Diagnosis Confirmed by Brompton.

[Phoenix35]

Hi all,

I had my appt at the Brompton last week. Echo followed by consultant assistant followed by bloods, ecg and chest xray. I am to go back in a month or two for exercise stress test.

I just want this worry to go away.

So they have confirmed the sub aortic membrane. They said only real long term solution is to operate but it can grow back. Apparently this will prevent any potential damage to the valve.

Is surgery up to me? It seems a big risk for something that is likely to come back.

The Drs are going to have a meeting after the stress test and other results and either see me in 12mths or recommend the op.

That is as I understand it. My anxiousness is still there.

This is something that is congenital, diagnosed as a coincidence. I have been walking around with it all my life by all accounts so why am I having a hard time processing this.

Dr said I am relatively minor compared to what they deal with in the same breath as cutting your chest open.

Thanks for listening.

[Chappychap]

"Is surgery up to me? It seems a big risk"

You can't demand surgery, but an operation can't happen without your consent. So you could say that surgery is up to both you and the hospital, you BOTH have to agree.

As to the risks, well I had open heart surgery and I looked into this quite closely. You will be told that ALL surgery is risky (this applies to a wisdom tooth extraction as much as a heart transplant) but that the risks for open heart surgery are about 2%. That means in 2% of cases there's a bad outcome, be that a minor stroke during the operation or a fatal cardiac arrest. However, what they won't tell you is that the 2% figure is a UNIVERSAL risk figure, your PERSONAL risk might be very different, either higher or lower.

It's pretty much common sense what are the major factors driving the risk either up or down. Are you younger or older than the average patient (the average heart patient is in their early 70's by the way)? Have you had a previous heart attack or stroke? Are there any other co-morbidities such as diabetes? Are you obese? What's your general fitness level?

Answer positively to all or most of these and your personal risk could be below 0.5%, conversely if your answers go in the wrong direction then your personal risk could be 5% or higher.

[Phoenix35 in reply to Chappychap]

Thank you. That is very helpful and commonsense really. I am 35 obese and unfit. I just feel that it is risky surgery that sounds like it might need to be done again in future. I guess I need to wait for the stress test appointment and recommendations first. So maybe I jumped ahead. Sorry I have been going on, lately my brain has been in overdrive and anxiety particularly about health doesn't help. Thanks again for being a voice of calm.