The New Cardio

Hope those of you that went back to work this week had a great week. I thought I would just give you all an update on the adults at the Richards House (courtesy of Randi).

Thursday I went in to have my tubes tied and a DNC because I have had lots of heavy bleeding and heavy intermittent bleeding...and I don't want ANY MORE sons. While the doctor was in there doing his job, he found a large fist sized cyst. It was attached to my ovaries and my colon. He drained it and it looks like it is fine and I will hopefully have a "normal" cycle and NO more boys!! Yea!!! for me.

On Thursday afternoon while I was in surgery, Anthony went to his follow-up visit with his cardiologist to find out test results from the many tests they preformed a couple weeks ago.

They told him that he has Hypertrophic Cardiomyopothy.

Here is what we've learned about Cardiomyopathy:

Cardiomyopathy, which literally means "heart muscle disease," is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium (i.e., the actual heart muscle) for any reason. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death or both.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which involves an abnormal growth of muscle fibers in the heart muscle, usually in the left ventricle. In this case, the volume of the left ventricle is normal or reduced, but the additional muscle fibers prevent the chamber from relaxing completely after contraction (diastole), making it a diastolic dysfunction. This is usually considered a genetic disorder, but can also be caused by high blood pressure and disease of the aortic valve. Severe thickening of the heart muscle may cause obstruction of blood flow from the left ventricle to the aorta, resulting in low heart output, fatigue, fainting and arrhythmias.

Another way of saying it:

In this condition, the muscle mass of the left ventricle enlarges or "hypertrophies."

In one form of the disease, the wall (septum) between the two ventricles (pumping chamber) becomes enlarged and obstructs the blood flow from the left ventricle. The syndrome is known as hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (H.O.C.M.) or asymmetric septal hypertrophy (A.S.H.). It's also called idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis (I.H.S.S.).

Besides obstructing blood flow, the thickened wall sometimes distorts one leaflet of the mitral valve, causing it to leak. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common inherited heart defect, occurring in one of 500 individuals. Close blood relatives (parents, children or siblings) of such persons often have enlarged septums, although they may have no symptoms. This disease is most common in young adults.

The symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy include shortness of breath on exertion, dizziness, fainting and angina pectoris. (Angina is chest pain or discomfort caused by reduced blood supply to the heart muscle.) Some people have cardiac arrhythmias. These are abnormal heart rhythms that in some cases can lead to sudden death. Often an implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is needed to shock the heart to restart a normal heart rhythm and prevent sudden death. The obstruction to blood flow from the left ventricle increases the ventricle's work, and a heart murmur may be heard.

The usual treatment involves taking a drug known as a beta blocker (such as propranolol) or a calcium channel blocker. If a person has an arrhythmia, an antiarrhythmic drug may also be used. Surgical treatment of the obstructive form is possible in some cases if the drug treatment fails.

Alcohol ablation is a type of nonsurgical treatment for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. It involves injecting alcohol down a small branch of one of the heart arteries to deaden the extra heart muscle. This allows the extra heart muscle to thin out without having to cut it out surgically.

What I have written is all we know for now. We are going to a specialist on Aug 27th so we will know more then. For now, Anthony is under strict orders to do NO strenuous activities at all. ...So maybe we will catch a movie or something. :) Anyway we will give you all updates as we know.

Please keep us in your prayers.