David's Profile

February 1, 2023 I felt like a 56-year-old man without any major health complications should feel. The next day things changed. On February 2, 2023, my heart was racing which woke me up in the early hours. I could tell my heart was racing And it didn’t feel like anything I felt before. I waited for my wife to wake up, then we called my PCP. My Apple Watch and phone were telling me that I was in atrial fibrillation. I really didn’t know what that meant. Other than memories of my brother going through afib and having medical procedures performed on his heart to keep him out of it. My PCP told us to go directly to the emergency room where they told us that I was in a fib and they scheduled several procedures for the next few days. My heart came out of a fib with the help of some medication, so they completed a catheterization on my heart and found no blockages. They sent me home in two days and requested that I get an MRI as soon as I could. The MRI was set up a week later and the results were posted to a portal which I was able to read the next day. The report on the portal head terms like: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Severe mitral regurgitation. HCOM Tricuspid is a bicuspid. Aorta is moderately dilated. Bicuspid has mild to moderate regurgitation. I searched each of these terms, then called my wife in tears. She came home from work, and we talked and prayed. I immediately scheduled a meeting with my PCP and cardiac doctors. My PCP mentioned that my heart needs some help. He told me to not push it, and to await the cardiac doctor's appointment and mentioned most likely I will have the new heart valve in the future. I began working again as I could do most of my work from home. My heart went to 130 even when even on beta blockers, so I went to the emergency room again and was held overnight. I was back at work when I got a call from the cardiac Doctor Who stated that they were overwhelmed, looking at my MRI, and then I need to see a specialist in HCOM, and they would refer me. After seeing a specialist and a surgeon in HCOM, which is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with obstruction, it was determined that I would go in for open-heart surgery to repair my ailing heart. The surgeon stated that it was a 98% success rate, and he agreed that after the surgery and recovery, I would again be able to climb mountains.