Yep when I met the surgeon this morning, after all the other test I had been through, he put his stethoscope to my chest for about 5 seconds and he said , yup, that needs replaced. I was shocked he could tell that quick. Then he said we need to do this now, not wait till christmas, My blood pressure has been high, he said we need to do this now.
I assume you have had an Echocardiogram, from that test they can tell you that surgery is needed, from my understanding it’s based on the stenosis of your aortic valve.
From my understanding, the stenosis is measured as mild, medium and severe, I had two echocardiograms, both showed I had severe aortic stenosis, which means you need surgery fairly quickly.
The two tests I have had since were to determine what procedure I would undergo, Open heart versus TAVR.
A week ago, I had something called a TEE procedure, which is a transesophageal echo cardiogram, basically they put you under, run a tube down your throat and do and echocardiogram from inside your chest.
This past Wednesday I had a heart cauterization procedure, they give you mild sedation and put a catheter thru an artery in your wrist that injects die into you heart and they track it so see if you have any other blockages that would prevent the TAVR procedure from being done, fortunately I did not have any blockages that would require open heart surgery to replace.
This coming week we meet with the surgeon to get the date set, at this point, I just want it over and hope the surgery is immediately after the visit with the surgeon.