Dodgey hearts

[Cathryn]

I probably haven't mentioned this before but I have a dodgey heart. I was born with congenital heart disease, had open heart surgery aged 3 and have lived a pretty much entirely normal life since. I don't feel ill, don't look ill and have run the marathon as well as other various exploits. I don't really think of myself as any different to anyone else. No-one would ever guess, apart from the rather spectacular scar which I love.

I'm just on the train back from a check up and although everything is fine and nothing has changed, the gravity of some of the things the doctors were talking about have suddenly made me very aware of my own mortality. I've been looking on websites for adults with congenital heart disease and I've been quite shocked at some of the ways in which other people struggle...breathlessness, ongoing medication, unable to 'do stuff' etc. It's made me feel very lucky but, as I said, suddenly very mortal.

Is there anyone else on here with a slightly gammy ticker? Or is it just me?

 

[buggi]

hun, we are all mortal, and tomorrow you might get runover by a bus, so just enjoy today for today and don't worry about something you can't change. like you say, you feel well, and everyone's different so it doesn't mean your health will go the same way as other peoples. besides which, they only print the bad stuff, there are prob loads people who have what you have and feel fine.

 

[cookiemonster]

My heart beats 3x, then misses a beat, then beats 3x etc etc.

Not a problem compared to yours but the docs have sometimes wondered why it hasn't caused me any probs.

 

[marinyork]

I know someone who has a daughter that has it and has had an entirely normal lifestyle (until into her 20s). On the other hand someone at the college I went to knew someone who had it and they died early, they just parked up the car and were waiting for someone and had a heart attack like that footballer a few years ago. When I had CFS I had an irregular heart beat but it has now returned to normal and is below average.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I was diagnosed a few years ago with advanced CHD and a seriously blocked heart artery. I had been feeling increasingly tired/exhausted, stressed, biking was getting harder, job was going down the pan and sympathy at home was into negative amounts...
I had a minor heart attack and eventually got my diagnosis, over the next few eweeks I went downhill so badly that I couldn't walk more than a few yards without an angina attack, and then I couldn't even stand-up so I called the Ambulance fand had an emergency stenting.
I'm on full-time meds, B-Blockers, Aspirin, 2 lots of statins, I have to be carefull with my excercise levels and a few weird things I have difficulty with. The meds make me feel permanently tired. At some stage in the future I'm likely to have another episode and if lucky I'll get more stents or maybe a full by-pass, or maybe I'll be unlucky and just keel over. I'm just 46.

But, I'm alive, and I'm pretty vibrant, and mostly I smile and try to spread joy as I go along. I've got a great family, good pals, I don't want for much. Sometimes it's hard to see the positives, but as buggi says, we could all be struck-down tomorrow, any one of us.
I try to follow this ethos: Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.

 

[Cathryn]

Thank you for sharing that! You've made me feel like a right hypochondriac (I mean that gratefully). You poor thing!! Fab Foodie, you win!!

I think you're all totally correct and I don't want or mean to wallow. It was just a bit of a shock. It's made me incredibly grateful for the health which, to be honest, I totally take for granted and I'm resolving to eat better and exercise better as a result, and that's a good thing.

 

[snapper_37]

Cathryn, don't know anything about your problem, but best of luck and good health anyway.

 

[Saddle bum]

Had an MI in 1992 and by-pass surgery in 1996. Tend to forget about it and get on with life. Get out of breath going up hills - I just slow down.

 

[Baggy]

My heart beats 3x, then misses a beat, then beats 3x etc etc.

Not a problem compared to yours but the docs have sometimes wondered why it hasn't caused me any probs.

Mine used to do that until I was about 12 years old, when I apparently grew out of it. It didn't really bother me much apart from feeling a bit feeble and tearful on occasion.

 

[Crackle]

Mine used to do that until I was about 12 years old, when I apparently grew out of it. It didn't really bother me much apart from feeling a bit feeble and tearful on occasion.

I think I had something similiar until I was about 7. It was never clearly explained but I couldn't run or owt and was finally given the all clear at 7. A day I still remember.

Whether it's related or not, I now have a heart murmur, very slight, totally benign but it seems to wake up every new GP I register with, who then start writing me up for a battery of tests before I patiently explain that it's been investigated and that there's absolutely nothing wrong wit

 

[col]

We must be at an age when we feel our mortality cathryn. My own little problem is nothing compared to yours fabs and others, but it did make me feel very fragile for a while, I was scared to exert myself in case my heart rate didnt come down again, very strange feeling. But I too now have the live for now thoughts and enjoy my health as it stands. Be posititive and be healthy as much as you can, its all we can do, and enjoy life friends and loved ones as much as possible.

 

[Baggy]

Whether it's related or not, I now have a heart murmur, very slight, totally benign but it seems to wake up every new GP I register with, who then start writing me up for a battery of tests before I patiently explain that it's been investigated and that there's absolutely nothing wrong wit

Crackle, your sentence ended very abruptly. Crackle? CRACKLE!

 

[Baggy]

I've been looking on websites for adults with congenital heart disease and I've been quite shocked at some of the ways in which other people struggle...breathlessness, ongoing medication, unable to 'do stuff' etc. It's made me feel very lucky but, as I said, suddenly very mortal.

The internet is wonderful in many ways, but there are quite a lot of things that you can find out about that you might have felt better not knowing about...

I think also that being aware of our mortality is one of the downsides of the human condition.

 

[Crackle]

Crackle, your sentence ended very abruptly. Crackle? CRACKLE!

Eh? Oh sorry, that damn Return key.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Be posititive and be healthy as much as you can, its all we can do, and enjoy life friends and loved ones as much as possible.

Well said Col.

I think being aware of our mortality can be a good thing, it should ensure that we live life to the full, not shy away from it.