Roy's Profile

I was diagnosed with a heart murmur at my 7th grade physical. Congestive Heart Failure runs in my family. I had not really had problems with it until this past summer (2016). I started retaining water pretty badly. I ended up in the ER in September and was in heart failure. I was put on diuretic to help take the water off. I continued to have some problems keeping the water off which landed me in the hospital in December. It was suggested that my mitro valve was leaking pretty bad and that I would need to have open heart to replace it. PANIC! I had never had a surgery in my life and I refused to talk about it. However, I landed in the hospital again in January. I was told that this would be the routine if I didn't have something done about it. So I finally consented. I was in such bad shape that the surgeon who was going to do the surgery checked me into the hospital for a week for a "cardiac tuneup" to get me ready for the surgery. Well I was ready in a week and went for it. I can't explain how happy I am that I had it done. It really wasn't that bad for me. I am now 11 weeks out from it and feel years younger. It's great to be able to walk through a store without having to stop two or three times to catch my breath. If you are facing a surgery you won't be sorry that you did it.