Matters of the Heart

Chapter 10

Jesse sat up propped in his hospital bed, Abbey sitting in the chair beside his bed, holding his hand. The door opened as if on cue, and Ryan Tenney walked in the door. Both Jesse and Abbey were relieved. Jesse was anxious waiting to hear the results of his catheterization and what form of treatment would be suggested. Abbey was anxious waiting for Dr Tenney to arrive to deliver the results of Jesse's catheterization because she already knew the results and already knew what treatment was available but was anxious to hear what form of treatment Jesse would choose.

"Jesse how are you feeling today?" Dr Tenney asked as he took his stethoscope from around his neck and place it in his ears and approached Jesse's bedside.

Jesse just nodded. "Ok. Pretty Good so far"

"No more episodes since the cath?"

Jesse shook his head. "No. Other than a little tightness but the heaviness is gone and no pain"

Dr Tenney placed the stethoscope to Jesse's chest.

"Ok Jesse take some deep breaths for me, ok?"

Jesse did as he was instructed and Abbey watched him carefully as he deeply breathed in and breathed out.

"Lungs sound good. Any shortness of breath at all?"

Jesse shook his head "No but I think the oxygen has probably helped. Right before everything started happening, I just couldnt catch my breath"

Dr Tenney nodded as he listened carefully to Jesse's heart. Again Abbey was focusing.

"How does he sound?" Abbey asked.

Dr Tenney wrapped the stethoscope around his neck and nodded. "He sounds ok. Murmur is definitly there which is what we need to talk about. Jesse"

" So what's wrong with my heart?"

"Jesse good news is you have no type of blockages. But you've developed something called Aortic Valve regurgitation. First of all, the aorta is the hearts main artery. The aortic valve on a healthy heart has 3 flaps. They open and close, and ir controls the blood flow in and out of the heart. But when you develop aortic valve disease, there are only 2 flaps and the aorta doesn't function as well as it should. Am I making sense so far?"

Jesse looked over at Abbey who offered a smile, and then he nodded at his Dr.

"The type of aortic valve disease you have is Aortic regurgutaion. And what that does is the valve in your aorta, it isn't closing all the way and it's pushing some of the blood back into your heart. And that makes your heart have to work that much harder because of that extra blood flow."

"How is this not terminal?"

"Well, Jesse it can be, it seems like we've caught yours pretty early on. Now usually this is a congenital disease. But it could have been caused by your stress induced cardiomyopathy which I was leaning towards to in the beginning but it could also very easily been caused by your case of Covid."

"When I had covid I had the really bad cold, I had a bad cough and a bad head cold and migraine that lasted 3 weeks. Like the flu that just wouldn't go away. I slept for weeks. I didn't have any trouble breathing or anything like that."

"And that may be true, but covid has been such an odd disease, even almost a year in its still a mystery to us and it's leaving lingering effects. You were definitly one of the lucky ones. It very well could have been a congenital effect that was aggravated by the effects of the virus. "

" But if I was born with this, then I would have problems my whole life right?"

"Not necessarily. It's actually quite normal to have everything function as it should for years. However, when you start having symptoms, which you are having symptoms, that's when it's imperitave to take it seriously. Funny enough, no matter how your aortic valve ended up damaging, it is usually in men and issues don't arise until their 30s to 40s which you are right in the middle of"

Jesse nodded taking everything in. "Ok in the beginning you said it could be reversible"

Abbey finally began to speak up. "That was when we thought this was strictly stress induced cardiomyopathy. But the catheterization showed damage to your aortic valve so now we have to focus on treating the damage. "

Dr Tenney nodded. "That's right but it's totally doable. Look you're young. You're in excellent shape Otherwise. The good thing for you was that you were already in outstanding cardiac health before all of this so that works in your favor."

Jesse nodded again. "Ok so what's the treatment. ?"

Dr Tenney looked over at Abbey, when Jesse noticed this, he too lookes at Abbey, still gripping her hand. She nodded at Ryan, signaling him to continue. 

"Well there's 2 options. And that's where you decide what you is best for you. I will detail both options but it's what you feel will be the best for you"

Jesse looked over at Abbey. "It's up to you honey. This is your body, it ultimately effects you" she told him .

Jesse shook his head and tugged on their joined hands. "No it affects both of us now. It's not just me anymore, its us" She softly smiled and nodded. She stood up from her chair and stood by his bedside. She placed her hand supportively on his shoulder.

"Ryan explain what Jesse's options are"

"Well option number 1 we put you on medication and see if the symptoms go away. But in order to keep you from having symptoms you would be on several cardiac meds for the rest of your life. Now the medication would treat the symptoms not the damaged aortic valve. In order to truly correct the damage to your aorta, you'd need open heart surgery"