About Me (In My Own Words)
In April of '12, before my 48th birthday, I went to my regular physician for my annual physical and to see if I was OK to start a jogging/running program so I could run with my daughter in a annual Mud Run that August. He heard a "click" and asked if anybody else had ever told me I had a heart murmur. Long story short. I had Mitral Valve Repair surgery on October 11th, 2012
The longer version is this: I've worked nights for the better part of 20 years and in the last 3 or 4 years my job had become more sedentary. One night (possibly around January, February) I felt a sharp twinge around my left armpit/ribcage area. I didn't think anything of it as the pain was sharp, but very brief and I didn't experience any symptoms such as numbness, tingling, shortness of breath, dimming of vision, etc.
In April, like I said above I went for my annual physical. All was well. My BP was slightly elevated about 140/84 and I had just done spirometry testing at my work and did very well, BP about the same. They didn't listen to the heart, though, not a requirement for the test, I guess.
After my Dr heard the click and told me it was his guess that a valve was bad and probably "just flapping around in there, not making a good seal... we have to get some more tests done and find out what's going on" Well, I had the ultrasound and ECG done. while the nurse was doing the pictures during the ultrasound, I could see when she got to the area around my side where I felt the snap, I could see there was a part dangling there that didn't look like any of the other pictures. It kinda looked like when the tendon comes off the end of a chicken leg and starts curling around. Of course, when I asked her what that flappy thing was and got the "I don't interpret the pictures. We have to wait and have the Cardiologist do that" I knew it was gonna mean more than just a simple adjustment.
The ruptured chordae was confirmed, we did the leg catheter, inside look and scheduled a meeting with Dr Richard Mellitt of Mid Mo Heart Center. By this time I had already started educating myself through Mt Sinai that has the website "mitralvalverepair.org". Of course I was sick enough to watch the videos and all that. so, by the time I had a face-to-face with Dr Mellitt I was pretty informed. He told me it was serious and needed to be done between 3-6 months and if not done I would start to run the risk of enlargement of the heart and atrial fibrillation, requiring lifelong treatment with drugs AND still require the surgery. As long as I was asymptomatic, he said I was fine, but should I start showing symptoms, I needed to get in right away. This was around the end of May. I had just turned 48.
I knew that work was going to require everyone to be laid off in the winter months or forced to take vacation so I thought I could wait until then and combine my recovery time with that and not miss any work. To be honest, I was symptomatic, but in denial. The 2 flights of stairs that I used to run would wear me out just walking them at a brisk pace and I was tired ALL the time. Even after a nap, I wanted to take another nap.
Well, I put off the surgery until October 11th, 2012. I remember asking the anesthesiologists if I would be awake in time for the final debates and was told "Oh no, you won't be in any kind of shape to focus on anything like that. You'll still be pretty much out of it." The next thing I remember is being held down, pissed as hell about the damn breathing tube down my throat. The real maddening thing about it is, the anesthesia kept letting me slip back under a few times before I could stay awake enough to breathe on my own. About the time I thought I had it whupped, I'd nod back out and the dang alarm would go off, wake me back up and the nurse would say we had to start over. I can't remember how long I was required to breathe on my own, but in that time they let me write a note where I explicitly told them that I could breathe on my own if didn't have this _____ thing down my throat! Anyhoo, that was around 5-5:30 and I DID watch the debates that night! Next day I sat up and later on walked the entire floor. 2nd day post-surgery transferred from ICU and did more walking and had chest drain tubes and catheter removed, having the chest tubes removed made breathing so much easier, especially when doing the incentive spirometer, my capacity almost doubled. Everything else was a breeze after that. i continued walking the floor on my own and doing the incentive spirometer. In on Thursday, home on Sunday by noon.
After getting home, I started walking about a mile a day, getting up to a little over 3 miles in about 3 weeks, then it started getting a little colder. I started walking indoors where I could then it got to be shopping season so I've slacked off some.
Unfortunately, insurance isn't as good as it used to be. I have a large out of pocket to be met, so when the post op/heart rehab team approached, I simply couldn't afford it. I was informed that I was allowed 36 rehab visits in the calendar year, but by this time, it was already the first week of December and each monitored session was going to cost $120 and I still wouldn't be able to complete all the sessions. Still, all follow up appointments showed as making remarkable progress. All I am required to do is take a low-dose aspirin once a day. My lipids are "good" even after immediate post-op. No other disease or blockage was found, just a bad valve.
Other parts to this story. Once I told my wife and she heard Dr Mellitt's diagnosis, we got a second opinion at the University. This Dr went through my records and tried to put the fear of everything in me, even so far as to say I had "degenerative heart disease and blockage." There was no such thing. I was discharges with no diet restrictions, but they wished I would stick to a more low-sodium, low-cholesterol diet. My wife has been keeping us on that for a number of years already and I had quit a 25 year, on-again, off-again smoking habit for good 5 years earlier.
I used the find a doctor app on this page. Dr Mellitt was the only one that came up as recommended in Columbia, MO as performing at least 20 MV repairs a year. He told me the out of the nearly 250 heart surgeries a year he has been doing, between 75 - 125 are MV repairs. He's not long on beside manner-chit-chat, but far and above on making you right again!
Update, 6 March 2013:
I recently had a follow up with my Cardiologist, Dr Elliott at Mid-Mo Heart Center and everything is going really well. He is also one of the directors of the Heart Rehab center here in Columbia. Since I have progressed so well, and even though he is a BIG proponent of going to the rehab center, my condition doesn't warrant the rehab. By that, having been an active duty Marine, my heart muscle was/is very well developed and to go there just because my insurance is beginning its new year would kinda be a waste of time and should I continue to exercise and walk, I would be better served to join a gym. He said that a large number of mitral valve repair patients often do not have the damage or degeneration of other heart surgery patients, therefore making their recoveries much faster. So, that's a huge plus.
On the downside of all this, I forgot to mention earlier that in September '12 at work, I stopped to help out a situation that required a whole bunch of repetitive lifting, resulting in an umbilical hernia. I had that diagnosed and scheduled for repair. I thought a lesser surgery would be like a "warmer-upper" for a more serious surgery. WRONG! Fortunately, after seeing 3 different doctors and nurses that I told all and had to write down any other conditions on a lot of different papers, that I required heart surgery, did the anesthesiologist in the 11th hour before hernia repair catch on that. "Uh, no Mr Burton. Heart Surgery is very serious and we can't allow you to do this." (Watch out, if you're seeing a doctor on a workman's comp claim!) My other wish then, was maybe they could do a "two-fer" knock out the heart surgery and while I'm laying there, patch up the belly-button! Uh, another "No-Go." So, yesterday I met with and have scheduled my hernia repair for April 10th. Maybe, finally, I can start that running I had wished for with my daughter and we can do the Mud Run in September!
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Columbia, Missouri