About Me (In My Own Words)
Hello fellow heart sisters and brothers. I feel like I know all of you. This is to Jean Raber i apologize ahead of time for the run on and fragmented sentences. I have been following this site for a little over 2 years. I love reading all of your posts. I mourned with you Terri when you lost your beloved Hunter. I was disappointed with you Jean when you were discovering the difficulties of your situation. Duane Beaman you made me laugh so much before you had your surgery, now I don't see you and I am worried about you. Popeye your inspirational posts are very encouraging. Robyn my thoughts have been with you and David every step of your surgery and recovery. There is not enough time in the day to name each and every one of your posts that have touched my heart. So bear with me this is going to be long. I am a 30 year old stay at home mother of two boys, ages 8 and 9. I was born with an innocent heart murmur. It was always noted and heard at every doctors appt. I went to my ob/gyn for my yearly visit in September of 2013. This is the same Dr that delivered both of my boys, two very uneventful pregnancies and deliveries. OK so I went for my appt and Dr Raheja told me my heart murmur sounded louder than normal and he wanted me to get it checked out. He referred me to his personal cardiologist, Dr. Johnson. Dr Johnson ordered an ekg. It was normal, he could see the murmur, but he wanted an echo done. Went and had that done and I was told they would contact me after Dr Johnson had the opportunity to review my echo. Two and a half weeks passed. I was getting worried, but family and friends all said "Well, no news is good news!" I couldn't take the stress so I called the cardiologist office and left a messge. They called back within an hour saying I needed to come in immediately to discuss my results. My fiancé, Davy, drove me because I started overthinking every possibility. My family has a history of heart related issues. My paternal grandmother has a heart murmur, high blood pressure, clots that have led to a couple small strokes. My father has Wolf Parkinson White syndrome and high blood pressure. And a number of other family members also have high blood pressure. So my mind was in overdrive. I think it still is sometimes. Got to the Dr's office, they called me back very quickly. Dr Johnson asked right away if I had ever been really sick. Davy responded by saying that I had a really bad case of the flu a few years prior. Dr Johnson said no I mean when she was younger. I told him about my history with strep throat, which was quite often. He then asked about scarlet fever, I said no. Apparently between the ages of 8 and 13 one of those cases of strep turned to rheumatic fever, which then went to my heart. The mitral valve specifically. And it was so damaged I would need surgery very soon. He explained that i had regurgitation and stenosis and my valve was stuck in the open position. He also explained because I have had this for 15 to 20 years at time of diagnosis that the left side of my heart is enlarged due to all the extra work my heart was having to do. He ordered a TEE. He referred me to a surgeon, Dr Dennis. I had an appt. in the middle of October 2013 with him. He said yes I needed surgery very soon, like by January 2014, but I needed to get my teeth fixed. As soon as I got home I got on the computer and looked up Rheumatic Heart Valve disease. I found this website and ordered Adams book. Now the dental issues have been a hassle and yes I understand the importance of dental health and the heart. Since I am on state funded insurance, at that time it did not cover dental care for adults unless it was an emergency. Okay so I had help finding a low income dental clinic, which has been amazing. So for the past two years I have been into the dental clinic 30 some odd times for restoration extractions, deep cleaning plus a few regular cleanings. I had to do the pre med of 2,000 mg of amoxicillin before every appt. There were a few weeks where I know I had around 10,000 mg in my system. I went today 2/2/16 for my final evaluation before surgery. Yay! This has been one hell of a journey so far with all the Dr and dentist appointments. I know this journey has only just begun and I can't wait to be on the "other" side. OK so back in November 2015 I had what I call an episode. I started getting short of breath while watching tv. I took my bp, which is normally 100/65 on average, which was a little high, but my HR was 153. Which scared the crap out of me. So I went to the hospital. The ER Dr told me it was time to start worrying about my heart and not my teeth. I have been to see both Cardio Dr and surgeon. Who both said the last time I talked to them that the next time they would see me would be in surgery(surgeon) and after(cardiologist). This website has been a Godsend. Everything I thought I had a question, I came on here and someone else had already asked it. The only thing I wish was different about this website, I want to be able to type in my disease(rheumatic heart valve disease) and others with same disease would come up. And I wish I could type in one of your names and your page would pop up. If you're still here thank you for reading my long winded story, my grandma always said I could turn a paragraph into a book.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Gray Court, South Carolina
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My surgery date is:
February 15, 2016
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I was diagnosed with:
Mitral Regurgitation
Mitral Stenosis
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My surgery was:
Mitral Valve Replacement
Maze Procedure
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My surgeon is:
Dr. Hugh Dennis
