About Me (In My Own Words)
As a child I was diagnosed with having a heart murmur when I was examined after telling my mom about the occasional sharp chest pain that I was having. It didn’t hold me back, and I even served 4 years in the Navy. I guess you could say that I was a fitness freak during and after serving. I became an industrial automation engineer in the 80’s , and often worked 120 + hours a week as industrial automation exploded with the computer age. I started noticing an occasional skipped heart beat during workouts, and at first I just blamed it on stress, and the lack of sleep. The episodes became more frequent so I thought I would go for a quick checkup, I really thought it was only stress driven, and maybe my boss would give me some time off, and all would be well. After an ultrasound, followed by a CT scan, I was asked to wait to speak to the Dr, my heart literally skipped a beat, then an then another. I was told that I had a mild aortic aneurysm, and that I would need to start having these exams more often to monitor it’s growth. I was at 2.5 cm , and the limit before surgery was 5.5 cm. That news totally destroyed my ability to find peace of mind. That was in 1990, and just when I thought I could relax after 10 years of follow-ups, it was suddenly time! I was 45, and had a 5 year old little girl ! My cardiologist told ME that I needed to get it done soon, and “TRY TO FIND A THORACIC SURGEN WHO HAS EXPERIENCE REPAIRING ASCENDING AORTIC ANEURYSM’S”! ! What? Me? I don’t think Dr’s understand what pressure, and a sense of uneasiness that causes the patients. If things go wrong, then that’s on me not knowing how to pick the very best one! My Afib had become more of a chronic condition so my surgeon referred me to an electrophysiologist for an ablation procedure so that the arrhythmia would not be a complication during or after surgery. This was just 2 weeks before my surgery. The ablation attempt went terribly wrong and I left with Afib, atrial flutter, and 3 other arrhythmia’s, Vtach, SVT, and bradycardia! That was followed with being told that I had a bicuspid aortic valve, and that it was highly recommended that it was removed and replaced with a St. Jude mechanical valve. The valve is actually sown into the bottom of the synthetic aorta replacement. I was amazed that no one detected my bicuspid aortic valve before then, I had gone through multiple image exams over the 10 years leading up to this. It was also recommended that I start taking an antidepressant because of the likelihood of postoperative depression. I didn’t question it at all, though now, I really wish that I would have known enough about the use of antidepressant’s to question the timing of it. I know their all heart Dr’s, but a simple google search will tell them how long it takes to even know if an antidepressant can be tolerated, and the consequence’s if it’s not, on top of the trauma from the open heart surgery! The founder of this important website started because of the mental health issues that can arise from after open heart surgery.
My surgery was uneventful, and I only spent one night in the ICU , and placed in a room on the cardiac ward. I was having arrhythmia issues, and really wasn’t feeling that good when a physical therapist came in and asked me to sit on the side of the bed, and raise my arms. I told her that I wasn’t really feeling that good, so she said to just do it once and she’ll come back the next day. I brought my arms up once, and was jarred awake after I was successfully revived after an occurrence of sudden death. SCD , the ticket for the implantation of an ICD, defibrillator. They couldn’t put the ICD in until I recovered from an infection that required surgery, followed by a pulmonary embolism caused by the Heparin administered for the infection, HIT. It seemed like the problems were not going to stop! I think some thought should be given to the effects of being able to hear every beat, or in my case mis-beat of the heart has on a person’s quality of life! My surgery was in February of 2001. I developed heart failure soon after that was mediated somewhat when my medications was changed from Sotalol, the cause of the heart failure. I have been hospitalized multiple times to either be treated with an electrocardio conversion before I got a defibrillator shock, or to be checked out after receiving one at home. My Fitbit recorded days with a sustained heart rate between 160, and 200 bpm. I would get hit by the defibrillator if the SVT, or atrial flutter went over 200 bpm. I was told by several electrophysiologist that my arrhythmia’s could not be ablated and that I needed a total ablation, making my heart beat totally pacemaker dependent. I know a few heart patients that live that life, and I dreaded the thought. After being in the hospital at least once nearly every month of 2017, I happened to meet someone during a neurology visit that asked me if I had ever heard of CBD when she saw me slowly shuffle into the waiting room, pushing my walker, and having to sit down every 4 or 5 steps, to let my heart slow down before I got shocked.. I was at the neurologist in the hopes he could treat a chronic case of sciatica. It was the pain from the sciatica that was driving my arrhythmia’s. I’m a disabled veteran, and at that point I was on 480 mg of time release morphine