Member Profiles
CHRISTINA
My name is Christina, and I am currently 54 years young.(53 when I had the surgery) I was born and raised in The Netherlands but live in Arizona, USA.
I married my husband Gordon 23 years ago and we have 2 grown daughters from my previous marriage, and two grandchildren. Gordon and I were both widowed before we married in 1977. Gordon adopted my two girls and helped me raise them.
My heart problems began last summer when I had gone to a Homeopath for problems I thought were menopausal.
I had become tired all the time, irritable, and the daily tasks were just so much harder to do, and those hot flashes (or so I thought) were horrible. I could do little without sweating profusely, even indoors.
I had been very active in the gym with weight training & cardiovascular exercises since the early eighties, but because I had not been feeling well a lot of the time in the past two years, I often did not go at all anymore.
I cancelled my gym membership after all those years, because I felt I was wasting my money. Tried working out in our garage, but even at home I was too tired most of the time. I just did not have it in me anymore.
When I went to see the Homeopath, she advised me that before I start doing anything, to get some lab work done and to have that heart murmur checked out, Just to be sure. I remember laughing at that.
I told her that over the years numerous doctors commented on my heart murmur but no one ever advised me how important it was to have it fully checked out. I grudgingly agreed to have the murmur checked out because I hate going to ordinary doctors.
I have been into alternative medicine for many years, and I just dislike doctors when they send me out the door with a pill, and when that doesn't work to come back and try something else.
But this time I made the necessary appointments and first went for an EKG. That came back normal! Then I asked to have an echocardiogram done but had to wait until the 13th of July to go to the Heart Center.
I was not worried at all, because what could be wrong with me? Just an innocent heart murmur that had never given me any problems. I had virtually no symptoms.
The echocardiogram was done the 13th of July and that day I got the shock of my life. I was told I had a congenital heart defect called Aortic Stenosis, and was only months away from heart failure. I was told I was born with a bicuspid valve that had finally stenosed. I had to have open heart surgery to have my Aortic Valve replaced.
I did not know what Aortic Stenosis was, so the cardiologist showed me. I think I was in shock the whole time he talked to me. Afterwards he asked me to watch a video about the Catheterization that had to be done the following week.
That also looked terrible and I watched it all in a daze.
Looking back now, I honestly believe that this was the worst day of my life, and I just couldn't believe what was happening. I thought this was the end of my life.
The following Wednesday I went in for the Catheterization. I was so scared and cried like a baby, but in the end it was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was quick and virtually painless.
The surgeon, Dr.Gulshan Sethi came to my bed afterwards, and told me that I should have the surgery done soon, and that he would do the surgery. He also told me that I would get a mechanical valve; that I would have to be on a blood thinner the rest of my life and the blood thinner was called Coumadin. I was not given a choice, and was told that the other valves usually do not last more than 10-15 years or at times even shorter and that the surgery would have to be redone.
I found lots and lots of information on the Internet, and at times I had to quit as it made me physically ill. I could not think about anything else those weeks before surgery, and it totally consumed my thoughts day and night. The thought of having my chest ripped open was just terrifying to me.
I went to see the surgeon and asked him lots of questions. He told me he had been doing these surgeries for 30 years. That he was a member of the heart transplantation team with the famous Dr. Jack Copeland. Everyone knows Dr. Jack Copeland, so that made me feel a little better. I had already talked to some people who knew Dr.Sethi and was told he was the best.
We set a date for August 7th. That was still two whole weeks away, but he said that he had to go out of town, and didn't want to do the surgery and leave me to someone else; he wanted me to wait until he got back. I was not allowed to exert myself in any way, no more work, just stay at home and take care of yourself he said. I liked Dr. Sethi right away. He was a very nice and kind man. I could tell by his eyes.
The weeks before surgery were pure hell for me. The waiting was absolutely terrible, and the only people that I could talk with was my family and the people on the heart chat.
