mitral valve regurgitation

[gardenome]

When I had my second, and so far successful, ablation a year ago my EP found I had mitral valve regurgitation but said the good thing was it would be easy to fix. My cardio put me on a diuretic and bp pill to ease the load on the heart and said no need for intervention (a recent check up on the valve showed that it is at 58%.) He doesn't like interventions and although he didn't argue too much, I don't think he would have suggested the ablation without me asking to be referred to EP, based on what I had learn't on this wonderful site. Does anyone have an opinion? I am 77 and want to live my remaining years as fit as possible. At present I am feeling pretty well but do get episodes of complete exhaustion which are put right by an hour in bed.

One other thing to possibly reassure others is that I developed bigeminy a couple of weeks ago and was told that as it is a 'regular irregularity' it was unimportant. Indeed it settled itself quite quickly

Thank you for listening.

[CDreamer]

I don't think anyone on this forum would be able to offer a medical opinion, that is something for you and your doctors to discuss.

The only thing I would say is that I base all my decisions for having a procedure on risk / benefit ratio. Every procedure carries risk and if the cardiologist is not keen on offering you the procedure, this must be telling you something? My guess would be that either he is not confident in offering you the procedure, in which case ask why or he has a heavy workload and doesn't consider your condition a priority at the moment. Maybe ask for a second opinion? Discuss with your GP and ask their advice?

Sounds to me as though you do have a reasonable quality of life, I know we all want to live as well as we can during our remaining years but I do think we also have to accept that age also means our bodies don't always heal as they well as they used to.

Pleased the ablation worked for you, best wishes CD

[Dadog]

Hi Gardenome (like that name!). Looks like we are on similar paths. I have had a couple of cardioversions but not ablation. That apart, we are the same age, have regurgitating mitral valves...and both feel like a wrung out dish cloth at times!

I'm not sure about percentage references to leaky valves - my hospital classify them as mild, moderate to severe or severe. When I was first scanned I was in AF and the valve was classified as severe. Since then, it has been classified twice as mild (both taken when in NSR). This seems to indicate that AF aggravates a faulty valve. Anyway, mine was monitored annually and a recent check shows it hasn't got any worse and another monitoring check is not required for 3 years.

I wouldn't worry too much about the valve. Obviously they will monitor you and no - they won't want to intervene unecessarily. Because or its malfunction, you will always be on Warfarin or similar.

In a similar situation to yours, I have contented myself by acknowledging that I'm not 25 any more and that I will feel tired and need a nap more often! Bisoprolol doesn't help...but hey ho....it is quietly doing its job. Well.........(yawn).......just off for a wee sleep. Stay well.

David