Susan's Profile

In 2012 (at age 40), my primary care physician heard a murmur and ordered an echocardiogram which revealed that I had a bicuspid aortic valve which was moderately stenosed. It was monitored annually with echos which showed slow progression over 10 years. During this time, I ran over 6 miles 3x/week and swam over one mile 2x/week. I was feeling overall well except I was starting to feel a little more short of breath on my runs. My echo in April 2023, showed that my bicuspid aortic valve had gone from moderately stenosed to critical. I also had moderate aortic regurgitation and my ascending aorta was dilated to 4.6 cm. On 5/5/23, I had my aortic valve replaced with an Edwards Bovine bioprosthetic aortic valve and my ascending aorta replaced via median sternotomy. My inpatient stay went relatively smoothly: 1 night in the ICU and 4 nights on the telemetry floor. The day after discharge however, I had to go to the ER for lightheadedness, heart rate in the 40’s, and low blood pressure, likely due to my metoprolol dose being too high. 3 weeks, post-op, my family and I were in Reno for my two daughters' basketball tournament when I had palpitations, lightheadedness, lots of ectopy (extra heart beats), and HR in the 40’s. I was admitted to a hospital there and found to have atrial bigeminy with blocked PAC’s and I also had 2 episodes of atrial flutter. They changed my metoprolol to diltiazem to regulate my heart, started me on Eliquis to prevent stroke from the atrial flutter, and sent me home. Since then, I’ve been going to cardiac rehab 3x/wk and have been slowly improving. However, I’ve had to deal with unpleasant side effects of the diltiazem and chronic dizziness from likely vestibular migraines which predated my surgery. These events and the chronic dizziness have made it difficult for me to drive, especially on freeways. I’m often worried I might pass out. I have 3 more weeks of cardiac rehab and will be starting vestibular rehab soon for the dizziness. I’m trying to stay hopeful but the recovery has been slower than I expected. My goal is to get my running back to the same level to where I was at prior to my surgery. I have been able to swim again which has been wonderful. Cardiac rehab has been a godsend.