Got an enlarged heart? Get it checked out

[Rocker]

I have known for several years, on the basis of chest X-rays, that I had an enlarged heart. But, because the doctors who examined the x-rays didn't seem to think it was anything to worry about, I did nothing about it. However, when in recent months I had some episodes of fainting and vertigo, I was sent to a cardiologist to have various tests done to try to discover the cause. An echocardiogram revealed that I have a largeish atrial septal defect, commonly known as a hole in the heart, which had caused the heart to be enlarged.

So I need to get some surgery, hopefully via a catheter insered into a vein, but perhaps open-heart. If I had had an echocardiogram some years ago, when I first learned of the enlarged heart, I could have had the surgery done when I was younger and fitter. So, if your heart is enlarged, get an echocardiogram done.

Rocker

[Cliff Rogers]

Struth Rocker.... :oo:

Hope it all works out, when is this to happen?

[Barry_White]

Hi Rocker

Sorry to hear about that but just to assure you I had open heart surgery with a quadruple bypass two years ago and celebrated my 67th birthday whilst there. Today open heart surgery to them is about as complicated as an appendix operation and the recovery time in hospital is about the same.

I had mine in Greenslopes Private Hospital and can't recommend it highly enough.

[Rocker]

Cliff,

Not sure yet; I hope to hear this week. With luck before the end of the year.

Barry,

Thanks for the reassuring words. I am just hoping the surgery won't conflict with the next Forum gtg. I want to get some testing done of various types of mitre joints.

Rocker

[robyn2839]

open heart surgery is a piece of cake these days, they kick you out after 5 days,prince charles is one of the best hospitals in the world to have it done at,and i have heard that caboolture do them (not confirmed ) but nice and close to home. good luck with what ever happens.bob

[Pat]

Rocker, my wife had a series of fainting spells/ collapses etc early last year. After a few goes in hospital a quack ordered a TOE (transoesophageal echocardiography) done and guess what they found the Hole in her heart that was causing all the little occasions. She had it plugged in July, last year and I cannot slow her down now. The surgury was done via catheter, out of hospital 2 days after surgury, 2 weeks recouperation, back to full duties as a theatre nurse. If you are in a position to get it done privately, to minimise the wait, get it done.

(Not a crack at the public system, just I understand that you may have to wait a while and you may wish to get on with your life, not wait for surgury.)

[Chesand]

Rocker
Heart surgery is not something that I would recommend by choice but as the others have said it is pretty much routine nowadays.
I had quad bypass done 9 years ago on one Monday afternoon and was home for lunch on the following Monday.
It has not stopped me doing whatever I want since - been overseas 4 times (miserable sods make you pay extra for travel insurance), climbed Kings Canyon in NT, hot air ballooning etc.
Take care and if there is a cardiac rehab course available to you, do it as that was the best thing I did after the surgery

[Ivan in Oz]

G'Day Rocker,
How are you?.......................OK!!! Not the correct Greeting.
Sorry to hear.

Just to tell you that I also had a echocardiogram,
just over a month ago.
I have a "Galloping" Heart"
and it will compensate by enlarging to some degree.

The Good news, or perhaps BAD News........

Something ELSE will Kill me.................:2tsup:
Perhaps my EX.............:B

or my Bike riding [Lack of] Skills:no::no::no:

[Rocker]

Pat,

Many thanks for that reassuring news about your wife's good result from catheter surgery.

Ivan,

You are already immortalised in Woodcraft Magazine, but it is good to hear that your heart's fluttering is not considered lethal.

Rocker

[jow104]

Rocker, sounds and reads that you have been getting some good advice.

Please keep all your friends posted, and dont fret about the woodwork, I recall you usually shut down around now for a few months.

[TassieKiwi]

Hope trust the bad news is turned around into a wonderfully successful result, so you can keep kicking our ass with your excellent skills in the 'shop.

Best of luck David

Dennis

[artme]

SWMBO had heart problems for years.It was only through her dogged persitance and Internet research to provide backup that anything happened.
Finally discovered hole in the heart - a PFO. Closed at Prince Charles by the wonderful Dr. Con Arrone using an amplatzer inserted via catheter through the groin.:2tsup::2tsup:

Was because of her insistance that I had a Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring test that picked up arterial blockages later confirmed by Angiogram and Perfusion test. :oo::oo:

An Echocardiogram today showed I have no heart muscle ( heart wall )damage but that is pure luck as apart from some shortness of breath I had no symptons. Nothing was ever picked up in routine check ups by various doctors or in any ECGs.:no::no:

This should be a warning to all of us not to wait until it is too late, AND to pester your doctor. I feel it is important to know that all is well just as much as it is to know that all is not well.
Hope all you fellow sufferers and Partners are well and that any problems will be fixed before it is too late.

