Diana's Profile

I’ve known that I’ve had mitral valve prolapse since my teens. It runs in my mom’s side of the family. Started having mild regurgitation in my late 20’s and was followed by a cardiologist who said we would watch it, and that there was a chance it would need to be repaired if it got bad enough and I had symptoms. Mild regurgitation became moderate in my 40’s and the cardiologist suggested fish oil. Took that and the next year my regurgitation was back to mild. In my 50s it was slowly getting slightly worse but we continued to monitor it. I started having stronger palpitations, and feeling that the top half of my heart was fighting against the lower half, as if they each had their own rhythm/pace. I started getting winded when I ran up stairs. I could sense a fluttery feeling sometimes and when I laid down flat at night it felt like I had to use more effort to breathe in. I relayed this to my cardiologist who made comments like, “well you are out of shape”, or “you need to lose a few pounds”. So I thought I was just making too much out of it and I just needed to power through. I work full time in a hospital managing a department and I see private therapy patients in my side business, so I worked long hours and didn’t always sleep well at night. A year passes and my next cardiologist visit was with the Nurse Practitioner who listened to my heart and said my murmur/regurgitation was much worse, and she couldn’t believe I wasn’t on any daily meds. She ordered tests including stress test, echo, TEE and blood tests. She immediately put me on Eliquis and propranolol. Cardiac tests showed severe regurgitation, and consensus was that I need mitral valve repair right away. Things moved pretty quickly after that. I was referred to a cardiac thoracic surgeon and my open heart surgery (via thoracotomy) for mitral valve repair, maze procedure and left atrial appendage occlusion will be June 28. I’ve learned so much from your individual stories and posts about your surgeries and your recoveries. Lots of helpful hints that your surgeons don’t think to tell you! Thank you to Adam Pick for this site and all of you willing to share your stories and insights! It is a wonderful resource for anyone facing heart surgery!