Your experiences with periodical Echocardiogram.

[bemore0712]

Hi everyone,

Not posted on here for some time, hope everyone is having a good day.

I have Aortic stenosis and have had 2 echocardiograms to monitor it. On my last scan, they could not decide to see me again in 12 months or 24, so they opted for 18 months.

Im posting today to ask about people's experiences on having regular monitoring and how that progresses to eventual treatment.

What happened with you? How long were you being monitored for. What condition did you get too. Did you have symptoms or did you feel normal?

I have my next scan next week, I feel I have kind of deteriorated slightly, but it's a hard thing to explain and quantify.

Thanks.

[Fredders]

Hi, I was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 16. I then had ECGs every year. I had aortic regurgitation which very slowly got worse, until I was 52, when my only symptom was slight breathlessness, but because my aortic root had got so enlarged they decided to do surgery and I had my aortic valve replaced and my aortic root was wrapped.

When I was first diagnosed, and at check ups, I was told not to worry about it and get on with my life. They explained that I might eventually need surgery but that it would depend very much on how bad my valve got. My cardiologist did say that a lot of people have heart murmurs that they know nothing about and never become a problem. Mine only came to light because I had a chest infection and my GP heard a slight "squeak", so referred me to cardiology.

I am now 63 and feel fine. Hope this helps and that your check up goes okay.

Wendy

[bemore0712 in reply to Fredders]

Thanks for sharing your experience

[RobHarrington]

I was diagnosed with Moderate AS due to a bicuspid AV 4 years ago. Apparently I was born with it but my doctors didn’t go past the point of telling me I had a heart murmur. I was checked every 6 months till Covid came along and then it was just a phone call every 6 months. I did update them as to my BP and difficulty walking up stairs and being short of breathe. In Aug of 2021 I actually got to go in and found out my situation went to severe AS.

I was scheduled for surgery in November but of course Covid delayed that. My breathing and dizziness was getting worse in January and they moved me up the priority list. I had a Bentall Procedure February 14.

Still off work trying to gain some strength but the surgery went great, the hospital stay and staff were amazing.