Do We Have Heart Disease?

[mainframe]

Might be kind of a stupid question, but how many feel like they have "Heart Disease"?.

I ask because I wonder, does having a valve replaced equal "heart disease". In my case, my arteries were clear, blood pressure has always been o.k. and now I've got a new valve. I knew 10 years prior to surgery that my valve was narrowed, but never felt right up to the day of my surgery, I had "heart disease". I guess I still don't.

What do you think?

 

[Ross]

I know what you mean. I don't feel that I have heart disease either, but according to the Doctors, we do. I think it's a billing term myself.

 

[richie rich]

chris

when i saw my surgeon last week i asked him this question:

When I go to Disney and see the sign that says

" WARNING PEOPLE WHO ARE PREGNANT, ETC, ETC OR HAVE A HEART CONDITION SHOULD NOT RIDE THIS RIDE"

can I go on that ride or not?

His answer was: you do not have a heart condition you have a CORRECTed heart condition therefore have fun and go on any ride you want.

I have clear arteries, low cholestrol 85-92 range and do not have any other heart problems therefore to answer your question I feel that I no longer have heart disease. You seem to be in the same boat.

Take care

Rich

 

[Bunny_Rabbit]

Chris, I usually feel like I have "Heart Disease" when I'm doing the same thing as someone else and I'm more out of breath than they are.

Rich, I just pretend I don't see those signs on rollercoasters and go on them anyway.

Take care.

 

[Bunny_Rabbit]

Plum Forgot

Plum Forgot

I also "feel" like I have Heart Disease when it's time to wash the dishes.

hehe

 

[hensylee]

A report on TV today answered the question of "do those rides like the BIG roller coasters hurt your brain, being jerked around they way they do" The answer was no, definitely not. So you have to decide if fear and other physical conditions are a factor in affecting your health. If it doesn't hurt your brain, surely not your heart. And I agree that valvers don't have heart disease, just a new part.

 

[terry40]

Yep, we do....

Yep, we do....

We don't have coronary artery disease, but we are still concidered having heart disease, it's a general term.

I also do not have clogged arteries, high B/P, or chol.

You could ask the same question of transplated hearts, it's not like they gave them a (new) disease heart, are they still considered having heart disease???

Terry40

 

[Lorraine]

I'm with you Chris. I don't feel like I have heart disease. My only issue too was needing to have two valves replaced. Cholestrol is good, arteries are good, I don't have high blood pressure.

Terry, like Ross said, it seems like a billing term. I do agree though, if you have a heart transplant is your heart still diseased? Interesting question. I see my cardio in February. I'll ask him that question? Wonder what kind of answer he'll give me? I ahd wondered about that for a while. Glad you asked Chris.

 

[Kevin M]

I'm with Ross on this one.
The fact that I have to pay for a drivers medical every year confirms it, yet I'm a safer driver than some of those kooks out there who are supposedly healthy.
Kev

 

[epstns]

Heart Disease?

Heart Disease?

I would guess that from the technical perspective, we do have heart disease. Especially since my cardio tells me that for my AS, even valve replacement is not a "cure," it is a palliative treatment which eradicates symptoms and sort of "resets the timer" so that the disease is as it would have been prior to the deterioration of the valve. This, I guess, is also related to those cases where tissue valves also calcify and need re-op. That puts us in a group like alcoholics, where they may be "recovering" for the rest of their lives. I, for one, can live with that (when I get to that point). For the moment, pre-surgery, I guess I do have a "heart condition" which requires somewhat different behavior than if the condition didn't exist.

In my mind, I'm not sick -- I'm fine as long as I feel good. In my subconscious I know it is there and some day I will need to deal with it. I don't call this denial, though. I'll agree with the term defiance!

Thanks guys.

SteveE

 

[mamsram]

I agree with Ross---a billing term

I think of disease as somthing viral or bacterial. I have a friend that was stricken with polio years ago. It caused a leg deformity. I never thought of him as having a disease. A condition? a deformity? maybe, disease, no.
I like to think we have "a condition" the result of other factors, whatever it may have been.

 

[Jean]

I sure don't feel like I have a disease...my cardio says not...heart even back in good shape, no symptoms. But I bet I would have trouble getting insurance if something ever happened to my old carriers! Just a term, I agree. And the roller coasters are definitely OK...I say so and love them...now those round and round things still spill my stomach!

 

[Les]

Jean is so right...just try to get additional life insurance after a valve replacement. Doesn't matter if you are healthier than the agents you are dealing with. According to their "Risk Evaluation Charts" you are at greater risk to croak than a 400 lb. smoker. Fair has nothing to do with it and Ross is right...it's just a billing term. Can't squeeze as many $ out of a "healthy" person as you can one labled with 'Heart Disease."
___________________
Les AVR '93 / '95

 

[RobThatsMe]

Hi,

I keep telling these doctors " It's not the heart!!! It's the plumbing going into it! (or out of it)

But, the reality for me, having had an ascending aortic dissection, is that the cause was diagnosed as a congenital connective tissue disorder, which goes hand and hand with heart disease. so technically they are right.

The good news is that as I approach my 3 yr anniv this March, I have just completed my annual checkups with my cardiologist, and my GP. Amazing, I got better results on my blood lab tests, than I ever had since I have been going to the GP 20 years ago! My cardiologist also said things looked and sounded great! Just one more doctor and test to go through, and that's the BIG one! My CT of the upper, lower, and pelvic areas to determine if my aneurysm has grown,or is stable. Then the followup meeting with my vascular surgeon. I'm keeping everything "crossed" that this last test goes as well as the prior two.

Rob

ps.. Hey.. I lowered my colesterol!!! hehehehe Hmmm that should be a commercial!

 

[Les]

Rob,
Best of everything for you on your test results. Let us know...
________________
Les AVR '93 / '95

 

[Vicki448]

I do not consider that I have heart disease and neither do my doctors. BUT, my insurance company does.......and so will yours. Expect to pay higher premiums on major/med or life insurance. My dr. told me that my heart had a malfunction that could be repaired, but a mitral valve repair/replacement was not considered to be a "disease." Since my arteries and such are fine, I have no more chance of having a heart attack than the next person.

 

[Ms. Ramsey]

Heart disease or not?

Heart disease or not?

I asked my heart surgeon the same question and he also said I have a "heart condition that's been repaired".

That must be a standard reply for them.

Mary

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Don't feel as if I have "heart disease" considering myself fortunate that I am not under restrictions of any sort.

Though, as Vicki pointed out.... insurance companies do care and consider us chronic. Higher healthcare premiums for sure. If you did not obtain life insurance prior to diagnosis......chances are not good. We looked into buying more after my MVR. I am in the "uninsurable" category indefinitely.

 

[R0Y]

Do I have heart disease? I really hadn't thought about it in those terms since my valve repair but now that the question has been put to me .... On the one hand, I think "What does it matter?" and on the other I start to wonder whether it does.

I tend to be analytic, so my next thought is "What does the word 'disease' really mean?" I look it up at dictionary.com and in the medical dictionary at cancerweb. In both I find "An alteration in the state of the body or of some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing the performance of the vital functions, and causing or threatening pain and weakness" or something similar. I find that this general definition probably applies to my condition. I also recognize that I am taking medication for a reason: without it I am at risk. Sounds like disease to me.

If the doctor uses the term 'condition', am I better or worse off? What's in the name? My condition hasn't changed nor has the way I view myself nor, I think, how others view me.

So, hey, I just don't care. But, it's been fun thinking about it.

-- roy --

 

[Ross]

Roy I'm as bad as you are! Thought I was the only one that thought things out like that.