Noreen's Profile

I found a couple of months ago while on vacation that I was short of breath. I assumed I was out of shape. I started a yoga class early January and was doing one of the poses and almost passed out because I was so short of breath again. I went to my nurse practitioner thinking my thyroid was causing this because my mom had similar symptoms. During my exam she noticed a very loud murmur. I was previously the admin assistant in the cardiac cath lab so I phoned one of the cardiologist I worked with and she examined me and right after listening to my chest she had a stat EKG followed by a TEE. Found out that my aortic valve is leaking. It's been three weeks and things having been moving quickly. I've had a MRI of my aorta as well as a angiogram in the lab I used to work in. Ironic The rest of my heart looks healthy. Thank god. I know the surgeon very well as well as the rest of the surgical team. It a comfort, but I'm still terrified. Mostly of the recovery part. My surgery will be within the next two weeks. My platelets are very low and we are working on getting that fixed. I'm so glad the I listen to my body and got it checked.