At the age of 13, I had rheumatic fever. When I was about 25, I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse. Other than that, I thought I was pretty healthy.
In 1993, I did not pass the pulmonary function part of an office physical and it was suggested that I see a lung specialist. I had all the pulmonary function tests and at that time was diagnosed with emphysma changes. During 1993, I had bronchitis several times and I continued to get bronchitis in 1994. I kept going to the doctor and telling him what was wrong with me. I guess I didn't have the classic symptoms: shortness of breath, etc,..., but I did have a slight cough and when I made an announcement over the PA system my voice would give out before I reached the end of a sentence.
In April 1995, I was diagnosed with pneumonia. When it took a long time to recover and I still had a slight cough, I was sent to an allergist. He treated me for asthma, of course. On July 11, I was again diagnosed with pneumonia. On July 30, when I went back to the doctor, my husband insisted they do another x-ray. That night at 10:00 p.m., I received a call and was asked to go to the drugstore then and get antibotics because I had pneumonia in both lungs this time.
While waiting to see a lung specialist (I was convinced I had some horrible lung disease), I ended up in the ER in the middle of the night in congestive heart failure. I was immediately put on Lasix IV treatment and as soon as the fluid was removed from my lungs, I felt better. I had a cath showing that my heart was enlarged, the mitral and aortic valves were slightly damaged (not enough to warrant surgery) and all my arteries were clear. I was diagnosed with DCM. My EF was 19%. No one told me that I could not return to work so I went back to work two weeks after being
released from the hospital. In November 1996, my EF was up to 50%.
In May of 1997, I had a MUGA showing that my heart was back to normal size (of course, the heart muscle damage will always be there) and my EF was a super-normal 76%. That was great news and I have been taken off all meds except Monopril and I was switched to Dyazide (as needed) for fluid retention. I was advised to continued the 2,000 mg salt restriction, low fat diet and to continue walking. The dox now assumes that I had viral myocarditis in 1995 that caused the problem. I am still working as a secretary for the USDA, Agricultural Research Service.
| Dyazide | as needed |
| 10mg Monopril | morning |
| 2mg Estrace | morning |
| 5mg Provera | morning |
| 150mg Zantac | morning |
| 1200mg Calcium | throughout the day |
| 2 puffs Rhinocort | as needed |
Peggy -- November 1, 1997
All information on this site is opinion only. All concepts, explanations, trials, and studies have been re-written in plain English and may contain errors. No one here is a doctor. No information on this page should be used by any person to affect their medical, legal, educational, social, or psychological treatment in any way. This web site and all its pages copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Jon C.