2010 October 16, 17 (Saturday, Sunday)

Dr. S told me on Friday "You can learn more about Myxoma on internet".

Yes, that was true. The whole family spent the weekend by surfing web and trying to gather as much info about Myxoma as possible.

Here are some results.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/151362-treatment
This link says:
* No known medical treatment exists for atrial myxoma.
* Operative resection of the myxoma is the treatment of choice.
* The surgery is safe, with an early postoperative mortality of 2.2%.
* Some authorities believe resection should be performed immediately after the diagnosis is made.

http://www.eymj.org/Synapse/Data/PDFData/0069YMJ/ymj-47-367.pdf
This link says:
* Cardiac myxoma is a rare disease with an overall incidence of about 0.5/million/year1
* Although cardiac myxoma is rare, it is the most common
primary cardiac tumor.
* Seventy-four cases of cardiac myxoma that were surgically treated in our center between August 1980 and February 2005 were retrospectively reviewed.
* surgical resection is considered to be the curative method of treatment for cardiac myxoma.

http://www.trihealth.com/Robotic_Surgery/Speciality_Areas/Cardiac_and_Th...
This link describes "Robotic-assisted myxoma removal: a less invasive option"

My daughter found many other links, among them were these:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6.x/abst...

http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/82/4/1510?maxtoshow=&hits...

http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/2/186.short

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Here is one question from web:
cheryl:
I would like to know what does an atrial myxoma surgery entail? How long is the surgery and how do the surgeons do it? Is there a long recovery? Please help, I am worried. What are the risks? Thank you very much!!! Cheryl

Y. Joseph Woo, MD:
Atrial myxoma surgery entails open heart surgery to remove a tumor growing inside the heart. The operation lasts approximately three hours and recovery is usually very quick. Minimally invasive approaches, including robotics, can also be used to facilitate the operation. If you would like more information or would like to arrange an appointment, call 1-800-789-PENN or log on to pennmedicine.org.

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I also met my family doctor, dr. V, on Sunday (kind of "accidentally" - although I do not believe on "accidents") and informed him about Friday's findings. He recommended me to follow advice of the cardiologist, dr. S, i.e. to go for surgery.

All this (Friday's results, dr. S' advice, our research, dr. V's recommendations) built-up a "sense of urgency" in my family. The questions were:
* how to decide about the next steps (to go - not to go for surgery)?
* how to speed-up the angiogram test?
* how to speed-up meeting the surgeon, dr. R?
* who to call, and when?

I decided to go in person to see dr. S on Monday, even without any appointment, and to ask him some questions that "bothered" me.