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Getting old is beginning to suck

Chuck Ellis

Chuck Ellis

Member
Messages
6,999
Location
Tellico Plains, Tennessee
I've been bragging about how healthy I am at 80 years.... went to my cardiologist yesterday... I've had a slight heart murmur for the past 4 or 5 years, but never had any problems with it and last visit he said I had a valve that sounded like it was hardening... yesterday he did an EKG and said it sounded worse, my heart rate was 44 and out of rhythm... sounded like I had atrial fibrulations.... he wants to do an echo-cardiogram to make sure.... he said not to worry until he's seen the results of that... and if it's gotten to bad we may be looking at a valve replacement... he mentioned that it probably/may won't entail open heart, but a new procedure called a TAVL or something like that where they use a catheter to em-plant a new valve and I'm up and home next day....I feel fine and don't know that I'm having any problems there, but the men in my family have mostly succumbed to heart issues and I'm now the oldest living member of my immediate family. Don't even know of any male cousins older than me.

Today I'm off to see the urologist... gotta make sure I can still p**....
 
I worked at a plant that made some of the tool that doctors use in open heart surgery. I know a bit about open heart surgery. We had to watch videos of the procedure as training even though we NEVER went into the operating room or aver ever met anyone in the medical profession. We only worked in the factory that they bought the instruments from.

Having a procedure that allows a valve replacement is a gift from God, It is a miracle for sure.

WOW - FANTASTIC - good luck!!!, I do hope all the best for you. A medical miracle for sure.
 
All the best to you, prayers coming your way. Actually, many prayers have been answered with development of the new procedures used in surgery today. I have had a number them without chest having to be opened. I would be dead without them. Keep us updated.
 
Bill Satko said:
Amazing that they can do all that without open heart surgery! Good luck with all that!
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Not an issue yet... he was just giving me a possibility.... he was amazed that I've had no chest pains, no symptoms as yet.... he just hears the murmur and is watching it... he was concerned about the low heart rate.... I go in on the 20th for the echo cardiogram.... hope it will be the cute little girl that did one previously instead of the bald old guy that did my last one. :D

A few years back when still in Houston, I had a catherization to check for blockage with no issues... one night in the hospital and home.... my mother had one a few years before she died and they wound up poking a hole in an artery near her heart and had to do emergency open chest surgery to fix that.... she came out fine, but don't want my chest opened if possible. Dianne had open heart in 2014 and she was a while getting over that.
 
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By comparison, just one generation ago when you had a heart problem, they gave you nitro pills, told you to go home and rest for a month. If you lived a few more years, you were lucky. There was no such thing as heart surgery.

I've had heart problems for 22 years and heart surgeries every few years since. The first was triple bypass and a valve repair. Then I've had 5 surgeries since the first to place stents where needed. Then #7 was the installation of a pacemaker (a clock to keep my ticker on time). Two years ago and just before the pacemaker was installed, my pulse had slowed to 38 BPM and blood pressure to 68/42. It took me four rest stops to walk from the car into the heart center in the hospital. The next day I walked out to the car (actually parked farther away) without needing a rest. This morning, and as usual every morning since the pacemaker, my pulse is 80 +- 2 and pressure is 125/67 +- about 5. They said I'll need a battery change in 4 more years (Batteries ARE Included) and lately I'm beginning to realize that I can't walk more than a few hundred feet without stopping for a few minutes, so likely soon I'll need another stent or two. I now have a kind-of cell phone on my night table and every night it communicates with my pacemaker to collect my daily data, and then it "phones home" to my doctors office with the collected data. If they see anything wrong they call me.

My dad and all 5 of his brothers died of heart attacks between 45 and 55, just one generation before me. My dad had his first heart attack at 45 and died from a heart attack, just 3 years later. I just turned 80. I was 58 when I had my heart attack and needed the bypass surgery. The surgeon said that my problems were mostly inherited and not from a bad diet. I never smoked, but my dad smoked 2 packs a day, as did his brothers. I lost my oldest son to a heart problem in 2000. He was 35 years old, passed his flight physical the month before, and worked as a line tech for the local cable company.