[Bleedin Thumb]

Hi Rocker, I hope this all goes smoothly as I'm sure it will

I would like to point out my dismay that the bloody radiologist or the original doctor that ordered the Xray didn't alert you to the fact that you usually have an enlarged heart because it is working over time to compensate for constricted blood flow!

The medical profession really make you wonder sometimes don't they.

However having said that I must admit that when it comes to the crunch I would rather be ill in this country than any other and that once they eventually discover the problem they are great at fixing it and the care you recieve whilst in hospital is first rate.

All the best.

[Lignum]

Sheeze David i just caught on to this thread, and i hope all is and will be ok. I have wondered why you have been quiet latley. Hope all goes well and you and your fam have a good Xmass:)

[Rocker]

Artme,

Hope all goes well with your bypass on Monday; I am really looking forward to getting my septal defect mended next week, and hopefully getting a new lease of life:) I agree with you that we need to be more pro-active in looking after our health.

Bleeding Thumb,

Yes; GPs still seem to be focused on curative rather than preventative medicine. It seems to me that there should be a series of tests that we should all undergo at suitable intervals to try to catch potential problems with the heart, bowel, prostate, breast, cervix, etc, before they become serious and more difficult to treat. Most laymen don't have sufficient knowledge to know what tests to ask for and how frequently they are appropriate.

Lignum,

I am afraid I haven't spent much time in the shed for the last two or three months, mainly because the house is choc a bloc with furniture, but partly because I didn't want any more arguments with my table saw, if I had a fainting attack. However, I am looking forward to the gtg at Teejay's place in January, when, hopefully, I should be restored to my ususal sprightly self:roll:

Rocker

[jow104]

Best wishes and a speedy recovery to you both.

I haven't been in the shed for a few weeks now, got a cold , its cold, and its staying cold.

Should have come back to Oz. this winter.

[Simomatra]

Just found this tread

Sorry to here about all of you but I am also in the same way, we must be a bunch of old croc's. I am in on Tuesday to see what they can find in the blood plumbing,angiography. I already have 4 stents from an op in 2003.

Best wishes and a speedy recovery to you Rockler and Artime:2tsup:

[jerryc]

best of luck rocker,

As everyone on this forum is quick to tell you a heart op is reasonably routine these days and most people are in and out within a week. My heart problem was just a bit more complex, one new valve, a regrind on the other one, puncture fixed and original pacemaker pulled out and a new pacemaker defibrillator put in.

My point I came through that (even with my advancing years) and so will you, I'm sure. Just remember to work on your fitness when you recover. I have a home gym, exercise bike and weights and I use them every day. It might be hard sometimes to stick to a routine but it's necessary. I joke that when younger I could tear a London telephone directory in two and now I'm working up from opening envelopes with my bare hands.

Jerry


everybody is entitled to my opinion

[Rocker]

Thank you, gentlemen, for all the re-assuring news and good wishes; I am hoping that I can get the catheter surgery done on Friday, and be out of hospital the same day. I am going there for a preliminary assessment the previous day, when they will probably stick a probe down my throat to do a transoesophagal echocardiogram. Hopefully they will decide to implant an Amplatzer device to block the hole the next day.

Rocker

[Dr.Zook]

Best wishes for a sucessful and speedy recovery Rocker from all of us in the frozen North. Hope all goes well and we will be hearing from you sooner than we think.

[AlexS]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Rocker, and hope to see you back in action very soon.

[Rocker]

Had an angiogram today, but no surgery. It seems I have a couple of partially blocked coronary arteries, as well as an atrial septal defect. The good news is that they will not require open-heart surgery - stents should do the trick; but I shall be making at least two more visits to get the requisite catheter surgery done. Hopefully I shall attend Teejay's gtg, but I might have to delegate the destructive testing of mitre joints there to more nimble Forum members:)

Rocker

[Cliff Rogers]

Fingers crossed Rocker.

[TEEJAY]

Had an angiogram today, but no surgery. It seems I have a couple of partially blocked coronary arteries, as well as an atrial septal defect. The good news is that they will not require open-heart surgery - stents should do the trick; but I shall be making at least two more visits to get the requisite catheter surgery done. Hopefully I shall attend Teejay's gtg, but I might have to delegate the destructive testing of mitre joints there to more nimble Forum members:)

Rocker

Be great to have you along Rocker. :2tsup:

I think stents are a good and effective non invasive solution too - wish my mate had one inserted a year back rather than medicine, exercise, diet and tests - he would most likely still be about today if they took that option.

