It Was Found By Accident.....

.....But by the grace of GOD. Yesterday at work the ECHO department had gotton a new ECHO machine to work with. I volunteered myself  for them to do an ECHO on me. Dena was saying "Niki you have great pictures, look how good this looks. When across the room Lisa said " look at that"!!! Much to my surprise there was to what looked like an ASD (a hole in my septal wall separating my two atrial chambers) Yes that is what Ben had repaired in June of 2007. I was not to worried or concerned. So I called my PCP to get her to order an ECHO with bubble study to better diagnose/rule-out the defect. Well today I had the study and lo and behold I have a PFO and ASA. (patent foramen ovale and atrial septal aneurysm) The PFO typically closes shortly after birth but in my case it didn't and the aneurysmal area is a weakening in the wall. I have not been symptomatic or having any problems. I got Dr. Jones to read the study for me and he said there is only 20% of people with this type of defect and all that is recommended is taking a baby Aspirin to prevent TIA's(transischemic attacks/light strokes). I will have an ECHO yearly now to evaluate the defect and make sure there s not any changes. Dena who did my ECHO kept apologizing  but it was GODS will for this to be found and me not have any serious problems later on. What is the likely hood of both Ben and I having congenital heart defects that are not so common. Ben's was the least common of ASD defects.