It's official! I have a BUM HEART!

Ok, here's goes.  My first blog, and I'm doing this as more of an outlet than anything else, so I don't know if anyone will read it, other than people I may tell about it - but you never know.

 

The Beginning:

For a long time, I've had occasional feeling of a fluttering heart.  I really can't remember when it started, in my twenties? My teens?  Even earlier?  Not sure.  Either way, it was never anything that caused my any ill effects and so in my mind,  nothing serious.  All that may turn out to be unrelated to today, but I can't help feeling it is.  During that last sentence, I had a minor flutter, which are no longer something I can easily ignore.

About 2.5 years ago I had a pretty serious arrhythmia event that sent me to the ER.  The Cardiologist at the time indicated that the EKG showed an supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT, it eventually calmed down and I went to see a specialist a couple of months later to follow up.  The specialist reviewed the EKG from my ER visit and concurred with the ER cardiologist.  By that time I had read everything there was to find about SVT’s online and so the talk I had with him was reassuring.  He told me that it was not life threatening and should be considered more of an inconvenience, albeit an unnerving one.    

In order to gather some more info for my file he ordered an echocardiogram and that turned up a mildly enlarged right ventricle.  He decided then to get an MRI done so that a clearer picture could be obtained and no additional issues were detected so he said it was unrelated to the arrhythmia event and may very well be that because I am a big guy, 6’3” – 225lbs, it’s normal for me.  He went on to say that we’ll just use this as a base line and test again in a couple of years.

 Well, it’s been a couple of years, and on Monday of this past week I had the follow-up echo done which was just to put it all behind me, but – as you could guess, no such luck.  Two days afterwards I got a call from the cardiologist himself telling me the RV is now moderately enlarged and that a second MRI is required and whatever other tests will be required in order to pin a diagnosis on it and start a treatment. 

When I answered the phone and heard his voice, I immediately new there was an issue, why else would he call me personally.  My stomach instantly went into knots, my legs went weak, I mean REAL panic.  And now, about 2 1/2 days after that call, the panic has barely let up and all I can think is that I've just been handed a death sentence, which is bad enough, but the thoughts of my wife being left alone, and my son growing up without me are almost too much to bare. 

 I've read all about what can cause this, based on the symptoms, my guess is ARVD, a fairly rare form of heart disease which often leads to sudden cardiac death, when left untreated.  So here I sit, untreated, waiting for another call to tell me when the next MRI will be.