Heart echo results
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Yesterday I had the echocardiogram mentioned in this post. Before you ask, that’s a fancy way of saying that they did an ultrasound on my heart.
What I found out is that my shortness of breath is being caused by one of these new heart valves leaking. The technical term is Regurgitation, but that brings to mind some … intense … pictures.
What’s supposed to happen is the valve opens to fill the chamber with blood, then it closes so that, with the next contraction, the heart will pump the blood into the next chamber.
What’s actually happening is when the valve closes, it doesn’t close properly and some of the blood leaks back into the chamber it was just pumped out of, causing my heart to work harder than it should.
This is exactly what my natural valves were doing and what caused the need to have them replaced.
The real joy lies in the fact that the cardiologist told me he doesn’t want a patient to have open heart surgery more than twice in a lifetime, so he’d like to try controlling the problem with medication until I’m about 60.
I don’t understand how (and therefore don’t beleive) a pill can make a valve close properly. I frankly think the diovan he put me on is a waste of time and money. In my not-so-humble opinion, it sounds to me like he just told me “live with it for another 17 years”.
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