Need Your Input re: Exhaustion as a Symptom

[ottagal]

I think I'd phone the cardiologist and ask them to book you for a surgical consult as soon as possible. As a long term sufferer of AS your signs and symptoms come on so gradually that you think everything is normal. If you can't walk up 2 flights of stairs without breathing a little deeply then you are SOB. If you get narrowing of your field of vision, even rarely, you've got blood pressure and flow impairment issues. Soon, your symptoms will start to worsen because ... The worse your symptoms get, the faster they get worse.

Skip the cardio and get moving toward the surgery and pre-op testing. I don't think a surgeon would tell you to wait and neither should your cardio be doing so.

This is my personal opinion and I haven't any medical training to support what I'm saying, I have had severe aortic stenosis twice though with both instances presenting a little differently than each other. So, even the same patient won't have all of the cardinal symptoms.

Take Heart and get it fixed now before there's no chance of repair,
Pamela.

Thanks very much for the reply Pamela!
Sorry I missed your post as I was responding to the others. I will ask the cardio for a surgical consult next month! I will keep you posted.

 

[MissMelis]

Ottawagal,

Before my AVR I also experienced fatigue (FYI - I was BAV and moderate/severe aortic stenosis). It all came about like a kick in the gut...I'd been playing soccer, and just being active as usual, and it seemed like from one day to the next it was night and day. All of a sudden I couldn't run without gasping for breath, and I couldn't recover from walking up the stairs...and I was just exhausted constantly.
So no...it's not 'all in your head', as your cardio would seem to like to believe.

We two Canuck girls have talked before about being more assertive with our docs...I think this is a case where you need to. They don't know what's going on inside you, despite all their reports and gradients and numbers.

Good luck - keep us posted on how it goes. Hang in there!

Melissa

 

[ottagal]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Melisssa! Very helpful....

Dealing with heart things forces us to grow in more ways than I would like to acknowledge. ie. trial by fire assertiveness training

Also, it doesn't help when a select few well meaning family/friends don't really relate to my discussion of exhaustion. The usual response is "Well....you look really healthy and fit, so it must be stress." I have learned to not engage as it is too tiring trying to explain the condition. It would be easier if it was something you could 'see' like a broken leg. This adds to the self doubt!

 

[MissMelis]

You're absolutely right - both on the assertiveness training (I'll book into that course with you ) and the well-meaning folks who kind of raise their eyebrows at you because..."you aren't bleeding out your eyes, so you're fine."
We know better.
Don't succumb to that self-doubt...trust your gut.

 

[Jane E]

HI all-
Your descriptions have been heartwarming (yuck yuck) in that I don't feel so alone. I am all sleepy eyed right now midmorning. I slept well last night. I wake up but I am tired. Like you said I run all day and by night I get so sleepy I can't always be coherent enough to read or make conversation-- so I zone in front of the TV.
Jane E

 

[ruthienc1]

You are right on about some folks just not "getting it".........a distant relative wished me good luck with the surgery, acting as if it were something routine (like having your appendix out). I don't think she ever figured it out, since I walked and talked like a perfectly normal person........oh well.........

 

[lcwhitney]

Fatigue, SOB & tachycardia were my main symptoms.

Lettitia

 

[Megan]

i just got up an hour ago and cant even lift my arms im so tired- and I slept 9 hours lastnight! i have 6 days to go before surgery. im thinking it could also be depression? but then maybe i wouldnt be sleeping?!

 

[ALCapshaw2]

i just got up an hour ago and cant even lift my arms im so tired- and I slept 9 hours lastnight! i have 6 days to go before surgery. im thinking it could also be depression? but then maybe i wouldnt be sleeping?!

TELL this to your Cardiologist and Surgeon TODAY!

They may decide you need to have surgery sooner, or some sort of support (such as a 'balloon pump') to help your heart 'take it easy' before surgery.

Some of our members got to surgery 'just in time' and some needed some sort of assistance for their heart beforehand.

Please call your Cardio and Surgeon first thing this morning.

 

[Buffy41]

I kept doing less and less the year before I went for OHS. I thought as well that I was just trying to do too much.

 

[ottagal]

I really appreciate the added input, Buffy41, Megan, lcwhitney, ruthienc1...

Megan, I hope you are doing OK and that you saw Al Capshaw's message/reply to your post in this thread.