Tiredness, Weakness, Dizziness
My name is Nona Taylor, a 50 year old, realtively healthy female. I'm an ordained United Methodist clergy person serving a wonderful congregation in southeastTexas. My husband, a school teacher and a clergy person have one son and a lovely daughter in law. I've quite a extensive cardiac history having been born with a congenital electrical defect requiriing a pacemaker for the last 29 years. Within the last 2 weeks, I was diagnoised with an ascending aortic aneurism and now trying to deal with it's ramifications. I'm blessed to have access to the Texas Medical Center in Houston and all of it's expertise. My physicians are inching towards the "wait and see" mode before requiring surgery which is hard since I'd like to get this thing fixed and get back to my family life and ministry.
3 October 2002
I've been reading some of your testimonies and felt like I'd come to the right place. I was diagnosed with an ascending aortic aneurism just above the heart one week ago. The size is now around 5 centimeters. Basically, my cardiologist told me to go home and try to refrain from becoming psychologically crippled by this turn of events.
I've been dealing with heart issues since being diagnosed with a congenital bundle branch block at the age of 3 days. A pacemaker was implanted 29 years ago - a miracle that changed my life, thank God. I've had 8 pacemaker implantations since then, some great, others difficult. Several years ago I developed atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter which required rhythm medications with severe side effects.
Two years ago I underwent ablation to correct some of the defects. The procedure was somewhat successful but there were too many areas of defect to completely correct the problem. My blessing was that I was able to get off all cardiac drugs and receive a new pacemaker designed to handle these arrhythmias. For the last two years, my health has been better than I've ever experienced, that is until about 3 weeks ago when I developed dizziness, weakness, and chest pains. A catheterization revealed clean, healthy arteries which is great but also revealed an aortic aneurism just above the heart.
If you've been able to wade through my cardiac history, my concern is a lack of stamina since these events began - tiredness, weakness, dizziness and some vision problems as well as intermittent chest pains. Are these symptoms and lack of recovery common to persons with aortic aneurisms or should I expect recovery without intervention? I've been experiencing optimum health until this event and it's frustrating.
My doctor wanted me to relieve stress and as I stated, "not become psychologically handicapped" by this new development. I am trying to go on about my life while they monitored the growth of the aneurism but I can't do what I could three weeks ago. My profession requires a great deal of emotional strength - I'm a Christian minister and want to get on with my ministry and life in general.
Any helpful suggestions and discussion would be appreciated,
Blessings.
Update: 15 Jan 2003
I'm sharing an update about my aneurysm that is rather strange and may be a blessing but I'm still unsure about the latest information.
Last Wednesday I went to the emergency with severe pain in the upper left shoulder and middle back. It especially hurt when I took in a breath. The doctors checked out my heart-(I have a pacemaker and congenital bundle branch block)and then asked if I'd strained my back. I had to explain about the anerysm and my fear that the pain might be signaling a problem. (The pain is some better now but still there.) I was advised to have an echocardiogram which I scheduled at Methodist Hospital in Houston the next day. I received the results to day.
Amazing as it may seem, the echo shows absolutely NO EVIDENCE of an aneurysm. NONE!!!!! I want to shout hallelujah and thank you God but I'm still a more than a little confused. Before claiming a miracle, I need to understand why a catherization focused on the aorta showed an aneurysm and then a CT scan confirmed a 5 cm aneurysm near the aortic root but the echocardiogram is completely negative. My doctor seems as confused as me. I suspect we'll do another CT scan soon to be sure. Since I have a severe allergy to the contrast dye, we don't take these tests lightly. I've experienced anaphalactic shock and a code blue with dye in the past which is no fun at all.
My question for the group is this. Has anyone elsse experienced conflicting test results such as these and if so, what did you do? I would LOVE to be free of the worry of this condition but want to be sure before dancing in the streets. Thanks friends.
Discussion, comments, or questions: Nona Taylor
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