My heart valve was repaired while they were doing my bypass surgery. I had a heart murmur most of my life that kept me out of the Service. I asked the surgeon what he had done to fix it and he replied. "It just needed a stitch". No heart murmur since.

Charley
 
Charles Lent said:
By comparison, just one generation ago when you had a heart problem, they gave you nitro pills, told you to go home and rest for a month. If you lived a few more years, you were lucky. There was no such thing as heart surgery.
Click to expand...
My Dad had a triple by pass in 1973 and my nephew had a valve replaced 25 years ago, so they have been doing this stuff for quite a while. They have just gotten better at it since then.
 
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Hang in there, Chuck! That is great news that they can do that in such an easy way. I would have thought the catheter was one like they do that goes up an artery in your inner thigh area. But, what do I know. Regardless, good luck on all of it.
 
My stent ws installed from my right wrist. Now when the Watchman procedure mesh is installed it is done from the artery from the thigh. Had it all arranged for procedure then the doc found a clot at opening where mesh was to be placed so back to drugs to dissolve clot and back on waiting list. Have had Afib since 1978 and no real bad sympyoms just don't have a lot of long term stamina. As we grow older I begin to relize that the doctors and nurses are angels from above meant to take care of us, in this mortal world. So far I just keep plugging along. Lost my younger brother (by 14 years) in 2020 due to covid. Still have older brother and sister doing ok. We are all just aging.
David
 
Charles Lent said:
By comparison, just one generation ago when you had a heart problem, they gave you nitro pills, told you to go home and rest for a month. If you lived a few more years, you were lucky. There was no such thing as heart surgery.

I've had heart problems for 22 years and heart surgeries every few years since. The first was triple bypass and a valve repair. Then I've had 5 surgeries since the first to place stents where needed. Then #7 was the installation of a pacemaker (a clock to keep my ticker on time). Two years ago and just before the pacemaker was installed, my pulse had slowed to 38 BPM and blood pressure to 68/42. It took me four rest stops to walk from the car into the heart center in the hospital. The next day I walked out to the car (actually parked farther away) without needing a rest. This morning, and as usual every morning since the pacemaker, my pulse is 80 +- 2 and pressure is 125/67 +- about 5. They said I'll need a battery change in 4 more years (Batteries ARE Included) and lately I'm beginning to realize that I can't walk more than a few hundred feet without stopping for a few minutes, so likely soon I'll need another stent or two. I now have a kind-of cell phone on my night table and every night it communicates with my pacemaker to collect my daily data, and then it "phones home" to my doctors office with the collected data. If they see anything wrong they call me.

My dad and all 5 of his brothers died of heart attacks between 45 and 55, just one generation before me. My dad had his first heart attack at 45 and died from a heart attack, just 3 years later. I just turned 80. I was 58 when I had my heart attack and needed the bypass surgery. The surgeon said that my problems were mostly inherited and not from a bad diet. I never smoked, but my dad smoked 2 packs a day, as did his brothers. I lost my oldest son to a heart problem in 2000. He was 35 years old, passed his flight physical the month before, and worked as a line tech for the local cable company.

My heart valve was repaired while they were doing my bypass surgery. I had a heart murmur most of my life that kept me out of the Service. I asked the surgeon what he had done to fix it and he replied. "It just needed a stitch". No heart murmur since.

Charley
Click to expand...
My dad and three of his brothers all died of heart failure... Uncle JW at a pretty early age, not sure exactly what age, Dad was just 74 when he had a massive heart attach and the other two were in late 80's or early 90's.... so far I've not had any problems that I would attribute to heart... no chest pain, not too much shortness of breath unless I'm carrying something a little weighty.... my mother had a heart murmur that she lived with for a number of years.... think she finally just got tired and gave up... she was 88 and getting pretty far into dementia.
My wife of 30 years and at age 78 has lived with atrial fib since she was 26... just finally got a pace maker in about 3 year ago.
 
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