My Bypass WAS tomorrow…

UPDATE – Read here: Why the delays?

Ok… before we get into that lets rewind… here is a post about Where My Medical Journey Started.

Now through the years because of my Cardiac surgeries, CMT (What is Charcot Marie Tooth – CMT?) and with that my scoliosis and muscular atrophy that comes with it -I have had a fair bit of muscular skeletal pain and pain from scar tissue and common pain from surgery.

Every 1 or 2 years I have a Cardiac Stress Test, either running on a treadmill or having Dobutamine Stress Test (a chemical which is like adrenalin and speeds up the heart as if you are exercising, while really you are just laying on a table).

I really have had my fair share of Stress tests and Angiogram (where a special camera goes from my groin to my heart).

2 weeks ago I was rushed to hospital with bad pinching pain. I had a more intense angiogram. During this test they did a FFR – Fractional Flow Reserve, a IFR – Instantaneous Wave-free Ratio and a IVUS – Intravascular Ultrasound.

Basically they put in a pressure test wire in my artery and looked at it at rest and then with dubutomine in my system.

The really cool thing is the IVUS – it’s a ultrasound of the INSIDE of your teeny tiny artery. How amazing is that – here is a really awesome animation!

They have always been good and shown the same thing, that I have a 60-70% blockage (see Where My Medical Journey Started for more info).

However, now I am at the age when I am ready to have babies with my gorgeous husband and start a little family of our own – it is time to get fixed!

Between my aorta and pulmonary artery, I have another smaller (but as important) artery that is squished. As you can see below from my beautiful finger art in Paint!

So this squished artery has caused me some problems moving forward. Not only with the fact that age will make things harder on my heart to stay healthy with my current situation, but with starting a family of our own.

When you are pregnant your heart changes, swells and grows, therefore the pulmonary and aorta grow. Mine would the swell so much that it would squish that small artery so much it would block off and therefore cause a very dangerous heart attack (even a silent one). The damage to my heart would start as early as 8 weeks, and at 20 weeks I could have a heart attack at any moment.

So, my husband and I have made an informed and educated decision that we will wait until I have had this bypass, and after 6-8 months of recovery, we can start our beautiful family!

I am extremely excited to be able to have this surgery, it is giving me the strength I need to continue with our plans… because we have so so so many!