Introducing myself

Hello all

My name is Sue and yesterday was my sixth 'birthday' when I had my mitral and aortic valves replaced with nice ATS valves.  I suppose though I am really 63.

There was nothing wrong with my heart until I had lithotripsy to break up some kidney stones, during one of the sessions the machine had been recalibrated and was much stronger than the other sessions that I had, twelve days later I became unwell.  I didn't realise it at the time but it was the start of endocarditis.

After an initial illness when I felt like death warmed up I remained feeling under par for the next few months.  Then I had a stroke and once in hospital they realised that I had some infection, they just didn't know where or what.  Three days later I had rigors again, I had them initially too, the consultant came to me immediately then organised an echo, he returned and said it was endocarditis.  What had happened is that the vegetation had broken off and caused the stroke.  The infection flared up again presumably from the broken vegetation as I then developed a heart murmer which quickly got worse and I was airlifted from Jersey to the UK and spent the next few weeks in hospital in London - good old NHS.

I was sent back to Jersey once the endocarditis had been cleared to see how I got on, then a short time later I was sent back to London for an angiogram then was told I needed surgery within a couple of weeks.  As I had BUPA I opted to go private and that meant that I had surgery three weeks later - on the NHS it would have been within two weeks.  Private isn't always faster, the surgeon only had one private session each week, in the NHS he would have operated several days each week.

Here I am, six years later, still very much alive and in good health.  Having the stroke saved my life, without the stroke I would have continued struggling on feeling unwell and presumably I wouldn't have lasted too long with the vegetation growing unchecked.

Incidently, ATS valves are very quiet, I cannot hear them most of the time and no one else ever hears them, only my GP who is fascinated.  :)

I see my GP every three months and he monitors me then the consultant cardiologist sees me annually after I have my annual echo and ECG.  The hospital dental consultant takes care of my teeth, I am no longer permitted to visit my old dentist.  I attend the warfarin clinic at our hospital and normally go every two or three weeks alhough when completely stable it can stretch  to several months, but is normally three weekly.  I am extremely well cared for, all for free other than my GP, those are all private in Jersey, and expensive.