Dodger Fan
Well-known member
Hi. My name is Cainan. I am a 38 year old male living in Southern California. I am married to my best friend and have 2 boys (8 and 10 years old).
When I was 20 years I old was working at the Nike Factory Store. I was rewarded for good performance with an opportunity to work at a temporary store at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in New York. It was a 28 day trip. I had never been on a plane before or been away from home for so long.
My mom recommended that I have a physical before I left. I went to a doctor I had never been to before. He was the first doctor to hear my murmur. The doctor said that it was probably nothing to worry about. He recommended that I have an echo when I returned from my trip.
I procrastinated and had an echo when I was 21 years old. The echo revealed that I had a BAV. The cardiologist said that I would need to have surgery and that the regurgitation was likely made worse because I had just run 2 marathons. I was devastated. I was pretty sure that I would soon be dead. Every time I went running I thought I was having a heart attack.
I had just moved to San Diego. I found a great doctor (he is still my GP 17 years later). He referred me to a cardiologist who recently retired a couple of years ago. I was now under the impression that I would not be having surgery until I was in my 50s or 60s. My only restrictions were skydiving and power lifting.
I was then scheduled to have echos biannually. I would always know that it was time for my echo because I would start having chest pains and other symptoms until my stress test and echo proved I was okay.
I was not introduced to the term stenosis until 5 or 6 years ago when I was applying for life insurance. I brought my GP a form to fill out. My GP wrote that I had a BAV with mild stenosis and insufficiency. The insurance company rejected me. I did not look into stenosis or insufficiency because I felt fine and was still at least 20 years from surgery.
Fast forward to last year. I was told that my stenosis had gone from mild to moderate and that I would need to start having echos yearly. I still didn’t feel compelled to research for the same reasons. Although, I did start feeling a fluttering heartbeat during high intensity running.
On 4/29/15 I had a treadmill stress test. I went for 13 ½ minutes and hit 160 BPM with no problems. I had one or two doubled up heart beats. I was told that I had excellent exercise capacity. The next morning I had my echo. My GP called me that afternoon. I was getting ready to go to a work related awards dinner. He told me that my stenosis had gone from moderate to moderate/severe in 1 year. He said that the aortic valve area had gone from 1.4 cm to 1.1 cm. He told me to take it easy. When I asked for clarification he said don’t train for any Ironmans or marathons (I had actually considered training for an Ironman). I asked about the 2 half marathons I was registered for ($200 each, both at Disneyland). He told me that I would need to ask the cardiologist. My GP wanted to keep my running to 10k or less. The news put a damper on the awards ceremony. This was the first real restriction put on me that I cared about. I hate lifting weights and had no desire to jump out of a plane but these were going to be my 10th and 11th half marathons.
I called the cardiologist the next morning. I spoke to his nurse. She basically told me to stay hydrated, don’t run in the heat, and keep my runs under 10k until my cardiologist had a chance to listen to my heart. We scheduled an appointment for 6/19. I then began to stress and obsess about aortic stenosis. I started reading these forums, watching videos, and reading other information. I read about the risk of sudden death, the life expectancy at 2, 5, and 10 years, and about surgery taking place later than it should have due to cardiologists being too conservative. I started to have chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, and fatigue. I was extremely stressed out. I was afraid I was going to die before 6/19 so I called my cardiologist yesterday and they squeezed me in for today.
It was only the second or third time I had seen him since his predecessor retired. He really took his time and explained everything to me. He made it very clear that at 1.1 cm he doesn’t expect me to have symptoms. He listened to my heart. He discussed my excellent stress test with me. He told me that I am at low risk for sudden death at the moment and that he does not recommend surgery at this time. He assured me that he will not let me wait until it’s too late to have surgery. He spent almost an hour talking to me and I really appreciated it. I will now start having echos every 6 months. So between now and November I will plan on not having OHS.
I am glad this forum exists. It is nice to have a group of people to go to that know what I am going through. Nice to meet you all.
When I was 20 years I old was working at the Nike Factory Store. I was rewarded for good performance with an opportunity to work at a temporary store at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in New York. It was a 28 day trip. I had never been on a plane before or been away from home for so long.
My mom recommended that I have a physical before I left. I went to a doctor I had never been to before. He was the first doctor to hear my murmur. The doctor said that it was probably nothing to worry about. He recommended that I have an echo when I returned from my trip.
I procrastinated and had an echo when I was 21 years old. The echo revealed that I had a BAV. The cardiologist said that I would need to have surgery and that the regurgitation was likely made worse because I had just run 2 marathons. I was devastated. I was pretty sure that I would soon be dead. Every time I went running I thought I was having a heart attack.
I had just moved to San Diego. I found a great doctor (he is still my GP 17 years later). He referred me to a cardiologist who recently retired a couple of years ago. I was now under the impression that I would not be having surgery until I was in my 50s or 60s. My only restrictions were skydiving and power lifting.
I was then scheduled to have echos biannually. I would always know that it was time for my echo because I would start having chest pains and other symptoms until my stress test and echo proved I was okay.
I was not introduced to the term stenosis until 5 or 6 years ago when I was applying for life insurance. I brought my GP a form to fill out. My GP wrote that I had a BAV with mild stenosis and insufficiency. The insurance company rejected me. I did not look into stenosis or insufficiency because I felt fine and was still at least 20 years from surgery.
Fast forward to last year. I was told that my stenosis had gone from mild to moderate and that I would need to start having echos yearly. I still didn’t feel compelled to research for the same reasons. Although, I did start feeling a fluttering heartbeat during high intensity running.
On 4/29/15 I had a treadmill stress test. I went for 13 ½ minutes and hit 160 BPM with no problems. I had one or two doubled up heart beats. I was told that I had excellent exercise capacity. The next morning I had my echo. My GP called me that afternoon. I was getting ready to go to a work related awards dinner. He told me that my stenosis had gone from moderate to moderate/severe in 1 year. He said that the aortic valve area had gone from 1.4 cm to 1.1 cm. He told me to take it easy. When I asked for clarification he said don’t train for any Ironmans or marathons (I had actually considered training for an Ironman). I asked about the 2 half marathons I was registered for ($200 each, both at Disneyland). He told me that I would need to ask the cardiologist. My GP wanted to keep my running to 10k or less. The news put a damper on the awards ceremony. This was the first real restriction put on me that I cared about. I hate lifting weights and had no desire to jump out of a plane but these were going to be my 10th and 11th half marathons.
I called the cardiologist the next morning. I spoke to his nurse. She basically told me to stay hydrated, don’t run in the heat, and keep my runs under 10k until my cardiologist had a chance to listen to my heart. We scheduled an appointment for 6/19. I then began to stress and obsess about aortic stenosis. I started reading these forums, watching videos, and reading other information. I read about the risk of sudden death, the life expectancy at 2, 5, and 10 years, and about surgery taking place later than it should have due to cardiologists being too conservative. I started to have chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, and fatigue. I was extremely stressed out. I was afraid I was going to die before 6/19 so I called my cardiologist yesterday and they squeezed me in for today.
It was only the second or third time I had seen him since his predecessor retired. He really took his time and explained everything to me. He made it very clear that at 1.1 cm he doesn’t expect me to have symptoms. He listened to my heart. He discussed my excellent stress test with me. He told me that I am at low risk for sudden death at the moment and that he does not recommend surgery at this time. He assured me that he will not let me wait until it’s too late to have surgery. He spent almost an hour talking to me and I really appreciated it. I will now start having echos every 6 months. So between now and November I will plan on not having OHS.
I am glad this forum exists. It is nice to have a group of people to go to that know what I am going through. Nice to meet you all.