These people were absolutely wonderful. Total strangers would write me and tell me their story, and gave me encouragment. I thought, if they can do it, so can I. I prepared for my surgery by trying to think positive. It was very difficult, because I also had thoughts about death, and that this could be my last few weeks on earth, but I pushed those thoughts away as far as possible.
I believe in God and knew in my heart that he wanted me to live. It was just by accident that I had found out about this problem. I listened to that little voice in the back of my head, telling me to go and have the murmur checked out this time, but many times I thought of cancelling the appointment because I did not think that anything could be wrong.
Finally the dreaded day came that I had to be at the hospital at 5:30AM. My husband Gordon and my daughter Danielle (29) came with me. Danielle had come especially to take care of me. She got married last year and lives in Oregon with her husband Steve, but she put her life on hold to come and be with me for three weeks. Little did she know that those three weeks would become six.
My other daughter Michelle (27) stayed home and decided to go to work that morning. She's not as strong emotionally and did not want to upset me more than I already was, plus she has two kids (Pieter (8) Anika (6) to take care of, and could not make it that early anyway. Surgery was at 7:30AM and the surgery would take about 4 hours I was told.
I was given a Sulzer Carbomedics Mechanical Valve.
All went well with the surgery, and I was dangling my legs outside the bed that same evening. The next day they helped me walk to a chair. The following day I was walking the halls.
Within 5 1/2 days they told me to go home. My Coumadin level was not stable yet, but with some Lovenox injections I would be fine I was told. They showed my daughter how to inject the Lovenox. They gave us extra Lovenox, but we would have to call for another prescription in a few days. When we knew we were going to run out, we called the cardiologist who was in charge of my PT/INR, but all we got was a voice mail. We left a total of 5 messages but they did not get back to us until I had missed 3 injections. If we had only known how important these injections were, we would have gone to the pharmacy ourselves, and are sure we would haven been given some.
The next day Thursday (8/17)I got out of bed not feeling well, and as the minutes went on I started feeling terrible. We decided not to take any chances and go straight to the hospital. I was admitted right away. They did not tell us what was wrong, but within the hour I was back in the OR for another Catherization but they were unable to finish as there was an obstruction. I did not realize this until later when the medicine had worn off.
Well, that afternoon the surgeon came to see me, and told me that he already reserved the OR for the next day and that he had to do the surgery over again and see what was going on. I could tell he was as upset about this as I was. I tried to stay calm but it was very difficult. My family could not believe it either that I had to go in a second time and were extremely upset. Two open heart surgeries in 11 days? That was a bit tough to swallow. My husband kept saying: "You don't deserve this", "you don't deserve this".
Surgery was set for 8AM the next day (8/18) and it again too about 4 hours. I again did okay. My daughter told me later though that I looked like a broken woman when they saw me the second time after surgery, and that she never wants to see me like that again. I had no idea of course, but was glad to see them and to realize that I had made it a second time.
The second time the surgeon changed valves and implanted a St. Jude's. To be honest, this one is so much better for me. I don't hear this one. The first one was terribly loud and I hated it.
So something good came out of the second surgery.
I was up and around quickly and was walking the halls and talking to people that still had to have surgery. I felt pretty good, and people were surprised at how good I looked in such a short time.
My surgery was done at in my home town and my experience there was excellent. I wanted my family near me and never considered going anywhere else. Staff was great and very caring. I got a beautiful private room the second time what I appreciated very much. I went home in 9 days and I have been getting better each day.
I had several setbacks over the past 7 1/2 months because I did too much, and I had to pay for it dearly by feeling miserable.
My recovery has been good so far and I am almost 8 months post-op from my second surgery. I went to see the cardiologist last Friday, and had a post-op echocardiogram. Everything looked good I was told.
Today, I am feeling pretty good, and each day I do what I can, but still take it easy. Don't want to do this a third time.
My incision is painful but that is also because I have a keloid scar. This might take some time to get better I am told.
I am walking 2 miles and more most days and am back into lifting light weights. I think my days of heavy lifting are over.
I plan to enjoy each moment, because I realize that life is precious and a person just never knows what can happen. Your life can be gone in a heart beat.
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