John's Profile

My Rheumatologist heard a heart murmur in the middle of October 2015. He scheduled me for an echocardiogram. The echocardiogram showed a bicuspid aortic valve with moderate stenosis, mild regurgitation and an aneurysm of the ascending aorta measuring 4.9 cm. I went to a Cardiologist at the beginning of November and was scheduled for an angiogram. Thankfully, the angiogram came back clear except for the previously reported problems. I went to meet a surgeon and he told me that I had to have surgery. The sooner the better, but first I needed a CT scan. The surgeon couldn't believe that no one had found this before now. I "hit the roof" when I read the new CT scan report. It compared my aneurysm now to my aneurysm back in 2011. I had been to the emergency room in 2011 with chest pains and they did a CT scan then. My wife & I had been told that everything was fine and that my tests were all negative. I took a look at the CT scan report from 2011 and it said, "The thoracic aorta is normal in course and caliber without evidence of aneurysmal dilation or dissection." The radiologist MISSED an aneurysm that was 4.6 cm back in 2011. My aneurysm has only grown from 4.6 cm to 4.9 cm in 4 years. I am very lucky to still be alive today. It could've been much larger by today. The surgeon's office called me today (31 Dec 2015) and gave me a date for the surgery. The 14th of January. I wanted to put it off as much as possible, but they made it clear that I needed to do it soon.