Vicki's Profile

I guess I'll start by saying I never thought I'd need a site like this. I've been through a lot in my adult life. I've had Hodgkins Lymphoma twice, thyroid cancer and basil cell cancer. The thought of developing a heart problem never crossed my mind. But last winter I started noticing that getting hay out of the barn was just wearing me out. I've had a cough ever since I had the radiation treatments for the Hodgkins so when it started getting worse I just thought "oh well". But the walking up the stairs in the house made me tired and anything where I had to exert myself made me out of breath. My family doctor ran some test and diagnosed me with a left bundle branch block. From there I went to a cardiologist. He ran more test that showed a blockage. From there it was on to a heart cath. The cath came back pretty good. No blockages, the bundle block wasn't anything to worry about and my valves were leaking but not much. I was good with that but then it was getting harder and harder to breath when I did anything. My cardiologist did more test and said I had a lot of leaking and wanted to send me to a surgeon. I wasn't real confident with him so I went for a second opinion. Now I'm with a new doctor. She had a TEE test done and it showed severe mitral valve regurgitation and my hearts only pumping at about 40%. So now I have an appointment with a different surgeon that my doctor recommended on December 18. My doctor said hopefully it can be repaired but it will be up to the surgeon. I'm sorry I know this is kind of rambling. I don't say anything very often but when I do I kind of get carried away.