Glitches & Work in Progress Part 2

[Guest guest]

OK I’m

BACK……same warning …….LONG POST..

For those of

you that remember, I whinged about copping Sudden Onset Sensory-Neural Hearing

Deficit last year…..well all the investigations that took place because

of that have finally lead to me being found to have a Patent Foramen Ovale

(‘Hole in the Heart ‘ in layman’s language!) It was diagnosed

via a ‘Bubble Echocardiogram’ & confirmed by a

Trans-oesophageal Echo (done under Anaesthetic)

This is a

Congenital Heart Defect that initially causes left-to-right shunting of blood

from the L Ventricle (Oxygenated Blood) to the R Ventricle (de-oxygenated

blood)…THIS is when a closure is best done…….. BUT, over

time, if left undetected & unclosed a complication can sometimes arise

& the pressure in the Right Ventricle becomes greater than that in the Left

(Not the way it should be!) & the Blood Flow goes into Reverse & cause

a shunting of blood from the Right Ventricle into the Left…….NOT

GOOD!

This is called

Eisenmenger’s Syndrome & that’s what has happened to me!

It’s a

form of Pulmonary Hypertension with extra implications because of PFO & the

‘dirty’ blood mixing with the ‘Clean’ stuff &

getting carried all around the body! Cyanosis, Strokes, Clots…blah,

Blah…..BLAH!

Initially I

thought it would be just a matter of having the Darn thing closed (by

catheterisation & a complicated ‘umbrella’ stent) BUT…

once Right to Left Shunting has occurred it is generally considered too late to

do so…Trying to Shut the Door after the Horse has Bolted Scenario.

In fact, once

the Reverse Shunt has occurred it’s considered better from a PH point of

view to leave the Hole ‘cos it acts as an ‘Emergency Pressure

Valve’…..closing the Hole could just kill me faster!

I’ll be

seeing a Cardiac Surgeon on the 8th Feb in Brisbane to discuss

options & management.

It was my new

Pulmo Dude who Gently pointed out the complications & the uncertainty of

closure as an Option. The Neurologist who found it in the first place made it sound

like a Simple Solution…relatively low risk surgery…..Wham Bham

…..she’ll be fixed in a jiffy…but she clearly didn’t

realise the implication of the Direction of the Shunting…

There

may be a slight chance that the surgery will still go ahead depending on what

they find when they investigate the Pulmonary Artery pressures via an

Angiogram. If I’m really lucky the reverse Shunt has only just started

& there may be a possibility that they’ll still decide to close the

hole. Not sure where that leaves me with the PH..whether that will stop the PH

from developing further or not! (or at least stop it from developing because of

the PFO…as we all know, PF & Connective Tissue Disease are also

causes of PH as well!) Stop one cause but end up with it progressing because of

the other problems anyway!

Lots of things

to consider!

Sooooooo

I’ll be seeing the Greek/Australian Cardio Man THEN my Chinese/Australian

Pulmo Dude on the same day ….they’ll work together in figuring out

where to go from there as far as getting me into a PH Program &

Management & then further evaluation of my Connective Tissue Mystery &

evaluating just where my Lungs are up to in the PF Scale (he thinks I’m

in the ‘Moderately Affected Range but still in Stable Phase!).

As an amazing

coincidence both the Cardio & the Pulmo have their Brisbane Clinics/Labs in

the SAME Building…….

Here was me

thinking LAST YEAR was my Year of Medical Maintenance & that 2010 would be

a Doddle!

But you

know… how lucky I am……..if that darn Hole had been undetected

but bigger the Eisenmenger’s Syndrome could have started yonks

ago…babies, children & young adults get it…..it is considered

too dangerous to become pregnant with this Heart Problem…..

I’ve got

2 grown daughters & 3 grandchildren that might not exist if this had played

out earlier in my life!

In the

meantime I’ve been told to use my POC whenever I do ANYTHING active &

for longer after exertion,,,,been put on Plavix instead of mere Low Dose

Aspirin to keep my Blood thin…..

BTW..still no

one can tell me why the Ear thing happened! Maybe it did me a favour..without

that I’d still be ignorant of my weird little Shunting Habit!

……….Lotsa to those of you who hung in there with

me……..

in Oz

in

Oz

IPF:

Fibrotic NSIP/UIP ??

Reynauds'

May

2007

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