Please let me know if there is any kind of preparation we need to make to do tests of value on your chair joints.

Hope you had a good Christmas - ours was fine. SWMBO got all her wonderful treats and the kids were happy with their lot. My take was a bit more modest but soon to have a birthday and a C12 Festool is top of the list :) - I can fit that in my shed :rolleyes: Gotta tidy it a bit before the gtg - not that we will get a crowd (it's only single garage size full of stuff) in there but it is a mess right now and has been for some time :-.

[TEEJAY]

but I shall be making at least two more visits to get the requisite catheter surgery done. Hopefully I shall attend Teejay's gtg, but I might have to delegate the destructive testing of mitre joints there to more nimble Forum members:)

Rocker

When are your return visits David?

Good luck with it mate.

[Rocker]

Teejay,

I go back for one more investigation - a transoesophageal echocardiogram to determine the exact size of the hole in my heart - the day after your gtg; the dates of the repair jobs have not yet been scheduled, but I hope to get them all done in January.

I had already prepared the joints and test rig for the joint testing back in October, see http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=57750 ; I think the only thing that you need to provide for the testing would be a strong board about 3 m long for the testers to stand on. I am going to bring a shorter 50 x 160 x 1600 mm board of rock maple which can be clampled to your board to provide rigidity.

In addition to the frames pictured in the above thread I have also made some other joints with varying amounts of reinforcement for testing.

Rocker

[TEEJAY]

No problems all systems go with the testing. :2tsup:

[Rocker]

I was delighted to hear today that I shall have an Amplatzer septal occluder and stents emplaced in my heart this Friday (11th January). Hopefully I can then look forward to another decade or so of woodworking:)

Rocker

[jow104]

Best wishes and to a successful op. on Friday from John

[Big Shed]

Rocker, all the best for your op on Friday, hope all goes well.

[Simomatra]

Add the best for the operation on Friday David

[Rocker]

Yesterday, I was hoping that my cardiac repairs would all be done; but it was not to be. The surgeon introduced three probes into my heart - two via veins and a third via an artery - but decided that he didn't like what he saw. He found that the hole in my heart was huge (30 mm diameter) and that its lips were too narrow for it to be able to be closed satisfactorily by an Amplatzer device. The upshot is that I shall need open-heart surgery to close the hole, and so my partially blocked coronary artery will be repaired by a bypass, instead of by stents. Fortunately, I shall not have to wait too long, and I shall get it done on January 22nd at the Holy Spirit private hospital.

Rocker

[Ivan in Oz]

G'day Rocker,

Hope it goes well for you on the 22nd

Pity I missed the GTG,
but,
Hey!
There should be more.

Do you like..... or mind;
my addition of the Pic in my Signiture.

Ivan

:2tsup:

[Simomatra]

All the best Rocker, sorry yesterday was a fizz but all the best for the 22nd:2tsup:

[Rocker]

Just kidding, I hope. With luck, I shall be back home next weekend, in time to watch the final of the Australian Open. I hear that recovering from the physical effects of an open-heart operation is the easy part, and that some people succumb to depression. I am determined that that will not happen to me, but, if I start whining, please bear with me:)

Rocker

[Simomatra]

Allthe best Rocker hang in there we are all with you :2tsup:

[jow104]

Rocker,
Everyday should now get better.

[jerryc]

Rocker,
Depression sucks. My attitude is the surgeons did their work in putting all those new beaut bits into my heart. Bionic man I'm not but I owe it to the docs who worked hard for me to make their handiwork worthwhile by getting back to as normal as I can. I'm sure you'll have the same attitude. Just thinking about depression makes me depressed so I don't even think about it. Best of luck and we'll hear from you soon.

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

[Rocker]

They say that a week is a long time in politics, but I can assure you that a week in hospital seems like an eternity.

If any well-meaning person tries to reassure you that open-heart surgery is a piece of cake, be a little sceptical; I feel as though I have been hit by a freight train; but that is simply due to the effect of three scars totalling 750 mm in my legs and chest; my heart feels 110%, since it no longer has to contend with the massive congenital defect with which I was born. The surgeon took a slice out of my pericardium, and used it to patch the hole between my atria. At the same time he used a vein from my thigh to serve as a coronary bypass. He had originally intended to use a vein from my calf, but for some reason rejected that as not good enough for the job.

