AS can affect the heart.
We forget about this complication sometimes – but it hits very close to home for me because my Dad had the same surgery to replace a heart valve that a few AS’ers face. Recently I’ve been in touch with the wife of a fellow AS’er named Jason and he had to have a heart valve replaced the end of January. Jason’s wife Ali said that he’s having trouble with inflammation in his new valve after the surgery and that things are difficult for him right now. If it doesn’t subside soon he’ll be back in the hospital.
Please comment here or on the Facebook page of The Feeding Edge and send Jason your support and well wishes – let’s show him we’re behind him and pullling for him!
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 154 was created in watercolor.
From the Spondylitis Association of America
“The Heart
A small number of people with spondylitis will display signs of chronic inflammation in the base of the heart – around the aortic valve and origin of the aorta (i.e. that vessel which takes all blood from the heart to be distributed throughout the body). Years of chronic and silent inflammation at these sites can eventually lead to heart block and valve leakage, sometimes requiring surgical treatment. Although recognized, these cardiac lesions probably are seen in fewer than two percent of all patients with spondylitis, and nearly always in males. The lesions are readily detectable by the physician’s examination and when necessary, cardiac testing.”