Heart Valve problems

 

Hello,

     I have heart valve problems. I've had surgery to open my mytral valve. Now all four valves have problems. Also in February I experienced A Fib. So I'm on a beta blocker and coumadin. I'm experiencing many side effects. I have leg pai, hair loss, depression, fast heart beat, and can't sleep. Does anyone have any of these problems. Also short of breath and retaning water.

My valve problems are from rheumatic fever and I have three affected valves. I have not had surgery though. Sorry to hear you're having so many problems after your surgery. You might be able to do a 'search' under 'Valve Replacement'. Here's a tip - when you do your search, if you run those two words together with no space, for some reason it eliminates alot of the corporate sites. There's quite a bit of information out there.

Post Edited (Famulus) : 7/23/2005 1:18:13 PM (GMT-6)

Before I say what follows, I'll say I'm not a doctor (none of us here are) and I'm not a plumber or an electrician either, but this subject has been of interest to me because of my own valve problems. I have heard it said that heart problems can be described as plumbing problems, or electrical problems (arrhythmia, bundle branch blocks, etc.) or both. Unfortunately if you have both, it can become a very complex situation.

If you look at the 'plumbing' alone, the heart follows the same laws of physics that apply to pipes carrying water under pressure, going to a gate valve, which is a valve with several openings. The law of physics says that if you restrict the flow out of one of those openings, the flow will increase through the other openings. The heart is like this too. For example, I would guess that your mitral was leaking (regurgitating) and your fix made it more efficient but at the same time caused more pressure in your other valves. I have read many, many accounts of this happening when people have one valve fixed, only to find that the problems play musical chairs and then involve other valves which had not previously been a problem. Same principle as the gate valve. If there was any weakness in the other valves, it now begins to show up under increased pressure. If you do a 'search', this phenomenon is called Hemodynamics, and you'll find quite a few articles on that. (enter hemodynamics and valve in the same search)

The anxiety, palpitations, depression and insomnia that you mention seem to go with the territory of heart disease for alot of people (not knowing if you may be pre-menopausal or menopausal, the leg and hair problems along with some of the other problems you are having could also be due to hormonal fluctuations, although HRT is NOT generally recommended for women with active heart disease). Maybe if you talk about all this with your Doc, he/she may be able to prescribe a medication that would help. Same with your other two problems - make sure you communicate this to your doctor if they don't already know about it.

take care, & hugs,
Oona

Oona, thank you!! That's great info!!

Hugs, Teri :)

Rheumatic involvement of all four cardiac valves

K Jai Shankar, P K Jaiswal and K M Cherian

International Centre for Cardiothoracic and Vascular Diseases (a unit of Frontier LifeLine), Mogappair, Chennai, India

ABSTRACT
Rheumatic involvement of all four heart valves is rare. A 35 year old woman presented with gradually progressive exertional dyspnoea for the preceding 10 years. On evaluation she was in atrial fibrillation with congestive heart failure. Clinical examination found evidence of stenosis of the mitral aortic and tricuspid valves with a history of rheumatic fever in childhood. Transthoracic echocardiography showed the involvement of all four cardiac valves. Few reports are available in the literature describing rheumatic quadrivalvar damage. Operator awareness of possible rheumatic involvement of all four valves is essential for appropriate diagnosis.

heart.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/91/6/e50