptoms?

Look forward to hearing from you:-)