Hello,
Currently at 44, my BAV with moderate to severe stenosis and moderate regurgitation was discovered in May 2022, the first time I had heart ultrasound done in my life. I went to have it checked because a year before that my gastroenterologist mentioned that she hears some kind of murmur and recommended that I have it checked at some point, just to be on the safe side.
At that time I didn't have any symptoms, got prescribed ACE inhibitor, a statin and acetylsalicylic acid. Wasn't really happy with the meds but in the end started taking them, and continued living my life, staying active and having checks every now and then, hoping that things will continue like this for at least a decade. My last regular visit to my cardiologist was on June 28 this year and it showed pretty much the same situation like it was 2 years ago and I still continued having no symptoms whatsoever.
Then in August I started feeling hot all of a sudden, sweating a lot and definitely noticed that something's amiss because my Venu smartwatch reported that my body practically doesn't rest, I had high stress all of the time, day, night, during sleep, awake. I ran the basic thyroid tests and much to my surprise (because I had run them two months before that and they were absolutely normal) this time nothing was within the reference ranges. As a result I started antithyroid therapy with carbimazol at the beginning of September. My summer was pretty busy and I noticed that I had lost 5 kilograms without even noticing it and due to the thyroid problems and feeling tired I didn't dare visit the gym.
I live on top of a small hill. On the one side of it the slope is steep and on the other it's gentler. I started noticing that on the steep incline, which is the one I use most often, I would get somewhat out of breath and I would feel tightness in my chest, but I thought that it was because I have had hyperthyroidism for more than a month and my body was simply tired. I also started noticing that even on the genlter slope, when walking uphill I would still feel out of breath by the time I reach home.
10 days ago, on Saturday, after having done 20000 steps on Thursday in the forest, then 18000 more on Friday picking mushrooms and then 16000 on Saturday just walking slowly for three hours, I was going back home and was in a hurry for the common weekly sauna that is a usual thing in all blocks of flats in Finland. I took the steep incline and decided to go for it fast. By the time I reached the top I was heavily out of breath, but went on, I had 50 meters or so to my door. Then a bit further down the path I started seeing "stars", and my chest was really tight. I got scared and remember mumbling to myself "this is not good, this is not good". From that point on I can only reconstruct what must have happened, because I don't really remember it. I must have decided, to the extent that I was able to think (clearly) that, after all, my home is so close, I'll be able to reach it. Then apparently I have lost consciousness, fell down on the ground, first hitting my knees slightly and then my head hitting the asphalt with the chin.
Then I remember hearing "Are you okay? Do you want me to call an ambulance?" coming from a lady somewhere close. I heard it a couple of times not really understanding what's going on, then I slightly got an idea what must have happened. I managed to get up, lightheaded, and my silly reply was "Why would you want to call an ambulance?", probably still having hopes that all of this is just a bad dream and being in denial about it, to which the lady responded "You really don't look well at all". I realized there's metallic taste in my mouth, I was spitting blood and my tongue identified a fair amount of broken teeth. I got home, tried to clean myself somewhat and called the emergency number. They came and took me to the ER.
Long story short, apart from three fractures to the mandible, one at the symphysis and one on each condyle, and after a week worth of tests, the conclusion is that I've had an NSTEMI, with global ischemia (ST depressions present in pretty much all ECG leads but one), troponin also rose and came down. Luckily my ECG returned to normal and ultrasound at least shows the heart to be working fine. The stenosis however seems to have progressed in two and a half months' time alarmingly and from an AVA of 1.1 cm2 at the end of June, it is 0.7-0.8 cm2 at the moment and regurgitation seems to have also deteriorated.
Doctors are reluctant to let me go back home in these circumstances and strongly recommend that I get a valve replacement during this hospital stay. They have already asked the cardiac surgery unit to include me in their plans in one of the next weeks.
I had completely different plans for the upcoming months, I was supposed to travel three times, do lots of stuff... There was a short period of not being able to accept things as they are and being "annoyed". I think I'm past that point now, but while I was writing this post and re-enacted the event in my head (for the first time in this detail) I can identify that I'm not comfortable with it so I suppose I'll need to dedicate some time to reflecting upon it.
Now waiting for the surgeon to contact me in order to discuss what the options are.
I'm glad I've found these forums, seeing that many other people have already been there, faced challenges and overcame them, living normally and sharing their experiences. Thank you for that!
. I consider it a miracle that my heart managed to cope for 44 years without failing.
and need to lose sth like 3,5 liters worth of liquid. Taking my thyroid inhibiting pill. I’ll be able to get back home one of these days, maybe Wednesday. Tomorrow I’ll get the broken teeth checked out.
