Good News/Bad News. Why do they come together?

Wednesday’s CT scan revealed more than I wanted.

I got a call from my cardiac surgeon yesterday. My mitral valve is calcified (which I knew back in 2015 when I was first considering surgery), which means it’s not an easy fix. I figured he was going to tell me that I would have to have the traditional open heart surgery and have the valve replaced, but no.

Instead, he said they might be able to fix my leaky valve with a clip, which would be inserted via the groin. No open heart surgery. This was the first I’d heard of a clip. But before he would go any further with how that would occur, he had some bad news for me.

The CT scan also revealed a spot on my kidney. Now, this spot could be nothing. My cardiac surgeon said he’s not an expert with kidneys, so he called my cardiologist and she’s going to get with my primary care physician and have the tests looked at by someone who is an expert with kidneys. I am to expect a call from someone to let me know what my next steps are.

In the meantime, my surgery has been cancelled. Might have been cancelled even without the kidney issue because of the calcified valve. But man, I tell you, this news just depressed the heck out of me.

I want my heart fixed and I don’t want to have to worry about another health issue. I hate feeling in limbo like this.

Anyway, that’s the news and I thought it best to just share it now instead of waiting until next Wednesday. In the meantime, I don’t have to prepare for surgery. Granted, I wasn’t looking forward to it, only looking forward to the results. Now I’m just nervous.

I do want to thank everyone for the good mojo sent my way. Because if there is something bad going on with my kidney, at least it’s being looked at now. And hopefully early enough it can be treated. Gotta keep thinking positively to get out of this funk I’m in.

Stacy