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What surgeries are available for obstructive HOCM?
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) | Last Active: Apr 24 8:38pm | Replies (7)Comment receiving replies
A childhood friend of mine is a retired cardiologist in the San Francisco area and recommended alcohol septal ablation for many of his patients in their 20's, 30's 40's etc. One was a triathlon participant who returned to such competitions. I am so very glad that at age 86 you seem to have done well! It's great for older patients because of the less body trauma during recovery. I was not a candidate for that because of the placement of my obstruction. The way it was explained to me was that a catheter going into a thigh vein to the heart delivered the alcohol to the heart. Less hospital time but longer recovery for the heart than a myectomy. The technique of your doctor shows us all that new things are welcome developments that benefit so many of us. Please let us know how your recovery is moving along and please explain the difference in how you feel now as compared to before the procedure.
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In order to have TAVR, my hypertrophic cardiomyopathy had to be dealt with. Luckily, the doctor did a heart catheterization, and found an appropriate place to do the alcohol septal ablation. If he had not found a good place, I wouldn’t have been able to have it.
My symptoms had been shortness of breath and fatigue. After the alcohol ablation, I am breathing much better and the Mayo team is delaying TAVR to let my heart heal further. It is even possible that my aortic valve stenosis may not be as severe now. In July I go back in July for an echo. I believe the Mayo team really expected me to need a pacemaker which I did not need. I feel so much better.
My previous cardiologist told me I was too old for these procedures. In fact, in his report, what he said was, they couldn’t do TAVR without dealing with the HCM. I can’t believe how close I came to believing I was too old and not getting a second opinion.
My procedure was not done through my groin; It was done through my wrist. Incredible experience. The only complication was, I was diagnosed with flu a the afternoon after the procedure, which kept me in the hospital for three nights instead of 1 or 2. Except for the flu, I felt better as soon as I got home. I had a flu shot so I didn’t get very sick.