Aortic valve replacement

[cappachina]

Hi everyone I hope you are all feeling well this evening That is of course as well as we can be with our dicky hearts I have severe aortic stenosis i had a angiography with dye done 3 weeks ago, a nerve wracking experience as I am highly allergic to the dye and had to be pretreated and trust they knew what they were doing . They did and I was fine . The cardiologist said that he would review the scan and then have me into his clinic to discuss a plan hopefully TAVI but maybe open heart surgery . I have no appointment yet and am wondering how long you all waited for results and then how long you waited for surgery. I am not a anxious person but I hate not knowing what is going on and what the plan is

[Ageingfast]

hello and welcome cappachina

Lots of good people on this site who will share what they have experienced.

You are currently in the very worst part of the procedure…..the waiting. So it is all good news from there onwards. Please be assured that your case will have been reviewed and, when you become in urgent need of the op you will be called in for two more outpatient tests then in to hospital for the op. You have had test one, which is by far the worst of the three tests. The next two tests are a doddle.

I was called in for the op within a couple of weeks. I had the three tests as an inpatient, most patients have the tests as an outpatient.

I hope that you will be offered the option of either TAVi or open heart surgery. There is a rare option of less invasive open heart surgery.

There will also be discussions on the type of valve . I was given the choice. But each case differs.

The cardiac team are quite different from other hospital teams. Dedicated cardiac wards, dedicated and brilliant surgeons and fabulous nursing staff.

I repeat, the waiting is the worst bit !

Best wishes

Sooty

[cappachina in reply to Ageingfast]

Thank you I am guessing that apart from the valve they have seen nothing wrong with artery etc but as he said he would have me back to discuss options when he had reviewed I would get that appointment fairly quickly They were doing a watching game but the last few months I am a lot worse had a couple of blackouts and surface blood clots in my leg with an infection following which has knocked my energy levels right down and from being able to walk 3 miles a day I can manage only a short walk and doing housework makes me even more out of breath so I am finding waiting hard Will update when I finally hear from them

[BicuspidBloke]

The wait for the angio results was only a few days for me but by then they had all the info anyway from the x-rays and echo. The angio (for me) was jyst to confirm no further blockages or potential complications. From then it was about 4 months until surgery (would have been 3 but they had a lot of emergency ambulance admittance in June). I got 10 days notice of the AVR OHS op and then finally coukd concentrate on recovery. The waiting for the op date was okay - just couldn't plan much. The op and hospital was great, as has been the recovery and rehab. My difficult part was the first few weeks until I finally realised HF wasn't a death sentence - it's perfectly treatable. Good luck.

[cappachina in reply to BicuspidBloke]

Thanks They have my other results already too as I had echo bloods and x Ray done in June but it was then to be a waiting game as I was having hardly any symptoms However as you see from my reply to blackcat sooty I have got a lot worse hence the angiography I will update when I hear what the plan is