Jane's Profile

Hi everyone. I’m Jane! I had rheumatic fever at 21 and it left me with a heart murmur, but all was okay until I hit 50 in 2008, when I developed A-fib - paroxysmal at first but recently almost all the time. I also have left bundle branch block and last year they determined I had aortic valve stenosis, which is severe. I live in the UK and they do things a bit differently here - I turned 60 last week and an very overweight - I can’t do much exercise and stress-eat, so worrying about this has made my eating worse - you’d think it would spur me on to eat better! Half the time I’m positive and think “yes, I will be fine - I’m going to eat better and place my trust in God and my doctors”, and then the other half I’m like “I’m gonna die in surgery so why not eat the cheesecake/fries/chocolate/pizza etc” - I’m basically a mess. I have two daughters who are in their early twenties but no other family. My husband left a few years ago. I have a good job and am lucky in that I have private health insurance, which allows me to choose where I have it done and who by (standard UK gov healthcare doesn’t offer this routinely), but I am in a dilemma over whether to have a TAVR or a hemi-sternotomy. Has anyone else had a TAVR? Anyone else have A-Fib? Reading your stories I really wish ?I could get this dealt with in the USA as you all seem to have much better relationships with your medical teams. Over here it’s hard to get anyone to tell me much - they just say that I’m fat, so I ‘m high risk whatever I do. I really try not to be self-pitying but am not having much success!! I would love to hear from any of you as I have never met or talked to anyone with this heart problem. Thanks for reading! Jane