Last week, actually a week ago today, I went to the ER because I could not catch my breath. I was gasping and panting pretty badly. I had a feeling it was pneumonia, but had no idea how bad it was. After getting it under control during 4 days in the hospital, I went home and did some thinking and digging.
When I enlisted in 2001, my departure was delayed by a week because they needed to take a closer listen to my heart. They did and I was allowed to ship out, even though I had a very light "click" in my heart beat.
I wasn't bothered by it and just went about my life. It wasn't until years later when I was pregnant with our second child and my doctor mentioned a pregnancy murmur. It was something to check out after I had the baby. About 2 months after I had our son, I went in for an echocardiogram. The click murmur was there and more pronounced. The papers from that appointment, which I just found, officially diagnosis me with Click Murmur Syndrome. In a normal person, this does not effect daily life. It just means that you need to take a mega-dose of antibiotic when going to the dentist or having any other "dirty procedure" like a gyno exam.
The doctor mentioned that I may need correction in 20 or 25 years, but at 23 years old, that would mean I wouldn't be bothered with it until I was close to 50. So I didn't think about it.
Then, I was hit with 3 bouts with pneumonia in the last 4 years! The first bout was an 8 week cough that the doctor said was nothing. He increased my blood pressure meds and told me I just had a bad smoker's cough and there was no murmur, despite showing him the echo report. I went with it, thinking the doctor knows best I guess. The pneumonia eventually went away.
The next year the pneumonia came back. It was not as bad but it was there. I went to the ER, and it turns out I cut a muscle in my abdominal cavity. We won't get into all that stuff since it's a different story. The pneumonia that caused the cough that caused the cut muscle went away. Things were looking good.
At no time was there any kind of echo or talk about checking out my heart.
Then this year and the major pneumonia. This year's was the worst. My lungs and heart were surrounded by more fluid that I realized. There was a reason I couldn't breathe. I was admitted and the doctor ran a few tests. He then ordered an echo.
At this point I stopped mentioning the click echo. After being told I was an idiot and that there was no murmur.
Well, this doc did see the murmur, and said it was much worse. He had a cardiologist talk to me and it turns out that the damage to my heart from the pneumonia has gotten to the point that it can't be ignored.
We will know more when we see the cardiologist in February, but it looks like I will need my mitral valve at least repaired, but most likely replaced.
For now, I have a few restrictions that are only restrictions because of the damage to my heart. I just have to be careful about my heart rate and blood pressure and I need to trust Master when it comes to activities that may be too much for me.
I can walk but not run, which is fine. Right now I am just working on knocking out any infection left from the pneumonia, and getting strong and healthy for surgery. I need to not be obsessed with the surgery and go about life as normally as I can.
I'm still getting over being weak from being in the hospital for 4 days, but that's getting better.
Now that that's all out there, and it's all facts, not how I'm feeling about it all, it's time to get back to what I was doing.
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