About Me (In My Own Words)
i had my first chest pain in 2004, but no insurance and self employed, went to a clinic,was diagnosed with acid reflux, given a prescription for nexium and told that my bp was unacceptably high, the dr. asked about my heart murmur, i told him i had known about it for years and it posed no issues.reflux drugs didn't work, but i couldn't afford to do much else, so lived with the pain until January 2011, at that point my bp was way high again and i went to see a dr at a small clinic here in town, i got a nurse practitioner who listened to my heart, proclaimed it the loudest murmur she had ever seen and insisted on an ekg before going any further. the ekg was bad ( sound like Mr.Mackey when you read this ), got referred to a cardiologist who was expensive and told me about aortic stenosis, but didn't do much else other than get paid.in Nov. 2011 i saw some fighting congressmen on tv saying they now had insurance available for people with pre-existing conditions, i jumped on this nugget like a starving man on a hotdog and was enrolled by the end of 2011, suddenly my cardiologist had the scales fall from his eyes and could see and do so much more, he did all sorts of studies and tests, right up to cardiac catheterization, which showed some blockages but said nothing of the valve, he could not stent the blockages due to orientation of the arteries, and wanted to try more drugs. i said no, i'm in constant pain, i'm fat and cannot exercise, my business is dying ( a one man commercial lawn company), because i can't do the work any longer and i'm not suited to do other work, i basically ordered him to give me a surgical referral and he grudgingly did. the rest is all good, had surgery on 3/8/2012, what started as new aortic valve(pig), and 2 bypasses at 3.5-4 hours, turned out to be 5 bypasses and an AVR at 11.5 hours, all went well after and i was home 8 days later. surgeon said he was quite surprised the valve hadn't failed, it was totally calcified yet somehow not regurgitating, just stenotic. went back to work last week
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
ormond beach, Florida