a day. Surgery couldn’t even be considered because of my unstable heart. I really didn’t think that I would be living much longer, even if I wanted to after 17 years of this. By this point in my life, it was taking me an hour to slowly get out of bed every morning. My heart would immediately go into SVT when I woke up. I would slide out of my bed like slime, every single morning. Did I mention that I have heard every CLICK of my heart when I’m awake since my surgery in 2001? So has a lot of people, including my little girl. She wrote a paper talking about it made her think of my life ticking away. Tell me you could ignore an erratic clatter in your head no matter what you did. I read everything that I could in the 48 hours that it took for my CBD to arrive. There was quite a lot to read about. I read that it would probably take weeks for me to notice any real changes in my pain. I took a full dropper under my tongue before I went to bed. I was taking my Coumadin at noon so I didn’t have to worry about the P450 liver enzyme interaction that CBD has on Coumadin. I woke up 4 hours later with an ABSOLUTELY NORMAL HEART RHYTHM!!!!! I was always at least in Afib all the time! I sat up in bed and my heart stayed steady, I stood up, and it stayed steady!!!! That excitement should have thrown me into SVT and knocked me down like it did before if I stood up too quick. I have had a normal heart rhythm since then! The effects of CBD is slowly being discovered, you can google it yourself, you might be surprised. When I told my electrophysiologist about what happened, I reminded him about how he described what was going on with my arrhythmia’s, as an electric storm inside my heart. That’s the same description given for the difficult to treat certain epileptic seizures that CBD has been approved for treating by the FDA. It only make’s sense that it would have the same Nuro anti inflammatory effects on both electrical storms. I can’t wait for science and the FDA to come up with an official approval, though maybe now I’ll live long enough to see one! By the way, it was the CBD that kept my heart in rhythm when I forced my pain Dr’s to do a 10 day morphine detox via IV in the hospital in January of 2019. I never had any cravings or other issues after that detox, I’d love to know why!
I want to talk about the use of antidepressant’s. Having experienced postoperative depression myself, I learned that I DO NOT tolerate any antidepressant’s, and the added agony made my postoperative depression worse! Someone should have been watching for any adverse reaction’s, and responded immediately! I never really connected with the warnings about suicidal thoughts until they were mine. How could I be wanting to kill my self after surviving all of the complications, and actually dying ? I agree that the threat of postoperative depression should be addressed, but do it right, start the medications in time for any complications to be recognized before the surgery if at all possible. I was so desperate to stop the noise that I drove to an empty parking lot with a loaded 9 mm. My depression, and overall health was too much for my wife, and we were divorced a year later. I couldn’t work in my electrical engineering profession after I discovered the hard way that the EMI from the control panels that I designed could cause my defibrillator to shock me, when I powered one up. I nearly collapsed into the main breaker if not for someone grabbing my belt. The bad side effects of the antidepressant’s couldn’t have occurred at a worse time for me, and believe me, they tried them all when I drove myself to a mental health hospital. I just wish someone would have thought about trying them before I needed them.
My artificial valve is 20 years old now, and I wonder about what shape it’s in. In 2014 I had MOHS surgery to remove stage a 2 melanoma cancer from my face. Afterwards they did a blood test for cancer markers and I was told that my numbers were high, and was referred to an oncologist for consultation. He repeated the test and told me that I still had cancer somewhere in my body. The VA did a PET scan and it was negative! I went back to the oncologist with the PET scan report, and an article about hemolysis and it’s association with mechanical heart valve’s. He talked me into a second blood test which came back worse than the last one, and he told me that I had cancer somewhere in my body, and that it needed to be treated. In looking back at my notes about this, I just realized that I should be having someone check on the possibility of Hemolytic Anemia! I can only imagine the damage done to my blood cells during those endless days of a heart rate near 200.
I currently have chronic severe insomnia, memory problems , and undiagnosed GI problems. I’ve lost all quality of life, and the hope of getting it back lessons by the day.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Celina
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My surgery date is:
February 7, 2002
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I was diagnosed with:
Bicuspid Aortic Valve
Aortic Aneurysm
Atrial Fibrillation
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My surgery was:
Aortic Valve Replacement
Aortic Aneurysm Replacement
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My surgeon is:
Dr. Michael Jessen
