I am new to this forum and am not really sure what to do. I was diagnosed with a small asd of the heart last August at the age of 61. It came as quite a shock because I have no syptoms the hole was found by accident during an echo. At the moment I do not want the hole closed as I feel so well but the doctor although he said would monitor me for another year is not happy with me. I am afraid, not of the surgery but I know some people have an problems after closure. I am the only one who would like to wait a while and see how things go rather than jumping in for surgery?
Does anyone feel the same as me, I feel so alone, this is the forum I have found to talk to people. The hospital just sent me home with no support, I am so grateful that I have found this forum.
Thank you for reading this, I wish you all lots of happiness.
Hello and welcome!
I was diagnosed last year and had a catheter closure 9 months ago. I was 38 years old and like you had no symptoms, however, they came out of no where when I was 36. I struggled with exhaustion, shortness of breath and fainting. Since closure, I feel great!!! I’m so happy I can put this behind me.
It’s a shocking diagnosis, but know that there are a lot of us out there and it’s fixable! There are 2 options, open heart surgery and catheter closure. I decided to have te hole closed via cath, a simple painless procedure that is one day in the hospital with little to no recovery time.
Some people don’t need closure, it depends on the size and if your heart is enlarged.
Another good resources I used was the adult congenital heart association… Achd.org
Also… Facebook has a page for asd or hole in the heart. It had lots of adults with asd and we all share our stories. With all of these resources, you will start to read and see there are many people like you.
Good luck and God Bless!
I was 56 when they found a asd defect. It was also found by accident on a echo. I was afraid of surgery and of problems after surgery too. In Nov.2013 I had robotic surgery to close the hole. I had the surgery on a Thurs. and was home by Sun. afternoon. My ribs hurt a bit .It felt like I had worked out too much. The surgery itself produced five small holes on my right side that are now small scars. I have no problems and take a baby aspirin every day. Hope this helps . I was not a candidate for a catheter closure. Good Luck.
Well my advice is to see how you feel. I started having the symptoms that Jarboea1 mentioned. It finally reached a point where I was always out of breath. However surgery brings it's own side effects. Post surgery I now have heart palpitations which I never experienced before the procedure.
You may also consider getting a 2nd opinion. I saw 2 cardiologists and a cardiac cath surgeon before we decided
which procedure to have.
Good luck - there is lots of great advice on this board.
same here, have no symptoms was supposed 2 go tomorrow for the amplatzer device but had 2 cancel I am sick. Mine was found in an echo also, I feel like u but they told me once u get symptoms it might be 2 late
hi i live in edinburgh scotland in the uk ,i hope i can help i was in hospital last year with shortness of breathe and chest pains which they thought was a heart attack , turrn out to be a large asd after all the test i had done .so i take 80mg of furosemide because of the fluid caused by it which i have to take twice a day ,they did try to close mine by going through the grion but it did not work for me as my asd is to large , but i will say there were other ladies on my ward having the same procedure and they were fine ,your is small ,but it could start affecting your health in other ways if you do not get it fixed ,you could be more prone to chest infections and colds which will take longer to clear up with you having a asd i do not which to scare you ,but if i could had it done this way i would have. because now i am on a waiting list for open heart surgerywhich scares me to death but i will have it done because i want to get my life back to some normalaty and i am fed up feeling unwell i was fit and healthy when all this happen to me i have only one kidney but it did not hold me back before this happened.so i have doulbe trouble but i keep my chin up because i have great support from doctors and nurse that look after me and wonderful friends aand family and not to forget my dogs who keep me going ,so trust your doctors and the people that are looking after you .get better soon luv linda uk p.s i,am 58 years old.