This diagram shows the inner workings of my heart. As you can see on the right of the illustration, the surgeon has drawn a dotted line. This indicates where my heart has started to enlarge again. Why is it getting enlarged, you ask? The aortic valve has started to fail. I have a bi-cuspid instead of a tri-cuspid valve. This is a birth defect, that can go unnoticed for years.
Fortunately for me, the valve can be fixed. What has happened over the past six months is that the valve is not closing fully and the blood that it is pumping is flowing back into the chamber. My heart has started to work harder to compensate for this leakage. This has caused it to enlarge.
In the upper right corner of the illustration is a rendering of the artificial valve the doctors will be replacing my damaged valve and a portion of my aortic root and possibly the aortic arch with a Dacron Tube. My aortic root is enlarged and a rupture could occur. Believe me this would not be good.
No comments:
Post a Comment