Debra's Profile

I have known about my bicuspid valve since 2009 when my murmur was discovered. I guess its been like that from birth, but no one ever noticed it before. I am a 3 time cancer survivor - Hodgkin's Disease stage 2 at 19 (surgery & radiation therapy), Breast Cancer stage 4 at 26 (surgery & chemotherapy), metastasized BC in bone marrow at 29 (chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant). I went through menopause early, and now have osteoporosis. Sounds like a lot, but I know there are many who have endured more than me! On March 16, 2015, my kitty Sylvester, woke me up at 1:37am by standing over me and aggressively licking my eyelid. My pulse was low, I was sweating profusely, it felt as if I was being hugged by the Hulk - I was having a heart attack. I ended up in the ER and then the Cath Lab for an angiogram. During the procedure, my heart stopped. I was intubated and resuscitated twice. I had 100% blockage in my right coronary artery (the same artery that was blocked in 2005 when I had my first heart attack) and a stent was placed above the existing stent. After they pulled the tube out of my throat, the thing that hurt the most was my neck — it felt as if I had been laying with my head to the side for a long time and had pulled every single muscle from the shoulders on up. I was released 5 days later, sent to cardiac rehab (once again) and felt surprisingly well until the end of August. Fatigue, shortness of breath and general exhaustion along with chest pain sent me to the ER in November. The echo shows now that my aortic valve is severely stenotic. My cardiologist agrees that it is finally time to get it replaced. I have a consult appointment with Dr. McCarthy on 1/27 to discuss my options! I'm scared, but happy that the valve is going to be fixed!!