Douglas's Profile

I thought I was perfectly healthy. I exercised regularly, no smoking, the occasional beer. I had no symptoms that I knew of. I remember being told at one point that I had a murmur and thought nothing of it. Around Thanksgiving of this year, I started feeling lousy, like I had the flu. I went to my Clinic, they took some chest XRays and other tests and eventually said, you need to go to a Hospital right away. I went to one local Hospital on the 28th of Nov. and was transferred to Dartmouth on the 30th of Nov. After a number of tests, they determined I had an infected bicuspid valve that needed to be replaced. I was operated on Dec. 2. The whole episode was surreal. It all happened so fast I had no time to be apprehensive. I am now 14 wks post op. Things have gone fairly well. I am back at work ( I work in the ski industry) so I am back on snow almost every day. I go regularly to Cardiac Rehab (once a week). The Dr's and nurses at Dartmouth Hitchcock were awesome. Very good hospital. Proud to be a member of this community.