Someday

Hi, my name is Susan and I am 28 years old. I live in St. Paul, MN, and have a St. Jude mitral mechanical valve.  My mitral vavle prolapse was discovered in high school, but I wasn't put on any medication and they said it was a minor murmur. I wouldn't  have to worry about it until someday when I was 40 or 50.

Then in November 2002 I got endocarditis (a bacterial infection in the heart), which was treated with 4 weeks of IV antibiotics.  The doctors couldn't determine how I got it, but a couple weeks after treatment my gall bladder was giving me extreme pain and had to come out.  One doctor suggested the gall bladder may have been the culprit for the endocarditis.  Anyway, during the IV treatment, I had two TEEs and echos, and they said my valve was not damaged.  Again, medication and a possible surgery were years away.

That all changed on August 22, 2004.   My vision in my right eye went blurry.  I wasn't sure what the deal was, it didn't snap back like it normally does after you wipe something from your eye.  After the ER, an eye doc, an MRI, and a retinal specialist,  the retinal specialist said I had a stroke in my eye and something was most likely going on with my heart (causing the blood clot in the eye), cause I was otherwise healthy.

I was admitted to the hospital and had my surgery on Aug 26, 2004.  I went with the mechanical valve because they said it was the best choice for me.  I didn't care about the pregnancy thing at the time, because I was so scared about my own life, and I already have a 6 yr old son.  However, as I started recovering from the surgery, human nature took over.  As my son says, I want what I want.

Well, I really think I want another child, and my cardioligist says it is a total possiblity.  He has 3 or 4 patients a year in my situation which he puts on Lovenox for the first few months.  He has put me in touch with a high-risk OBGYN,  and they would monitor the pregnancy very closely .

But we will see.  I want to wait at least a year from surgery (August 2005) before trying anything.  Who knows, maybe someday six months from now I will begin journaling "My Mechanical Valve Pregnancy".....