Check Up

Visiting surgeon for the first time since the BIG CUT

Had my first follow-up visit with the surgeon. It's been three months since my surgery. The bottom-line? "Good, good, good" ... those were his words.

However, things are not 100% perfect. I guess I'll never have the heart of a 30 year old again (ha).

There is still a small leak from the mitral valve. They did tell me this after the surgery. I knew about it when I left the hospital. My question to him was about the long-term prospects for my heart given that the valve is continuing to leak. He said, first, it was a minor leak, whereas before it was a real gusher. Second, when they checked after the surgery and found it was still leaking a bit, his judgement was that going back in to try to fix it would have the potential to cause further damage and weakness and be harder on me and the valve than if they just left it. Third, he said I was a "young man" (ha). He implied, I think, that I'm not in any imminent danger and that my body can handle this leak and there's no need to worry about having to go back for further work soon, say, within a year or two.

I do wish F had been there too. It would have been good to have her interpretation and memory of what he said. I feel now that I should have asked more specific questions. I didn't ask, for example, how he would quantify the leak. Is it 2%, 5%, 15%? I also didn't ask if the leak means I'm going to have to continue to be on various heart medications for the rest of my life. Right now, I'm sure that the medications I'm on are helping to reduce stress on my heart so as to be sure it heals well. But will I need to continue on them even after I'm well-healed?

He said he wants to see me next in a year. I guess I'll save up my questions until then. And we'll see how things go. I'm doing the cardiac fitness rehab class and it feels good to be doing a bit of a work-out and to have a bit of soreness in my muscles afterwards. My blood-pressure and heart-rate are good during exercise. I'm not concerned about hurting my heart ... and it's not like I'm training for a marathon!