Diane's Profile

On Christmas Day 2018, I asked my ex-husband Dave to drive me to the ER. I had a 3 month history of intermittent foot and ankle swelling and progressive shortness of breath for which I had consulted both my primary care physician and my pulmonologist (I have mild, persistent asthma.) neither was especially concerned until an EKG on 12/13/18 showed a “slight arrhythmia.” I was scheduled for a nuclear stress test and nuclear echocardiogram on 1/04/19, but the shortness of breath and exhaustion got so bad that we went to the ER instead. I was shocked to discover that I was in CHF and A-fib and my lungs were full of fluid. Thanks to my new cardiologist Dr. Fawad Kazi, I made it through the 5 day hospital stay and after both trans thoracic and transesophageal echocardiograms were done I learned that I had a severely regurgitant mitral valve, a moderately leaky tricuspid valve in addition to the a-fib. I knew that I was born with a borderline mitral valve prolapse but had never had any problems or symptoms before this past September. My cousins who had worked many years at Yale New Haven Hospital recommended Sabet Hashim, MD who had opened the Heart and Vascular Institute at Hartford Hospital in 2016. Dr. Hashim had performed the first heart transplant surgery and first mitral valve replacement procedure in CT in 1984. Https://hartfordhealthcare.org/SabetHashim. During these months of waiting for surgery my heart has gone back into sinus rhythm on its own, with only 2 brief episodes of a-fib heart pumping strength is nearly normal and the tricuspid valve is now only minimally regurgitant. My surgery will be on 4/24/19 and Dr. Kazi and I are hoping for a minimally invasive mitral valve repair procedure. I will be hearing sometime this coming week from the surgeon’s office as to his opinions after reviewing my most recent T.E.E. The hardest part so far has been the waiting, not knowing what type of surgical procedure (minimally invasive sub mammary vs full sternotomy? Repair or replacement? Maze or not, etc.) And the financial difficulties of not being able to work and no income beyond social security retirement benefits. I decided it was time to reach out for support from this wonderful community of Adam’s followers!