About Me (In My Own Words)
I am 40 yr. and suffer from mitral valve stenosis (moderate)and regurgitation (severe). My cardiologist thinks I must have had untreated strep throat in childhood, resulting in a rheumatic heart. I do not know, but this was not at all what I was expecting to find out as a result of the stress/echo test my PCP sent me for on February 22 this year. Unfortunately, the TEE (transesphogeal) test on 2/23 confirmed this diagnosis.
I should mention that since Aug. 2009 I have also been battling an elevated WBC (white blood cell). I was referred to a hematologist/oncologist. This doctor told me that she didn't believe I had any type of acute lukemia, but if the issue persisted I could arrange to have a bone marrow biopsy to rule out cancer. Yikes!!!
I was told at one of my next visits with the cardiologist to get any dental work out of the way. Shortly after this same visit the cardiologist's office called with a referral to another doctor - he wanted me to see an infectious disease specialist!
I got a dental appt. in April for a routine cleaning only to discover that my gums were pretty infected. This office did a cleaning and referred me to a perioral surgeon. In the meantime, I had my appt. with the infectious disease doctor. My gums looked fine to him. He scheduled me to have a nuclear spleen test.
As my world is falling apart, would you believe that there just happened to be a world-wide shortage of the nuclear dye? My test was scheduled for 3 weeks later. 3 days prior to the test date, I received a call from the testing facility - still no dye! We rescheduled for the following week and I crossed my fingers. The following week the dye was available and I did get my test. The only thing this test turned up is a small spleen - not a big deal, PTL.
At my first visit with the perioral surgeon, I learned there were very deep pockets between my teeth and gums that were holding bacteria (hence my elevated WBC???). Five molars could not be saved and would need to be pulled. On top of this, I required a debriding (deep cleaning/scraping between the teeth and gums, deep below the gumline) and gum surgery to expand the spaces between my teeth and gums so I would be able to clean better. This was a very painful 5 visit process. My anxiety level is so high that I would not take the Tylenol #3 I was prescribed... I've been having this irrational fear that my blood pressure might fall too low, combined with the BP meds, and I would fall asleep and not wake up! So glad this part is out of the way now. I don't think I could have taken another dental procedure.
I finally have the heart cath scheduled for 7/19 and surgery following on the 20th - provided the gum infection really was the cause of the elevated WBC. This still needs to be re-checked. I pray for a clean bill of health in this respect.
My thoughs and prayers are with those of you preparing for this journey or having preceeded me.
God bless,
Kellie
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Elkton, Maryland