April 2, 2008 4:06pm
We've just spoken with Dr Schmucker and news has changed quite a bit. He is now quite sure that I do not have Mitral Valve Prolapse like Emily. Instead of a leaky valve I have a hole called Atrial Septal Defect, or ASD. This is a hole between the two atriums that is allowing newly oxygenated blood to go back to the lungs for more oxygen instead of going to the rest of my body. It crowds out blood that needs oxygen and is inefficient for the organ in general. Here is a picture that was pretty easy to understand.
This news is quite shocking to me, but I came for answers, so I guess I'm winning at some level. I am quite relieved that the sudden, sharp pain that I felt on Monday won't be something that I need to learn to "manage". Dr S. wants me to stay another night here to get a Trans-esophageal echocardiogram tomorrow at 2pm. This is a fancy way of way of saying they'll stick a tube down my throat to do an ultrasound of my heart from a clearer perspective. I will then be released to go home. I will have a cardio - MRI at Elk. Gen on Monday. Both of these will give clearer, better pictures of what we are dealing with and both will be sent to experts that will evaluate our next step of fixing it. So far there are 2 options. One is non-surgical but new & would likely take place at IU Med Center. The other is surgical and could be done in Elkhart. Dr S expects either will likely be next week. He does not expect that I would have any sharp pain between now and then.
Well, that's the actual factual currently. Of course emotions are different. This is WAY bigger than we ever thought we'd face. God is good. He is not surprised.
We've just spoken with Dr Schmucker and news has changed quite a bit. He is now quite sure that I do not have Mitral Valve Prolapse like Emily. Instead of a leaky valve I have a hole called Atrial Septal Defect, or ASD. This is a hole between the two atriums that is allowing newly oxygenated blood to go back to the lungs for more oxygen instead of going to the rest of my body. It crowds out blood that needs oxygen and is inefficient for the organ in general. Here is a picture that was pretty easy to understand.
This news is quite shocking to me, but I came for answers, so I guess I'm winning at some level. I am quite relieved that the sudden, sharp pain that I felt on Monday won't be something that I need to learn to "manage". Dr S. wants me to stay another night here to get a Trans-esophageal echocardiogram tomorrow at 2pm. This is a fancy way of way of saying they'll stick a tube down my throat to do an ultrasound of my heart from a clearer perspective. I will then be released to go home. I will have a cardio - MRI at Elk. Gen on Monday. Both of these will give clearer, better pictures of what we are dealing with and both will be sent to experts that will evaluate our next step of fixing it. So far there are 2 options. One is non-surgical but new & would likely take place at IU Med Center. The other is surgical and could be done in Elkhart. Dr S expects either will likely be next week. He does not expect that I would have any sharp pain between now and then.
Well, that's the actual factual currently. Of course emotions are different. This is WAY bigger than we ever thought we'd face. God is good. He is not surprised.
No comments:
Post a Comment