TenPly
Well-known member
...here I am. What's up everyone, my name is Bryan. I'm 21 years old and soon I'll be experiencing open heart surgery like many of you have. I didn't want to join this forum and talk about it partly because that would just make it more real. And I haven't quite grasped the reality of what I'm about to experience.
Finally I realized that this might help me along the way as I wait and prepare for this surgery on September 1, 2005.
3 years ago, I was a freshman in college when I visited the campus clinic because of neck pain. The doctor did a routine check on me and listened to my heart. She expressed concerned about the sound it was making and that was the day that I learned what a heart murmur was and that I had it. A very loud one too. She asked me to see my regular doctor about it soon and let me go.
Being the carefree college student I was, I just forgot about it and never did follow up with my doctor about it.
Fast-forward to May, 2004 -- I had just moved into my first apartment a week earlier and was driving in morning rush-hour. It was overcast that morning and suddenly, my heart began to flutter badly. It was bad -- felt like it was trembling viciously. Not beating, just sitting there trembling.
Everything went black and I ALMOST passed out. Keep in mind, I'm in the car on the freeway. By myself. Everything's going black, but the car is still moving. I panic, thinking I'm about to faint. I began to breathe deep and cough to try to get my heart beating right again. It worked and thankfully I avoided passing out and kept driving (I sure did!), thanking God for not letting me crash.
Whoo, this is already too long.
I brushed off that incident and continued to my destination. After telling my parents about it later that day, they freaked and made me go to the ER the next morning to get checked out. I did. Fell asleep in the waiting room while I waited. I told him what happened, he asked me questions and checks me out. And here comes the stethescope. Now I'm in a bed in the ER, where they performed 12,572 tests on me and ultimately, I'm admitted to the hospital. Everybody is worried. I'm annoyed.
During that time, they monitored me, tried some meds out on me for fun, drew blood and tested it a lot and 36 hours later, I was released with a prescription for Lopressor.
While I was there, the doctors educated me about my heart and informed me that my mitral valve was leaking and I may need surgery for it "down the line", but not right now. Remember, this was last year.
Fast-forward again to January 5, 2005. I go to see my regular doctor and he checks me out. Overall, I'm super-healthy EXCEPT...
He whips out that stethescope and gets an earful of my noisy heart murmur. It's a loud one for sure. I get a referral to the cardiologist. Days later, I'm there, and they do an echo of my heart. Afterwards the head cardiologist comes in with a couple of her collegues to inform me that my leaky valve is at it's worst point and surgery is necessary NOW.
I'm a strong, resilient person...but after leaving the hospital that day, I got on the phone with my mom & dad and cried, telling him what they said. I went over their house teary-eyed, showing them the test results from the echo. They comforted me and I began to educate myself about mitral valve regurgitation.
I had two appointments following that echo. One with a cardiologist at the International Heart Institute at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He prescribed Coreg and referred me to the cardiothoracic surgeon.
A week later, I went into my appointment with the surgeon rather non-chalantly. Still not realizing the magnitude of all this. He looked over some notes, test results and checked me out. Then threw out a bombshell. "Bryan, you need two new valves -- an aortic valve and a mitral valve." He was puzzled by the severity of my condition and my complete lack of symptoms.
He showed great concern and wanted to move things along quickly. I was scheduled for a CT scan of my chest %2(to measure my ascending aorta) in 4 days. In the meantime, I raced off to Las Vegas with family. Then I came home.
CT scan was done that Tuesday and a week later, I saw the surgeon again. He examined the results. With an EF of 45% for my mitral valve and an aortic root dialated to 5 cm, we finally scheduled surgery. He went over some things with me and then offered a short prayer with me before the appointment was over.
Now, with my surgery scheduled, I'm facing a mitral valve replacement, aortic valve replacement and an aortic root replacement on 9/1/05.
I've been reading this site and it's been incredibly helpful as I wait. I'll be grateful to get through this and go on with my life. I plan to post updates for you guys before, not during, and after my surgery. I don't see too many kids my age who share the same experience talking about this. So hopefully my story will help another person (young or old) who's facing the same thing as all of your stories are helping me!
