On Borrowed Time at The Mayo Clinic - Rochester MN

Today was a rough day. After 3 long days on the road traveling from Virginia to Rochester MN, close to 19 hrs driving.. I finally arrived at the Mayo Clinic yesterday. I got settled into the hotel and today went to my appointments. I have been coming to Mayo for the last 25 yrs. The last time however that I was here was in 2010 when I had my 3rd pacemaker installed.

Two months ago I went in for a local checkup and discovered much to my shock, that my pacemaker had malfunctioned and died in 2014 and for two years I was clicking along without a functioning pacemaker. I had met with the the Virginia Cardiologists at Inova Hospital, which is known as one of the best heart hospitals in the Northern Virginia area. They said that my heart sounded great, everything was wonderful and that I was in tip-top shape. And so.. I assumed that my trip to have my pacemaker replaced here in Mayo was just that.. for the pacemaker only. I went through a battery of tests today and met with my Cardiologist... to discover that .. .. my heart got worse.. and they believe that I either have a blood clot on my 25yr old mechanical mitral valve.. or I have growth around the valve.. either one of those means that my valve is not functioning correctly which is making me short of breath and causing other health issues.

Oh.. and the thing that ticked me off.. I got misdiagnosed at Inova.. those boneheads told me that my heart was fine.. and here at Mayo they picked up on a blood clot or a problem immediately.. and the guys at Inova thought was great.. WTF... imagine if I had just taken them at their word.. I might have died!

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This news was a shocker to me.. I wasn't expecting it. Tomorrow I am undergoing a Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE) ... Yay, Meaning that they will be putting camera down my throat to look at my heart and see what is going on.

I am quite worried about this.. I've had 10 open heart surgeries.. and the last one nearly killed me. They said that I am almost operable... meaning that they are going to have to figure something out for my special case.

If ya can spare a prayer.. please say one.. if you don't pray.. think a good thought..

Thanks!