Experiences with myocarditis?
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Anyone with experience of myocarditis/ myo-pericarditis?
I'm a 23 almost 24 year old male, fairly healthy before all of my problems as far as I knew, never regularly seen a doctor. I am not a athlete or exercise fanatic as you most regularly hear about myocarditis sufferers, I am a EMT that worked on a ambulance and had a mostly sedentary lifestyle unfortunately.
It began I believe with what I assumed was a cold, severe sore throat, runny nose the whole works. I worked through it and treated with just cough drops and oral mucinex. I had recovered from that and around a week later?(timeline is a bit fuzzy) I had a sudden onset of chest pain in the center of my chest, no exercise or intense physical strain beforehand I was actually laying on my couch. And after a little bit of time had passed and it still hadn't improved I drove myself to the local, small hospital.
I have a family history of heart attacks on my dad's side so luckily that made them suspicious enough to overlook my age and normal blood pressure and heart rate. I was given a EKG that came back normal and chest x rays that were okay as well. They ran blood work, they seemed suspicious of drug use( I use no drugs but was a smoker) and that's when they found my treponin I was elevated, 3.125 I believe.
They transferred me to a larger facility with a cardiologist and I ended up spending the evening, and most of the early morning in the Emergency waiting for a bed upstairs. My EKG remained the same and my initial chest pain was gone, the first hospital had given me nitro and a nitro paste for the ambulance transport.
They treated me with blood thinners and informed me I had most likely had a heart attack and would be getting a angiogram done the next morning unless my chest pain returned.
I was given a echocardiogram that morning and found my EF to be 55% which I was informed was normal. And then shortly after to my surprise and to the surprise of the cardiologist doing the angio that I had no blockages or clots that they could see. And I'm assuming from the echocardiogram or by process of elimination he diagnosed me with acute myocarditis.
I spent 2 days in CICU constantly monitored by EKG, blood pressure and heart rate. And everything remained the same, I was discharged late in the evening of the second day and sent home with multiple prescriptions and a follow up appointment.
That was a little over a month ago and I'm due to go back Monday for a follow up echocardiogram. My subsequent EKG was still normal 2 weeks after it happened. I still have fleeting chest pains and I've become hypersensitive to every little thing that happens in my body. My slight anxiety has increased to a full blown disorder and I'm still fighting the constant fear and uncertainty, especially after hearing some of the horror stories related to it. And just want to be able to talk about it with someone who's been through it.
My meds are:
Low dose aspirin daily 81mg
Pravastatin 20mg and then dropped to 10mg last refill
Lexapro 5mg for anxiety and .25 mg xanax as needed for attacks.
Coreg 3.125mg twice a day, then down to half of a tablet twice a day due to ugly side effects.
0 likes, 3 replies
lyn1951 matthew41897
Posted
Sounds as though you had a virus that attcked you heart muscle.. Boy oh boy you are one lucky dude if your ejection fraction is still 55%, must have done very little real damage.
Husband has heart failure or dialated cardiomyopathy, from a virus, his ejection fraction was 23%, sent home from private cardiologist.
I didn't realise at the time we should have gone straight to emergency department, and or the cardio should have told us to go stright to the emergency dept.
Two days later collapsed at home, sweating up a storm, with no exertion, actually lying on floor slipping in and out of what I thought was sleep, but something told me it was worse than that, I rang an ambulane, transported to local hospital where he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, his lungs were full of fluid, while he was there being treated, he suddenly started screaming in pain, in his leg, he had passed a massive clot out of his heart into his aorta and down his leg, they found it in one of the smaller aerteries in his leg, thank god it had gone down, if it had gone into his brain he would have died.
Discharged the following day, from the local hospital, nurses said to me, get in the car and drive him across the city to the heart hospital, and show them the private cardio's opinion letter, which i by then had a copy of, addressed to our local GP, who thought there was nothing wrong with him, I suspected there was something although I didn;t know what.
The Heart hospital kept him 8 days while they did an angiogram, all fine, no blockages, it was a real risk to do that angiogram on somebody at 23%, and they told me so, but needed doing.
Gave him about 6 differnect tablets, aspriin to keep his blood thin, bisporpol to help his heart heal, pendropril to keep his blood pressure low, astrovastin to make sure he didn;t develop a plaque in the damaged part of his heart muscle, frusemide for fluid build up in his lungs.
Dr's said to me he will die if he sits around when he gets home, in the hospital he coudn't walk from his bed to the in en-suite toilet, needed help, and here they are saying he cannot just sit around. Well we started a get fit regiem, easy chair to front door 3 times a day, chair at front door, about 20 steps, for a week, then easy chair to letter box, 3 times a day, about 40 steps for a week, chair at letter box, then easy chair to neighbours letter box, and so on, repeating and gaining distance over 18 months, and keeping fit, that seems to be the answer once you have a heart condition you must stay fit.
He is now six years this week, on from his major congestive heart failure, which could have killed him, and doing very well, keeping fit as he can, he broke his leg 1st week in Novmeber and that has slowed him down, has keep up dumb bell weights for arms, and rubber stretchy bands for his legs, even sitting in easy chair, all resistance exercises in place of walking, and I have watched his diet, has put on some weight but not too much, but starting walking about again the last couple of weeks, will take a while before he can walk 5 km's each and every morning like he used to regularly, that will drop any excess weight off him fairly quickly.
lyn1951 matthew41897
Posted
Husband is followed with echo's, they measure the size of your heart muscle, and chambers for him every six months.
He has had a few ups and downs in the last six years, but each and every time, I have been able to recoginze that he is not well, and get him to the heart hospital, no longer take him to the local hospital, wouldn;t let them near him with a 40 foot barge pole.
For example - very hot day, insisted on mowing the lawns, he got too dehydrated and his blood pressure dropped far too low, we have our own Omeron. or blood pressure monitor, treated at the heart hospital under supervision, gave him a cup full of fluid each hour through a drip until his blood pressure came back to normal, discharged the following morning.
Last episode was at home, he felt dizzy and light headed, couldn't stand up, no strength in legs, his blood pressure was normal, but his heart was only at 30BPM, drove him to heart hospital, after two days they decided his electircal activity in his heart had failed and gave him a pacemaker and defibulator, discharged him the following day. Thats nearly a year ago now.
kristie1978 matthew41897
Posted
Hello matthew41897,
Sorry you are experiencing these symptoms. I went to the hospital in June of last year with weakness, shortness of breathe, chest and left arm pain and a weird cough that didn't go away for like 5 months my triponins have been elelevated well the last time I checked was a week before Christmas and they were still elevated and they don't know why. I've done all kinds of tests and most recently I have fluttering every couple minutes that is weird and scary. I eat pretty healthy and take tumeric and vitamins. Cardiologist wanted me to take ibuprofen for suspected paracarditis, I never took it because I read ibuprofen can cause heart issues so I've been stuck on what to do and will follow up this week with another cardiologist. I hope you hang in there and just wanted you to know your not the only one that has increased triponin with an unknown cause. It has increased my anxiety and worries as well. My best advise for that is take one day at a time and try not to stress too much cause stress isn't good for our precious hearts. Take care.