Cardiac Shunt - what does this mean

[hellie91]

Hello, I am new here and was wondering if someone could please help me.

After years and years of breathlessness it seems to come to ahead that they believe I have some cardiac shunts - this has been described to me as the blood/oxygen not taking the right pathway and therefore not getting the amount of oxygen it needs.

They are looking at doing a ctscan - I believe to see where these are. They then want to do a procedure to fill the holes up...but unfortunately I suffer from a severe mental illness so at this point I started to lose memory or not understand what the doctor was saying.

It may be a few more months before I can see the doctor again before even considering the procedure. But I was wondering if anyone has an experience of this or knows more in depth what the procedure is etc?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Casper020918]

A shunt is where blood flows the wrong wsy between heart chambers due to a small hole. Known as hole in the heart. Quite often these will close spontaeously as a child grows, but this may not happen and when you get older if it causes problems they can patch the hole. It is quite a common procedure. Many people live with this condition without knowing they have it. Take someone with you to your next sppointment as 2 heads are better than one for taking in information

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I often feel that the hospital could provide that..."someone" to attend the clinic with you if the hospital felt that their patients need it.

After all, they provide a "translator" service, why not another member of staff, who could support and "interprete" on patients behalf.

To many of us who had a chronic condition, either our family/friends had a burnt-out, even they had lost full time employment as a result of caring "duties" not just once but multiple times. Employers aren't so understanding.

I often make this point.