Hi Kevin,
At the time, I didn't really think much of it (the bronchitis). I thought I had the flu, but we were busy at work so I "toughed it out". I finally went to an urgent care center at the beach when I was on vacation. He diagnosed me with broncial pneumonia and put me on Zithromax, which didn't help. When I got back home I went to another urgent care center and she diagnosed me with bronchitis (again) and I got more antibiotics, a steroid shot and some cough medicine. This helped briefly and then it came back. I didn't have a PCP at the time so I found one and he treated me with steroids (oral and inhaler), cough syrup, and more antibiotics. After a few weeks I "seemed" to get over the bronchitis, but then developed prostatitis. What I'm getting at is that at no time between June of 03 and October of 03 did anyone do a blood culture to see if I had a bloodborne bacteria (they checked my white count and it was high...but not "alarmingly" high). While I was in the hospital in October after they found out I had endocarditis, my infectious disease doctor said that I had probably been developing endocarditis for months, and if it would have been caught earlier they could have been more aggresive with treatment (which may have saved my valve).
To answer your question about symptoms, yes I felt fatigued and had a fever. Whenever I was given steroids (either injection, pills, or inhaler) that seemed to "perk me up" for awhile. In retrospect, it was probably just masking the problem. By the time they finally did a blood culture, I was having chest pain radiating to my back, had a constant low-grade fever, had lesions on my hand, and could barely get out of bed. They did the blood cultures on a Friday afternoon and my doctor called me Sunday morning to tell me they were already positive for strep (that's fast). By Tuesday afternoon I was in the hospital.
When you see your cardio, just ask him about getting a set of blood cultures. It's so logical for a "valver" with an infection in their lungs to have this done. I think I was even more at risk since I had a VSD, a prolapsed valve and regurgitation. The VSD allowed the blood to get into my left ventricle and pool, and my "funky" valve gave the bacteria a good place to "set up shop".
BTW, the overall mortality rate for endocarditis is 25%!!!. Nothing to play around with.
