Patient Story of Patricia Hubel

My Story

About Me (In My Own Words)

As an avid exerciser, I felt that I was "out of shape" and that not getting to exercise due to helping parents more...and gaining weight was taking it's toll on me. I had PVCs in December 2023 after sitting at my desk at work for 40 minutes. Ended up in the ER and was monitored. Nothing came of that except I was told to follow up with my PCP. Late January, I saw a doctor (not normal PCP) who gave me lecture about how PVCs were generally nothing and that if there was an issue to come back. I stood up to leave and said "Good. I intend to lose 5 pounds a month through exercise and better diet this year." Then he stopped me and said "Exercise? Well maybe you should have a treadmill test." I agreed to it because I am studying kinesiology in doctoral program and was in exercise physiology course and we were studying cardiology. I thought it would be a great learning experience. A week later, 4 minutes into the treadmill test, it was stopped and the cardiologist told me the EKG was all over the page. He said he would come in early the next day to see me. So I was there at 7:30 AM and met with him to get scheduled for a cath, lab work, and an echo. The cath was schedule for the next week...and the lab work and echo were done that morning. At noon, I was told that I had a severely stenosed aortic valve and would need open-heart surgery or TAVR. After the echo, I was told the same but the doctor who did that noted that the best option for me would be open-heart due to my age (63). That was February 8th. I became my own advocate and pushed for when I would get in for surgery consult only to find out I was on the URGENT list. I was seen 2/28 and surgery was 3/11 for my 58% stenosed valve. I had a biosynthetic valve placed rather than mechanical. The nurses and medical team were all top rate! I was hospitalized for a week and then home to recover but had a secret weapon there - my aunt, a retired nurse, came and cared for me for about 10 days!

After 6 weeks at home, I returned to work and have been on the road to recovery ever since.