Cardiac echo

Hi @drumace,
It sounds like something your cardiologist needs to discuss with you. Seeing "moderate to severe" on a test would be concerning, so I hope you can speak to the doctor soon. Do you have an appointment to go over the echo results?

Yes, December 5th I have an appointment

Hello @drumsace, I'd like to invite @grandpamark, @bethsu66, @edkoch, and @jootzy to this discussion. They have all shared some of their journey with a septal myectomy on Connect, and although that is further than you have got with your own journey, they may be able to share what led up to the surgery with the septal muscle.

@drumsace, without speaking to your cardiologist it is hard for anyone to know for sure the level of severity in regards to your septal muscle results, so it is not my intent to invite members who have had a myectomy to worry you. They may good insight into what led to their surgeries and what they have learned in getting echo results and septal muscle readings.

@drumsace, have you had this echo done before? Has your septal muscle increased or is this a new reading for you?

I noticed I was diagnosed in 2020 per A CT scan witch I brought to my cardiologist on November 2nd so she ordered the echo witch I just had yesterday Thursday the 16th of November and I see my cardiologist again to go over the echo findings December 5th. Before this I was diagnosed with sick sinus syndrome and I have A pacemaker no defibrillator and I’m A retired scrub nurse and my last job was A first assistant on A heart team.

Hi @drumsace,
I am also an RN, from the ED. My PCP noticed a murmur during a regular visit late in 2021. I had an echo, and had the same degree of thickening, 16 mm as well as a 95% outflow gradient. I have been diagnosed with asthma in my 20s, which seem to worsen until the point at which I had the echo (turns out it was HOCM all along).
Mavacampten was not available at that time. I was very focused on fixing the issue once and for all with the myectomy surgery.
The procedure itself (April 2022) went well, but I had Afib on my last admitted day at Mayo and on the way home traveling to Seattle, but I was determined to get home (and as we both know no one’s ever died from having Afib 😝).
Unfortunately, this is when the ‘nurse curse’ began…
I had three bouts of pericarditis during the following three months. I also had a sternal infection which seem to be resolved within a month or so, but never felt real stability in my sternum in the months moving forward.
One year later, I was having significant clicking and rubbing in my sternum, and in spring 2023 I finally wrote to Mayo and they asked me to get a chest CT, which revealed I had a completely separated left sternum with broken wires from the original surgery.
I came back to Mayo in June of this year to do a plating repair, but upon opening my chest, there were there was not sufficient bone to allow for plating. The plastics team re-opened my chest three days later only to find a deep sternal wound infection, which is why my sternum never healed. After that procedure and another one for debriding the wound, they finally completed a bilateral pectoralis major flap repair, which was able to close the sternal wound and put me on the path to recovery (albeit with a PICC line for the next two months for antibiotics).
Needless to say, I have lived the worst case scenario for all of these processes, however, I still feel like the myectomy was worth it, as I am now symptom-free. Turns out I never had asthma I just had HOCM.
I can also recommend the amazing team at MAYO that took care of me. Dr. Dearani for the myectomy, Dr. Stulak for my sternal repairs, and Dr. Mardini from plastics for the wound care/flap procedures.
I know this is an incredibly detailed, and potentially concerning report of my process, but I would be very happy to talk you through any questions you have that may help you make a decision of how to move forward.

Yes I am familiar with Mayos in Rochester, I am from northern Illinois and we took our annual physicals in Rochester and I did all my surgical rotations at St. Marys.
That’s some terrible post op complications but glad the surgery was worth it! It will be interesting to see what my cardiologist says on December 5th.

Please keep us posted @drumace. Your Mayo Connect support group is here for you.

Great - keep me posted and happy to DM/do a call based on what you hear. My approach to the ED has always been to plan for the worst and see what actually happens. so as long as you imagine your worst possible scenario being mine, you’ll be fine. 😝