Surgery and heart safety and DCM

I was lucky and was able to come back to the normal range of heart function after being in the failure range from dilated cardiomyopathy  just last year.  That is great.  Now, I have to have surgery for a RA related joint and I do have the cardiac clearance for it but I am still nervous about the heart during surgery. It's only supposed to last an hour, so that is good, but again, still a but nervous.  I plan to talk to the anesthesiologist about this but wondered if anyone here has been in a similar situation.
I wonder how taxing is surgery on the heart.  I have and surgery before and other procedures under general anesthesia but that was years ago before cardiomyopathy. My cardiologist is a good doc but he is not a sit around and talk about all my worries kind of doc.  And yes, that is not ideal, but I do trust him and he would test me anytime I feel the symptoms are back, which he did do a while back.
Also, does anyone with DCM that has gotten better still have shortness of breath?

[kenkeith]

Hi Athena,

I received your email, and thanks for sharing your concern on this forum. I had dilated cardiomyopathy and that led to congested heart failure...with CHF there is respiratory edema and with that there is shortness of breath and worse....hyperventilating, feeling of not get enough air, etc. especially when lying down. I don't have shortness of breath unless I am in an expected condition from exertion, etc.

Thanks for your question.  Take care.

Ken

[AthenaSB]

Hi,
So you do get some shortness of breath.  Yeah, I remember what you had.

I also went through CHF as well.

Do you have any thoughts on surgery with our kind of history?

Thanks

[kenkeith]

Yes, I had shortness of breath and a heart rate at rest of 115 at the emergency time. The surgeon did not want to operate (total occlusion of LAD for a bypass at time I was in ICU, and mitral valve regurgitation) because the left ventricle was enlarged and there was no emergency.  It was felt the mitral valve regurgitation could be helped by reducing the heart size...it didn't happen...heart LV returned to normal size but MVR remains.

Take care,

Ken

[ed34]

Perhaps rather than speaking to the Anaesthetist, it would be a good idea to clear your heart with a cardiologist, who would have a much better idea of how strong your heart is. It is usual for a surgical team to get the consent of a cardiologist before surgery anyway, especially if you have had a history of problems.

[AthenaSB]

Oh, I did get clearance from my cardiologist, of course.  I was doing that anyway and they also required it.  It's just important to tell your anesthesiologist before surgery about anything going on, which i did.  They always want to know that stuff. Thanks