Wednesday April 12th 2006.
I had a PFO closure with an Amplatzer occulder on Thursday 6th of April.
The echocardiogram I had afterwards revealed an enlarged left ventricle due to the heart being overworked to compensate for lack of effective pumping action, also some pericardial effusion,
There could be any number of causes, eg immune inflammatory reaction to the nickel device, previous Infection to name a couple.
I had 2 holes, 1 large 1 small back to back, One Amplatzer occulder was sufficient to fill one and cover the other,
It will take anything from 1 to 3 mths for heart tissue to grow over the implant,
I've read that the nickel/titanium it's made from leaches into blood levels for about a month afterwards until the heart tissue grows over it.
One of the Cardiologists I saw said the pericardial effusion should slowly disperse by itself any infection not withstanding,
my heart will rebuild and possibley downsize after about a year with new pumping ability.
I'm already feeling some increase in circulation because it's been extremely cold here in Tasmania since I got back and I haven't experianced any numb extremities at all,
(Usually the two end fingers on both hands go numb in cold weather)
It's strange my heart beat feels as if its pounding but isn't, I'm just used to it being ineffectual and not really noticable before,
Having a follow up echcocardiogram in a month.
Wednesday April 19th 2006
Exposure to nickel/titanium from PFO closure implant is causing me to be a bit hyper, flicky and inattentive ....
"The spreading of platelets has been linked to the thrombogenicity of materials.
Platelet studies here showed a significant increase in thrombogenicity on polished NiTi surfaces,
Nickel may upset the hormonal balance, Furthermore, a decreasing trend in alpha-tocopherol levels in plasma was observed after Ni treatment,
Nickel has an adverse effect on hepatic lipid peroxidation in animals, but simultaneous treatment with ascorbic acid offers a relative protection against nickel-induced hepatotoxicity,
The principal hazard of nickel to man, beside its carcinogenicity, however, is its ability to provoke reactions of sensitization"
Iron, selenium and iodine bind with nickel and zinc and affords some protection against leaching from the implant,
I already supplement with these and thought about increasing them but think I've already reached my upper limit and am hestitant to increase the amounts taken,
I have however increased the amount of Ester C taken from 1/2 the size of a match head to a whole matchhead three times a day,
I'll increase my lithium intake across the day and take 1 drop of vitamin E twice a day as opposed to 3 times a week.
Monday July 31 2006
I have since increased my amount of vitamin E from 1 drop a day to 50iu a day)
Both the
methylselenocysteine & selenomethionine,
I've been taking 1/3 of VRP methylselenocysteine 200mcg a day and 1/4 of Sourse naturals selenomethionine 200mcg, I'll try taking 1/3 of selenomethionine and 1/2 a cap
of methylselenocysteine instead of 1/3, increasing by only a small amount and see how that goes...
I'll increase the amounts of selenium in both forms from 1/2 a capsule of methylselenocysteine & 1/3 of a tablet of selenium from L-
selnomethionine) to 3/4 of each a day. This results in lowered blood pressure/higher tempriture and a bit of fibrilation,
After the op my blood pressure went down to 74 and I had a temperature of almost 38, I took one Blackmore's vitamin D3 and within two hours my temperature had dropped to 35, blood pressure started to rise and was at 90 the last time it was taken on Saturday the 8th, Interesting what the vit D did.
It's been roughly three months since the PFO closure with implant and my heart seems to have settled down, I'm not experiancing much irregularity of beat which ties in with what the cardiologist in Melbourne said about it taking three months for heart tissue to grow over the implant.
I started getting SAD (seasonal defective disorder) also a re occurance of irregular heart beat
I obviously need vitamin D for both of these reasons and re commenced use on June 7th.
[In reply to the above Andrew posts...
--- In who_knows@yahoogroups.com, "andrew"
A study on protection afforded by selenium against nickel toxicity...
"When the females or both parents were exposed to Ni, pup mortality
during lactation was high. However, when the females were drinking
Ni supplemented with selenium, all the pups survived and development
of the total mass of the litters was even better than in the control
group, In the tissues studied, nickel accumulated most in the
kidneys and then in the liver and skin. In each type of organ, there
was a clear dose response relationship. In the rat pups, in
particular, selenium (given to the females) increased the amount of
nickel in tissues compared with corresponding administration of
nickel without selenium. In summary, selenium seemed to counteract
the deleterious effects of Ni on the reproduction of rats"
In view of Andrew's post responding to mine on Who_knows and a corresponding study read (as above) I've decided to increase selenium supplementation,
Thursday May 25th 2006
Since the PFO closure altho I've been feeling a lot better in regard to energy, Moods were up and down with over angstyness and depression and I'm wondering if the better
circulation in the brain is lifting metals,
The immune reaction to the nickel/titanium wire in the Amplatzer occulder implant is always a worry as I do seem to get an immune response mounted by my body sometimes,
Due to the difficulty in combining the use of the uv vitamin D lamp/oral vitamin D for heart re growth with immunity suppression encounted from use of either I stopped using the lamp/oral vit d for the whole of May,