Break it on down, one, two, three, four ….

"Since I haven't done this before, is this where I say thank you very much and see you soon … or do we negotiate?" said Annie to the surgeon trying to pin down a date.

Alas, I was thinking ya'll might have some serious questions before we get too far into funny quotes and what not. So enclosed is a link to go read up. Cliff notes version is that I was born with this. It is called Bicuspid Aortic Valve which is two leaflets instead of the three that look like the peace sign controlling the blood flow. With time, illness (endocardtitis) and child bearing (twice), the valve becomes less flexible and narrowed since its been overcompensating and calcified. The current diagnosis is severe aortic stenosis. I am barely tipping into the severe category and only starting to have symptoms like shortness of breath when I climb to the top of our three story twin or lug around 30lb toddler. Annoying. They want to catch it while I am uber healthy and not when I get very ill w heart failure b/c then there are complications piling up and makes recovery even more suckie. They are going to go in saw, snip snip, replace and sew. Click click click away I will go. Like I said, check out the link.

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/disorders/bicuspid_aortic_valve_disease.aspx