Do I Have Heart Disease??????

[Cooker]

I don't think I have heart disease. I have no blockage no high BP and no inlarged heart. I am coming off Amiodarone (ablation zapped a-fib). I take Toprol and Coumadin. My heart was/is healthy with the exception of my replaced valve which was a birth defect.

I guess I am a heart patient do to the fact that I had surgery but I do not consider that a disease. Someone with an artifitial limb does not have a disease! What do you think.

Thanks,

 

[dj/utvolsfan]

Hey Cooker,
Long time no see. How've you been? I might have to rethink this one. I might have to agree with you that you don't have heart disease. You have a heart condition. I'm thinking of disease as a progressive situation which will eventually lead to your demise. Morbidly spoken, but you get what I'm saying, don't you? You sound like you have everything else under control.....
I asked my Cleveland doctors the same thing...was trying to determine if I'd have to be on Toprol forever, what my forecast might be. One guy told me I had heart disease. What does he know? I should have asked the other 571 doctors who came in during the course of my 5 days there.
Well, here's hoping you're conditioned and not diseased. Have a great South Carolina day in all those beautiful places with smiling faces.
Debbi
'

I don't think I have heart disease. I have no blockage no high BP and no inlarged heart. I am coming off Amiodarone (ablation zapped a-fib). I take Toprol and Coumadin. My heart was/is healthy with the exception of my replaced valve which was a birth defect.

I guess I am a heart patient do to the fact that I had surgery but I do not consider that a disease. Someone with an artifitial limb does not have a disease! What do you think.

Thanks,

 

[Superbob]

HD definition

HD definition

I have asked the same question because I had a congenital defect corrected with valve/root replacement but did not have any clogged arteries so did not have to have bypass. And do not have high BP.

However, this definition of heart disease I found in a medical encyclopedia seems to include us:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000147.htm#Definition

Of course, we are free to write our own definitions -- we are as we will ourselves to be!

 

[Ross]

Whether we like it or not, we have heart disease.

 

[Georgia]

Interesting, Rob. I guess the common usage of "heart disease" is the clogged artery type. But clearly under this definition we're included.

 

[terryj]

One time my husband overheard me telling some friends that he took so many medications because he had a heart problem and he quickly corrected me with this statement, "No, I don't have a heart problem. I used to have one but I got a new heart valve and now its fixed". He always has had a great outlook on things. Thats why I still love him so much after almost 39 years of marriage.

 

[Cooker]

Whether we like it or not, we have heart disease.

I don't like it and I don't have it And the goverment can't make me

 

[Ross]

I don't like it and I don't have it And the goverment can't make me

Hey I feel the same way, believe me.

 

[MikeHeim]

I didn't realize myself (until I was forced to learn real quick like many of the rest of you) that "heart disease" is really just a catch-all for a whole bunch of possible issues. It's pretty similar to bunching together everyone who has cancer, regardless of the type. Just like cancer, each type of heart disease has its own treatment and mortality rates.

 

[Der Biermeister]

I have arterial sclerosis -- but I guess I would also say it is under control? My cholesterol readings right now are super and I've just had a quad bypass. My caratid arteries are totally clear - had them checked just prior to my AVR surgery.

Still - that puts me under the category of "heart disease". I've been worried lately that I might also have a bit of CHF. I was assured yesterday by my cardiologist that I do not. Also, assured again today by my resident doctor in our bank. (He really helped me understand the what-fors for each of my meds.)

I like this term "remodeling" of the heart. That is what I am in the process of --hopefully - accomplishing. Yes, I guess I have "heart disease", but I plan on outliving it!!

 

[Joe Cool]

If it quacks like a duck...

If it quacks like a duck...

I would like to think that I am "disordered" not "diseased". I asked my wife the nurse, and she said I was definately disordered! I shouldn't have asked I know that for me, I don't think of my problem as a disease, just a manufacturers defect that didn't get recalled It's all semantics anyway. Like I said "if it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck"!

 

[mntbiker]

no, I don't have heart disease. I have a genetic heart defect. Once it is corrected my heart will again be working properly. As far as the LVH and PH they are secondary conditions to the defect.

If someone is born without an arm do they have arm disease?

 

[lcwhitney]

I was born with an extra band of muscle tissuebehind my pulmonary valve and a bicuspid artic valve The extra band of muscle tissue created a pulmonary artery anuerysm . so, I just consider myself genetically defective but, I'm sure the doctors woul d call itheart disease.

lettitia

 

[epstns]

Yeah, even though many of us suspect that our conditions are hereditary or genetic in origin, most insurance companies consider that "heart disease." This, I'm afraid, is especially true of life insurance companies.

 

[MikeHeim]

If someone is born without an arm do they have arm disease?

Why, were you born without a heart?

 

[tommy]

I asked my wife the nurse, and she said I was definitely disordered!

1. A man asking his wife "am I disordered" should get the same answer as his wife asking "does this dress make me look fat".

2. My brain tends to think of "disease" as a chemistry/biology thing and "defect" as a structural/mechanical thing. That's just me.

3. If I'm wrong about this, is it because I have a mental "disease" or a mental "defect"?..... - see paragraph #1 - I'm doomed.

 

[Magnus]

My insurance company considers me 5% medically disabled because of my mechanical valve (Bonus points for asking me where I'm going on vacation this summer )

 

[Emma]

Myself and a lot of other heart mums I speak with are very firm in our view that our children have heart defects, not disease, although I have no doubt its one of those things that can be argued differently depending on who you speak to.

Emma
xxx

 

[bvdr]

One of my doctors once told me that having a valve replacement is exchanging one disease for another. I think in some ways that is right but I have really been thinking about a member who recently had a valve repaired and was on no medicine. In some cases I'm thinking some people can be "cured".

I think people should use whatever term they want. I've got rheumatic heart disease so that makes it simple for me.

 

[Joe Cool]

(Bonus points for asking me where I'm going on vacation this summer )

OK, I'm game, where are you going on vacation this summer?