Hello All;
Sorry I've not posted for a while. Things went a bit screwy as my last but one MRI scan showed a congenital abnormality on top of the constriction so I got shuffled from one team to another at the Heart Hospital in London. Another MRI was booked for 17th of January, but the fluid retention got so bad that I was taken into the hospital the week before Christmas for fluid offloading. This has improved things immensely and I feel a lot better. Also, whilst in hospital they popped me over to Great Ormond Street for the MRI and the team at the Heart Hospital will discuss their findings on the 9th of Jan. I have a checkup at the Heart tomorrow but don't expect to hear anything further with regard to the pericardiectomy until after the 9th. I think they need to decide now if it's worth correcting the congenital abnormality at the same time or not. Everything else seems to still be pointing to constrictive pericarditis as far as I can tell.
Sherwood, which cardiologist have you been in touch with? I have to say the teams at the Heart Hospital in London, both the GUCH team who I am now under and the Cardiothoracic people are excellent. Having spent a week in the hospital now, I am less concerned about the op and looking forward to being free of this whole episode of my life. I realise there are risks involved with the operation but have a lot of faith in the surgeons etc. Keep your chin up and try however hard it is to think of the positive side of this. Very few heart conditions can be 'fixed' and your husband stands a very real chance of getting back to a normal life.