Anybody have VSD as an adult?

  • From the moment I was born I've had a VSD aka hole in heart. I had a lot of complications, the worst being when I almost died shortly after birth, and a number of other health issues my whole life. From my understanding most children born with a VSD have surgery early on. I never had the surgery, though I remember going to the doctors reguraly to check the progress of the hole. Fastforward a number of years, I'm now 23 and havent had any issues with my heart. The VSD doesn't affect me in any way, except that I cannnot scuba dive and when I go to the dentist I have to take 4 amoxacillan (sp) pills to fight bacteria that might get to my heart, the hole also gives me a heart murmer but no other complications. The reason why I brought up this topic is that my mom casually mentioned that I will probably end up needing heart surgery at some point. I haven't brought this up to my doctor as I haven't had any complications with my VSD so I'm not really concerned. I don't know anyone with a VSD so with this being a public forum, I thought hey, what the heck, it doesn't hurt to ask lol So my question is have any of you or do you know anyone who has dealth with VSD as an adult, and if you have inquired about having heart surgery? I honestly don't think I'd need surgery as it hasn't given me any problems in recent years, but I wonder if there would be possible complications as I get older. Well anyways, thanks for reading
  • I also had it, but mine closed naturally when I was quite young, leaving me with only a murmur. I do think that likely at some point you will need to have it fixed. I watched a show about a woman having debilitating migraines, and it turned it out was from blood getting through between chambers in her heart through a small hole.

    Thankfully, surgery isn't what it used to be. This lady had it fixed laproscopically, so she had 2 small incisions, not a big "crack the chest" surgery like it used to be.
  • you're lucky your's closed up when you were younger. Mine has yet to close on its own. That's really interesting to hear about migraines being related to vsd, I get them from time to time but not often to worry about, I guess the frequency of the migranes will be something I'll need to keep an eye on next time I get one.

    I am soooo glad the surgery has changed. When I was younger a doctor had brought it up but then decided that I wouldn't need the surgery since he thought it would eventually close up on it's own, which it hasn't. lol and I remember being sooo relieved even at that young age that I didn't need to get the surgery because I didn't want that massive scar on me, I'm so happy technology has improved since then, and who knows, maybe by the time if and when I need surgery it may be even more advanced than it is now.