I have to stay out of the shed for two months, until my sternum is completely healed, but it is a bit hot in there at this time of year anyway. All in all, I am a pretty happy camper.

Rocker

[Groggy]

Great to see you ok Rocker, these things always have a little uncertainty attached. :2tsup:

[Simomatra]

Good news Rocker, glad to hear that you are OK :2tsup:

[Cliff Rogers]

Good to see you are still with us Rocker. :2tsup:

[Rocker]

Here are the pictures of the scars left by my surgery; as you can imagine, Panadol is a regular component of my diet just now.

Photo 1 shows the chest wounds; the two round holes on either side of the main cut are where the two 10 mm drain pipes emerged from my chest; the small pinholes are where the pacer wires temporarily attached to my heart emerged.

Photo 2 shows the thigh wound from which the femoral vein was harvested.

Photo 3 shows the calf wound from which it was originally intended to harvest the vein material.

Rocker

[Groggy]

Bloody hell Rocker, what did he open you up with - an Ozito chainsaw? :oo::oo::oo:

[silentC]

Gives a new meaning to scarred for life, doesn't it?

Glad to hear all went well and you're on the mend. :)

[jow104]

Some nice looking scratches there Rocker. Hope the stitches are the type that desolve.

So take a breather and spend a little time admiring your past efforts and plan your workload for next season.

[Cliff Rogers]

You might have to do some drawing for a while Rocker.

[Barry_White]

Here are the pictures of the scars left by my surgery; as you can imagine, Panadol is a regular component of my diet just now.

Photo 1 shows the chest wounds; the two round holes on either side of the main cut are where the two 10 mm drain pipes emerged from my chest; the small pinholes are where the pacer wires temporarily attached to my heart emerged.

Photo 2 shows the thigh wound from which the femoral vein was harvested.

Photo 3 shows the calf wound from which it was originally intended to harvest the vein material.

Rocker

Gee Rocker they certainly carved you up. When they did mine the cut in my chest was only half that length and when they stripped the vein out of my leg I only had a cut about 1" long at the ankle and the side of my knee and a half inch cut up near my groin and then they stripped the vein out with some sort of a tube thing from one hole to the other and I didn't have any thing like that . They must have been a bit knife happy.

[Harry72]

Yep get well soon mate!

[Rocker]

Barry,

I suppose, with me being an old phart and all, maybe they thought my veins would not stand up to being ripped out as you describe. Anyway, the main thing is that the heart surgery appears to have been well done, and I certainly feel far better than I did before the operation. Presumably the pain of the wounds will only last about another week, and I should then be fine.

Rocker

[Simomatra]

Wow! What a way to join the zipper club, certainly a lot bigger than I expected to see:oo:

Glad you doing well and in good spirits:2tsup:

[Rocker]

Some nice looking scratches there Rocker. Hope the stitches are the type that desolve.

So take a breather and spend a little time admiring your past efforts and plan your workload for next season.

John,

These days, they don't use stitches at all. They just use a transparent tape to hold the wound together. The two sides of the wound fuse together, so that, after about three days, the tape is stripped off and the wound is then left open to the air with no dressing or ointment. It seems to have worked well with me.

Rocker

[woodcutta]

Best of luck with your recovery Rocker

woodcutta

[jow104]

New to me Rocker, sounds better than the old fashioned way.

[Rocker]

It is seven weeks now since I had my surgery, and I am happy to report that I feel 100% better than before it. Ten days ago I climed Mt Beerburrum in the Glasshouse mountains. The climb is 180 metres in vertical height at a gradient of 1:3.9, over a distance of 700 metres. When I reached the top, I was no more puffed than a healthy 70-year-old would be.

Lipitor and a low-fat diet have lowered my total cholesterol from 5.0 mmol/L a year ago to 2.7 mmol/L now, and lowered my LDL (bad) cholesterol from 3.07 mmol/L to 1.07 mmol/L, which puts me at low risk of further cardiovascular disease. It seems to be a pretty convincing demonstration that good diet and cholesterol-lowering drugs can have a dramatic effect on your blood cholesterol levels.

Rocker

[Sturdee]

Great to see that you are okay now.


Peter.

[prozac]

Sounds like you are one fit bugga Rocker. Glad to hear that it went so well.

All the best.

prozac

[jow104]

Good to hear your news, have you got the equivalent of the 10 Tors in Queensland?

[Simomatra]

Good news Rocker, glad you are doing so well:2tsup:

[Lignum]

Great news David:)