Shaun's Huge Heart

We seem to be doing things BIG at our house lately.  Shaun had a doctor appointment with our primary care doctor, Kellie.  (He just switched to her because the girls and I absolutely LOVE her.)  This was his first appointment with her and it was actually a telehealth video appointment.  He was seeing her for something entirely unrelated, but in passing mentioned that he's been having some on and off chest pain for a while.  She immediately jumped on that and ordered a stress test as well as a sleep study.  The sleep study came back showing severe sleep apnea, which with that we weren't at all surprised.  His stress test was pretty normal but Dr. Beard who performed the test at the hospital said he'd like to order an echocardiogram just to further check some things and he was certain Kellie would, too.

Fast forward to there being confusion in who was supposed to get results.  They went to Dr. Beard first and then we got it sorted out and had them sent to Kellie.  The results we got from Kellie were that Shaun's aortic heart valve is not functioning properly.  It's very enlarged and his function output is about 40%.  She said she was going to call down to the University of Utah to get him scheduled with a cardiologist and was going to push it to be ASAP, that we weren't waiting around for a far out appointment, which they would most likely try doing.  They were able to get us in a week later.  Dr. Beard's office had called Shaun and said that he wanted to see him ASAP.  He explained that he had an appointment scheduled with the U and they said based upon how soon they were getting him in, to go to that appointment and just keep them updated.  (More urgency= more scare for us!!) Kellie had mentioned that it would most likely result in surgery but that there's a procedure called a TAVR which has good results and a relatively quick recovery.  So we've read all up on it and on the condition.  WebMD, Google, Mayo clinic...thank heavens for these online sources, right?! It sounded like the TAVR would be perfect; it seemed to fit the symptoms.

We had the appointment yesterday with Dr. Goodwin and his cardiology team at the U.  They were very thorough and patient as we asked 100 questions.  The verdict for Shaun is different than we were hoping for.  The damage to his heart is more severe than we thought and he's not a good candidate for the TAVR.  Instead, he will be going in for open heart surgery on October 12th.  He has an aneurysm in his heart and severe aortic valve regurgitation.  The doctor wants some additional tests, a heart cath and CT scan, done prior to surgery just so he has a very clear picture of everything with his heart and can check for any additional problems he should be aware of.  This is something that has obviously been going on and worsening for quite some time due to the extent of damage.  

We are scared to death but know we have a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of us!  I'll be forever grateful to Kellie.  She just may have saved Shaun's life and I don't take it lightly for that blessing in and of itself.