I'll keep everyone updated!
Finally I realized that this might help me along the way as I wait and prepare for this surgery on September 1, 2005.
3 years ago, I was a freshman in college when I visited the campus clinic because of neck pain. The doctor did a routine check on me and listened to my heart. She expressed concerned about the sound it was making and that was the day that I learned what a heart murmur was and that I had it. A very loud one too. She asked me to see my regular doctor about it soon and let me go.
Being the carefree college student I was, I just forgot about it and never did follow up with my doctor about it.
Fast-forward to May, 2004 -- I had just moved into my first apartment a week earlier and was driving in morning rush-hour. It was overcast that morning and suddenly, my heart began to flutter badly. It was bad -- felt like it was trembling viciously. Not beating, just sitting there trembling.
Everything went black and I ALMOST passed out. Keep in mind, I'm in the car on the freeway. By myself. Everything's going black, but the car is still moving. I panic, thinking I'm about to faint. I began to breathe deep and cough to try to get my heart beating right again. It worked and thankfully I avoided passing out and kept driving (I sure did!), thanking God for not letting me crash.
Whoo, this is already too long.
I brushed off that incident and continued to my destination. After telling my parents about it later that day, they freaked and made me go to the ER the next morning to get checked out. I did. Fell asleep in the waiting room while I waited. I told him what happened, he asked me questions and checks me out. And here comes the stethescope. Now I'm in a bed in the ER, where they performed 12,572 tests on me and ultimately, I'm admitted to the hospital. Everybody is worried. I'm annoyed.
During that time, they monitored me, tried some meds out on me for fun, drew blood and tested it a lot and 36 hours later, I was released with a prescription for Lopressor.
While I was there, the doctors educated me about my heart and informed me that my mitral valve was leaking and I may need surgery for it "down the line", but not right now. Remember, this was last year.
Fast-forward again to January 5, 2005. I go to see my regular doctor and he checks me out. Overall, I'm super-healthy EXCEPT...
He whips out that stethescope and gets an earful of my noisy heart murmur. It's a loud one for sure. I get a referral to the cardiologist. Days later, I'm there, and they do an echo of my heart. Afterwards the head cardiologist comes in with a couple of her collegues to inform me that my leaky valve is at it's worst point and surgery is necessary NOW.
I'm a strong, resilient person...but after leaving the hospital that day, I got on the phone with my mom & dad and cried, telling him what they said. I went over their house teary-eyed, showing them the test results from the echo. They comforted me and I began to educate myself about mitral valve regurgitation.
I had two appointments following that echo. One with a cardiologist at the International Heart Institute at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He prescribed Coreg and referred me to the cardiothoracic surgeon.
A week later, I went into my appointment with the surgeon rather non-chalantly. Still not realizing the magnitude of all this. He looked over some notes, test results and checked me out. Then threw out a bombshell. "Bryan, you need two new valves -- an aortic valve and a mitral valve." He was puzzled by the severity of my condition and my complete lack of symptoms.
He showed great concern and wanted to move things along quickly. I was scheduled for a CT scan of my chest %2(to measure my ascending aorta) in 4 days. In the meantime, I raced off to Las Vegas with family. Then I came home.
CT scan was done that Tuesday and a week later, I saw the surgeon again. He examined the results. With an EF of 45% for my mitral valve and an aortic root dialated to 5 cm, we finally scheduled surgery. He went over some things with me and then offered a short prayer with me before the appointment was over.
Now, with my surgery scheduled, I'm facing a mitral valve replacement, aortic valve replacement and an aortic root replacement on 9/1/05.
I've been reading this site and it's been incredibly helpful as I wait. I'll be grateful to get through this and go on with my life. I plan to post updates for you guys before, not during, and after my surgery. I don't see too many kids my age who share the same experience talking about this. So hopefully my story will help another person (young or old) who's facing the same thing as all of your stories are helping me!
I'll keep everyone updated!
I guess it's a place we all wish we hadn't needed to find, but now we're here, we all try to get each other through the tough times with as much information as possible, compassion, the occasional argument, laughs and nail-biting.
