Rebecca's Posts

i’m so sorry to hear that your husband has Covid. I just recovered from it. Managed to avoid getting it for five years and now I’ve had it twice in less than nine months. Each time I was prescribed Paxlovid which I highly recommend. Fortunately Covid never affected my lungs, however, I still have lingering sinus congestion. Tested positive on 9/14 (day 2 of feeling ill) and tested negative on 9/22. Paxlovid works fast! By the 2nd day I felt a lot better. From what I understand if someone is taking cholesterol lowering drugs, they prescribe something else called Tamiflu ( studies show that it keeps people out of hospitals and lowers risk of death, however does not decrease duration of Covid) Paxlovid can affect how other medications are absorbed by the body and apparently cholesterol lowering drugs cause dangerous levels so that’s why they do not prescribe it to people that have to take certain medications.

Thank you so much, Pamela. I am sorry you had to go through it and glad you are feeling better. We will contact my husband’s doctor tomorrow and see what they advise. He is not on any other medications. Did you primary care advise you or your cardiologist/cardiac surgeon?thank you again.

Your husband will be in good hands with Dr. Castro. Another echo in 2 years seems a long time. As for Covid, I don't know about any connections to heart issues. That doesn't mean there aren't any. I probably had covid 3 times or so since my last heart surgery. The biggest issue to me seems the coughing which is a problem if you just had OHS.

Rebecca- You're a wonderful wife and your husband is fortunate to have such an incredible advocate. I would say that generally the word 'mild' in front of cardiac conditions is not a reason for concern. Many people live their entire lives with mild cardiac conditions with no problems or intervention. Your husband's mild dilation may never progress any further. Since he will continue to have periodic checkups with a cardiologist, his heart will be monitored on a regular basis. You'll know if and when additional attention is warranted. Please let us know what his physician says.

Thank you Robert. Yes, we are looking into all of that. Blood pressure is a little high so waiting to see the cardiologist for a plan. I am not sure if he is going to need any more tests. We have not heard from the cardiologist since it was done on Tuesday and looked at the results and started to worry. I hope he will contact us on Monday. He is at Stanford in CA.

Hi Rebecca, sounds like we live around the same area too :) We are new to CA and my cardiologist is at Stanford too. As others have said, it's probably good news that it's mild so hopefully it's more of a situation that will just be monitored! But he'd want to be sure to keep his lifestyle is healthy; keeping blood pressure and cholesterol in check etc. I kind of hate that they release these test results before we can even talk to the doctor, makes it so hard not to worry. Wishing for the best and keep us posted.

I am going to put a bit of a different perspective on this. I actually like to get results before I meet with the doctor. This allows me to do some research and come up with a list of questions. If I don't know the result until I meet the doctor, then I am sure I will miss questions.

Thank you so much Kate and Robert. Great advice and I agree that it may be good to have a little time to research the detail. However, it has now been a week and even though we have contacted the doctor’s team a few times, we have heard nothing. This length of time causes a lot of anxiety. nice to know we all live so close to each other.

Yes I can see both ways of looking at it. I like to do my own research but it causes me anxiety sometimes too. I love my cardiologist at Stanford but they can definitely be slow to respond about results. Have you tried both calling and messaging through MyChart? Sometimes I get them to move on it faster if I do both. Waiting is so hard. Have you seen this article/ video on this site in the meantime? It's from the surgeon I'm going to actually. https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/learning/dilated-aortic-root-progression/