Thanks for sharing about your mitral valve issue. It's not easy to accept that you could have a heart issue at a young age, but as you wisely pointed out, it's so much better to know than to not know.
Anonymous (w/ high heartbeat),
I hope you'll take your doctor up on the Holter monitor. It will be very easy to let it capture any abnormalities by simply working out and running to replicate what normally happens. For many people, it takes a year or two (and sometimes a stroke or two) before their doctors finally diagnose them with atrial fibrillation. Sometimes it is because the doctor really doesn't take their symptoms seriously, and other times it's because they don't have an afib episode during the EKG or Holter monitoring. But you know exactly what brings it on and can easily replicate the conditions.
I don't want to scare you, but if it is afib, or even atrial flutter, that is something to take very seriously. Next week, in celebration of National Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month (September), we at StopAfib.org are launching a video to raise awareness. A few significant facts from it include:
1) About 35% of those with atrial fibrillation will have a stroke
2) Atrial fibrillation strokes are fatal 3 times as often as other strokes
3) Risk of death is double for those with atrial fibrillation than for those without it
Younger folks without heart disease have lower risk than older folks with it, but even so, you can always be the exception. Having almost died twice in 2003, at the age of 51, I know that I was an exception as well, so it can happen to anyone. Please at least find out.
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Anonymous (w/ mitral valve issues),
Thanks for sharing about your mitral valve issue. It's not easy to accept that you could have a heart issue at a young age, but as you wisely pointed out, it's so much better to know than to not know.
Anonymous (w/ high heartbeat),
I hope you'll take your doctor up on the Holter monitor. It will be very easy to let it capture any abnormalities by simply working out and running to replicate what normally happens. For many people, it takes a year or two (and sometimes a stroke or two) before their doctors finally diagnose them with atrial fibrillation. Sometimes it is because the doctor really doesn't take their symptoms seriously, and other times it's because they don't have an afib episode during the EKG or Holter monitoring. But you know exactly what brings it on and can easily replicate the conditions.
I don't want to scare you, but if it is afib, or even atrial flutter, that is something to take very seriously. Next week, in celebration of National Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month (September), we at StopAfib.org are launching a video to raise awareness. A few significant facts from it include:
1) About 35% of those with atrial fibrillation will have a stroke
2) Atrial fibrillation strokes are fatal 3 times as often as other strokes
3) Risk of death is double for those with atrial fibrillation than for those without it
Younger folks without heart disease have lower risk than older folks with it, but even so, you can always be the exception. Having almost died twice in 2003, at the age of 51, I know that I was an exception as well, so it can happen to anyone. Please at least find out.
Good luck.
Mellanie
August 28, 2010 - 8:42amThis Comment
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