Connie's Profile

Began having panic attacks 36 years ago, rushed to a cardio, but found nothing of concern. Monitored yearly, all good until 4 years ago. The stressors in being a 24/7 caregiver for 38 years was a tipping point. Cardio did a workup last year and had promised no resident would do my TEE. In walks the resident who tells me he is doing the TEE. Angered the cardio because I called her out for lying to me. She punished me by making me wait 5 hours for the chief cardio at the DeBakey Heart Institute to do the TEE. 🤷🏻♀️ Unbeknown to me until I saw the news on TV that evening that cardio/doctors in Houston were letting residents do heart surgery simultaneously as the cardio doc was doing another procedure, so double billing could occur. Thankfully nobody was killed during their games. I know residents must practice on someone, trashed my trust level, after my doctor had blatantly lied to me. The same day I had moved into my new home, I get a call from my Houston cardiologist stating to return to Houston to pick out a surgeon due to the need to put a ring around my mitral valve. What ring? I am fairly educated but that tactic won't fly. She stated opening the sternum was my only option for the repair. I said to her, not happening and started a new adventure finding a qualified, trustworthy cardiologistst in Austin. Fast forward am having minimally invasive mitral valve repair, only concern is the heart/lung pump. 5 days away and praying for the best valentine's Day of my life.