Semi-Better news today

Well today was the day. I went to the cardiology specialist (he only see's high risk/complex cases). While there was some slight changes from January, nothing was better. I had an alcohol ablation done in January and that is showing to not have done anything. So he gave me some info I have to decide on.

1) Have a septal myectomy. This is basically open heart surgery. He estimates about a 70-80% chance of success with this.

2) Heart transplant. I would be so far down on the transplant list that I would have no hope of having it done. I am not a good candidate for it in his estimation.

3) Wait until the heart basically gives out. Then I would probably be placed higher on the transplant list but my chances of having a transplant would be very slim. He estimates that this will more than likely occur in the next 12-15 years. (Which is better than the last estimate of 5-8 years) if I do nothing.

4) Have another alcohol ablation procedure. If this one doesn't work, see #1

5) Do nothing

This doctor is a straight forward person. We talked about what could be done. He laid it out on a piece of paper. Then we talked about causes. While I have had a semi healthy weight until 3 years ago, he believes that my recent gain is accelerating it. As far as what originally caused it, he won't definitively say it was OSA without REALLY EXPENSIVE ($3000-$4000 per) genetic testing that no insurance company covers. But since no one on either side of the family has ever had any heart related issues, he would only say that it most likely was a major contributing factor. He linked all of the components (osa was causing hypertension which in turn caused the heart wall to get thick and it goes around in a circle, you get the idea)

We talked about weight loss and 2 other issues that are preventing that at this point, and he is going to get involved so that I can get the surgery to repair my back and neck, which is the major part of my weight gain. The other issue might go away after the surgery for the back/neck.

He does want me to get another sleep study done to make sure that my therapy is going well. I told him that my AHI was 1-3 and that I do feel fine, but he wants it done anyways since .

He took me off 2 medicines because he feels that they aren't doing anything for me. He changed my med's for HBP so now I only need to take 1 instead of 2. That would have helped about 2 months ago, but I am now down to 2 medicine's I have to take.

In a nutshell a little bit better, a few more options, but not exactly great.

So on the way home, I reflected on the "What if..." and think I could kick myself for not doing the follow through 15 years ago. So if you have made it this far, I would tell you that "yes, it could happen to you and if you have shown anything that could be related to OSA, have it checked"

Allen

Thanks for posting your update Allen, with the grace of God your health will improve. Yours is a good story for those debating the need to follow thru on recommendations for CPAP...too many just don't seem to realize just how very, very serious this condition is. Best wishes to you!

I personally would want to try the myomectomy, to take some of the strain off, but that's just me.

Thank you for posting. I hope your treatments go well.

Thanks to everyone.

As to what I am going to do, I am going to have the myectomy. As painful as that decision was, it is about the only choice. I do trust this cardiologist more than my local one as to being able to do the ablation so that it would work. The downside is that in the back of my mind, I feel that even with his expertise, it will fail like the first one.


Allen

allen476 wrote:Thanks to everyone.

As to what I am going to do, I am going to have the myectomy. As painful as that decision was, it is about the only choice. I do trust this cardiologist more than my local one as to being able to do the ablation so that it would work. The downside is that in the back of my mind, I feel that even with his expertise, it will fail like the first one.


Allen

Keep us posted, Allen. We're rooting for you.