One person's timeline
Not a highlight reel. The waiting and the second-guessing took far longer than the surgery did. Each stage below is its own page — click through for the full account.
[Your details here — what sent you to a doctor, and what they heard or noticed.]
The echo takes minutes. Understanding what it means takes much longer. Ask for a copy of the report — you’ll need it for every conversation after this.
This was the hardest part, and nobody warns you about it. One said watch and wait. One said operate now. Learning which questions to ask was what finally made the choice mine instead of theirs.
[Why open repair rather than a device, in your case — and how you picked the hospital and the person.]
You go to sleep. Somebody repairs a wall inside you. You wake up in intensive care with tubes and a very sore chest, and it is already behind you.
[Where you are today — honestly, including what’s still hard.]