About Me (In My Own Words)
Hi. I'm a 40 y.o. woman, married, no children. I had an emergency aortic valve replacement on the 18th January 2021 in Dr. Negrin Hospital, Gran Canaria, Spain. My valve story might be a little different, as I hadn't planned it and it happened on holiday. I am originally from Romania and we flew to Tenerife for Christmas. We arrived there on the 19th December 2020 and I was very excited. I had been teaching online for about 2 months because of Covid and school lock-down and the weather in Romania was really cold, so I was looking forward to walking a lot in the everlasting spring of Tenerife. As soon as we arrived we walked 4 miles on the beach and the second day when we went out to walk again I felt I couldn't. I was moving very slowly, I was out of breath very quickly and then at night I couldn't sleep or even lie down horizontally unless I had a few pillows stacked up behind me. I could also hear a murmur in my throat. In a few days my stomach started to swallow and my feet as well, quite dramatically. I was also coughing a lot. At this point I need to mention that I am a congenital heart patient, I was born with pulmonary atresia with a ventricular septal defect, which is a birth defect of the pulmonary valve. Basically, pulmonary atresia is when this valve didn’t form at all, and no blood can go from the right ventricle of the heart out to the lungs. Surgery wasn't a solution to my problem in 1980 Romania, as doctors lacked the know-how and the technology, so I was extremely lucky to have a surgery in Germany, Dusseldorf at the age 11, where doctors managed to place a Waterstone fistula. I annually went to medical check-ups in Bucharest, Fundeni Hospital and once, when I was 18 back to Germany and things were going well. I traveled the world and lived in different countries, being very active, flying long distances. I never felt or acted like someone with a heart problem and except for taking an aspiring a day to keep my blood thin, I led a normal life. It's true, my lips and nails were always a bit purplish and I couldn't hike or run, but that didn't upset me or stop me from brisk walking, cycling, swimming which I actually learnt at the age of 33, my parents having been very protective of me.
In sept/oct 2020 I started coughing a lot inexplicably, I had strong chills for 10 days which I treated with antibiotics (Augmentin) and I felt I couldn't breath though the mask, so I chose to rarely go outside the house, especially as I am a teacher and had classes online. I started suffering from insomnia and loss of appetite, and I started checking my saturation which dropped below 80. It was around 76, on a couple of occasions even lower. My cardiologist in Bucharest said that it's probably nothing ( we spoke on the phone and texted) and that if I wasn't an emergency she couldn't see me because of Covid restrictions. So I went to a private hospital where I had a complete cardiac check-up and I was told everything was fine, my cough was probably due to allergies, asthma or bronchitis, so I had a lung X-ray which showed everything was fine. The truth is I've had prolonged coughing episodes my whole life, lasting 2-3 weeks, trying out different medicine until it succumbed, so I wasn't very worried about the coughing. It was just very irritating. So after a horrible couple of months, all I was dreaming about was walking for miles and miles on end on Tenerife's beautiful beaches.
As I was saying, we arrived here - because you'll soon see that it's March and we're still here - on the 19th December 2020. On the morning of 23rd of December 2020 we decided to go to the Emergency Room. I simply couldn't walk, was short of breath and hadn't slept since arrival. The noise in my throat was horrible. In ER they took a blood sample and did a Covid test. My Spanish is not very good and the doctor got really angry with me, started shouting and told me to go to the Emergency Room in Santa Cruz, because they didn't have a cardiologist there. I was pretty shaken up by the whole treatment, so I tried to delay it. I really don't know what I was thinking, but when she let me out we didn't go to Santa Cruz, we went back to the hotel, thinking that maybe we should return home... My cardiologist back in Romania still said it surely wasn't something to worry about. On the 25th December we drove in our rental from our hotel in Costa Adeje to Nuestra Señora de Candelaria Hospital in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Again, I hadn't slept at all the previous night and my breathing was shallow. They said it was heart failure and I had liquid in my lungs and I had to be hospitalized. My story is quite long for those who have time and patience to read, so I'm going to stop here for now and will add more entries these days.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Pitesti, Romania
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My surgery date is:
January 18, 2021
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I was diagnosed with:
Aortic Regurgitation
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My surgery was:
Aortic Valve Replacement
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My surgeon is:
Dr. Luis Rios
