u/UTtransplant

I need to vent about a Noctor my husband saw as his PCP for 6 years. MD/DO PCPs are hard to come by in my community, so that’s who he ended up with. His NP moved to a different practice location 1 1/2 years ago, so I convinced him to transfer to my PCP, a PA. He had seen the NP at least yearly for regular well-patient physical exams with no issues except renewing his existing cholesterol and thyroid medications. However his first visit with the PA indicated a heart murmur. We just finished the complete work up at Mayo Clinic Rochester (we are in a small town and it is close to us), and it is a severe aortic stenosis caused by calcification. The cardiologists all said the murmur must have been present for a long time to be so advanced. We are lucky, the TAVR is scheduled in two weeks, and we have a good plan going forward, but I am livid! What if he hadn’t transferred his care to the PA? What if his murmur had gone undetected for 2, 3, 5 more years at which point he could have really had heart damage? Luckily he has no effects beyond limited exertion, but it could have been so much worse. I am still trying to decide whether I should write to the practice with the NP currently and complain. Will it do any good?

Writing for my DH who doesn’t Reddit. 73 yo male with severe aortic stenosis. After discovery of a murmur, we went to the Mayo Clinic which isn’t far from us. Had all the tests - echo, CT, X-ray, stress test, lots of blood work. His aortic valve is calcified just due to age. He has low thyroid corrected with medication and higher cholesterol that has been corrected with medication for years and years. He is in pretty good shape, or so the cardiologists says. We saw doctors in the valvular clinic, IR cardiology, and cardiovascular surgery. All are confident he is a good candidate for a TAVR instead of OHS. Most of the posts here seem to be from younger patients with OHS, so I am interested in hearing what type of recovery older patients have with TAVR. I know what the patient education said, but real world experiences would be helpful. Can folks respond with their personal stories of TAVR?