One event down, One to go

Whew... all went well, better than expected actually. For all of you that have been asking, I had to have heart surgery while being pregnant to fix a defect in my heart that was causing problems. The picture below shows the Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO)opening between the left and right atrial wall that shouldnt be there. Everyone's born with it open, but it 70% of the time closes. For the other 30%, most never notice problems, but some like me do.





So, to fix it I had Trans-Catheter surgery through a vein in my leg that goes to my heart to put a device in the space to keep dirty blood from flowing to my brain causing strokes (or mini strokes in my case).

Here's a pic of the device they put in my heart:



Now that i have had it done, i have gone from a 25% chance of having a full blown stroke to a less than 1% chance. The danger and need to doing it while i was pregnant is that when your in labor, matter from your uterus can be passed through your veins, as well as having increased blood levels, and my heart generally working harder...increasing the stroke risk that much more.

They wouldnt give me images of my own procedure, but here's what the device looks like in MRI images:



So needless to say i'm right as rain now, and after the tense emotional strain of the hospital stay all is good, and baby hasn't been happier. Now i can rest and prepare for the next big event...little baby!!!