Hey guys, At the end of the day, I’m a middle aged lady working to improve my heart health before more time and heart function slips away, making the climb back up that much steeper.
What’s given my heart health journey more dimension is that I was born with a ventricular septal defect that closed on its own when I was in middle school. Around this time, my lifelong arrhythmias became more symptomatic and my pedi cardio doc prescribed me beta blockers, which I’ve taken ever since.
My heart function stayed relatively well behaved with regular heart checkups, med adjustments and good exercise/diet until my 40’s when my BP and cholesterol began climbing. In winter of 2020, I began working from home and my position remains largely remote to this day —> I became less active and ate less healthy. I didn’t notice my heart growing weaker.
When I had my regular cardiac workup this summer, I was shocked with the findings. My daily heart meds expanded to four types and I was strongly urged to work hard to strengthen my CV system or risk frightening outcomes. My cardiologist found my clinical exam, Holter monitor’s ECG and ambulatory BP monitoring data concerning and scheduled an exercise stress echocardiogram to guide my exercise plans. This test revealed that my ejection fraction was low, I had left ventricular dysfunction, my aortic valve had begun leaking, and I didn’t last long on the treadmill before being stopped and made to lay down.
That night, I got an Apple Watch. The past few months with the watch have confirmed that my heart is functioning much more poorly than I realized. I didn’t know that I often have symptomless arrhythmias, poor reaction to and slow recovery from physical exertion and work stress, and really low heart rate variability. When working out, sometimes my heart suddenly raced erratically and I felt chest pain until I stopped and rested - other times everything was unremarkable.
I booked an appt with my cardio for the exercise-induced chest pain but before I could see her I suffered a cardiac arrest. I was out walking - I remember feeling crushing chest pain and dizziness and immediately headed towards home, and that’s all. I awoke in intensive care among a jungle of wires and tubes - my watch alerted my husband of my fall and saved my life. I now have an ICD, a fifth heart medication and full-fledged heart failure.
Very long story short, I’m here to learn new info to improve my heart health and apply what I’ve learned and experienced with other members, when it may be of help.
