Episode 28: Kathy Hoseth’s Rebellion Against Symptom Dismissal Erased 50 Years of Doubt.

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I want to live and I want to live as well as I can. So anybody else going through it, I would say first of all, educate yourself as best you can. This group has been a godsend because Yeah, so ignorant. And by educating yourself, find out as much as you can about myocardial bridges and then research your doctors. Or don't deal with somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. It's a waste of time. Stay strong. Just be healthy. Because if you're not, you're going to exacerbate this.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

We'll talk with healthcare professionals, those in related fields that support our condition, and others just like us with stories of their myocardial bridge experiences. It's my intention for this content to inform, educate, entertain, and even motivate or inspire you in your personal journey on dealing with a myocardial bridge. Most importantly is to have you leave each episode with hope, knowing you're not alone and that what you're experiencing is real. My guest this episode plays a very special role in support of the podcast, as you'll hear in the episode, but she's somebody who has been there for many of us during our exploratory phases of our condition, our diagnostic phase, our preoperative phase, and then of course our post-operative phase. She's been a very active member of the Myocardial Bridge Facebook group and is one of my favorite cheerleaders for those going through the process of remedy for the condition. She's always positive and with constructive support, but she actually does have another life now that that's been improved since her surgery five years ago, almost to the day. She's now able to be an active mother, wife, and grandmother to eight grandchildren. Yes, I said eight. And thank goodness she's been on roof, right? After a career in insurance, she now substitute teaches and loves to get out for a hike when she can. Having seen her so active on the Facebook page, I feel like I've known her for some time. She has a great story to tell, so let's get into it. Kathy Hoseth, I am honored to have you on Imperfect Heart.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Thank you. Happy to be here. That I commented on your very first podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yes, that's exactly it. That is exactly it. So I've I've known Kathy, who made the comment on the podcast for the entire year and a quarter now, 14 months that we've been doing it. And I've been so anxious to speak with you, thinking I hope she'll talk to me because she was one of the first people that gravitated to the you know to the podcast in the first place. And it was so neat to see some sort of encouragement there on the I'm sure. Let's get into your story. Like every other guest that has been on the program, we all have these unique situations. And I can't stress that enough because some people think, well, mine's just like yours. And I will promise you, yours is just not like mine, and mine is not like yours, and yours is not like anybody else's. Everybody's is is unique to the individual. And yours started at like eight years old, where you noticed something was wrong 1968-ish.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Let's start there. Talking a little bit about what that was.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Well, as a child, I mean, in a big salmon, six kids, and you know, I was in the middle of it for a long time until the baby came. But just running around the yard like we always did, or the house, feeling a very sharp stabbing pain in my heart, you know, just out of breath. But, you know, we were running, so you don't think anything of it. But it was very sharp and very painful, and told my mom, and she looked very concerned. And a few minutes later I was fine, and she's like, you know, it's a kid, she'll be fine. And that did happen. I would have those pains. I had them up. I hate to admit it, but I occasionally will get it, not nearly as much as I used to, but I would just get those and it'd be like, that something's not right there. But you know, you just shrug it off because it goes away. So I don't know. Probably should have done something then, but I don't think they were doing anything about myocardial bridges at that time.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Probably not. And we know the technology to repair them was probably rough at that point, and they probably didn't do much of it knowing even what it was. I doubt that they had the technology to do the flow rates and the specific tests and everything to identify.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

So you're getting older now and you're still recognizing that something's still not quite right, but not wrong enough to do anything about it. Right. All the way into college.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yeah. I don't I can't, you know, if I told you everything, we'd be here all night. But just little things like wanting to go out for track and remembering I just could not run. And I remember talking to my coach, I could run, but not for very long without being completely winded. And this whole runner's high thing totally eluded me. I just never got it. And and just I just quit because I just couldn't do it. And I just I'm out of shape. You know, I was I wasn't. I was a kid and I was in shape, but it was my heart didn't know it. And then later, yeah, young adult, had my children fairly young, and recovery from my first birth was a long time. He was a difficult, very difficult childbirth, but nonetheless, it took me a long time to recover.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Let's walk through some of those things because I think they're important for other people to hear because they're going to go through those same stages of you know the difficult childbirth. Why did it take so long for recovery? I think you were talking about you still had chest pain and some R visits, and then they're diagnosed with pleurisy. And go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Yeah, one of those things. And after he was born, when he was three, I decided to go back to college, and I was pregnant for my second one. Not a real smart thing to do, but I did it anyway and finished in four and a half years. But during that time, going to Michigan State, and I live closer to Grand Rapids than I do to Lansing, and did that drive back and forth, always had a full load, and then came home to what I came home to, two little kids, and it was difficult. So one day coming out of I forget which class, I can see it, but I can't think of what it was, having horrible chest pain and thinking, I'm having a heart attack. I mean, I'm like this, there's something seriously wrong. I think I was 25 at the time and went into their medical center there at Michigan State University. And the woman there that I talked to, you know, I think she just said, Oh, we've seen this before. She's stressed out, and asked me those types of questions. What should you credit load? You know, what else am you doing? Mention a couple of kids and that sort of thing. And they're like, it's stress, it's just stress. You know, go home and have a glass of wine and try to relax. Well, it didn't, it it never let up. That chest pain was there. Yeah, I got used to living with it. Well, I had a girlfriend who was kind of doing the same thing I was, and I remember asking her, I said, Sue, do you get chest pain when you're stressed? And I know she was as stressed as I was. She was doing the same thing. And she said, No, I never did that. I mean, it must be just where I carry my stress, right? So that went on. And soon after that, I mean, I still had that. It got a little better after I finished school. Imagine that. But then it was this horrible pain on my left side, you know, kind of around in the back area. And I finally saw a doctor about that, just our local hometown doctor, and it's a small town. And and he looked a little concerned, and he said, Well, you look so healthy. I don't want to do anything invasive, you know. But he did probably say, if it doesn't go away, come back, and we will. He labeled that, he said, it's probably pleurisy. Now, why does a 27-year-old have pleurisy? I don't know. And I thought, well, I've heard of, I think my dad said he had that once years ago, you know, that kind of reasoning and just went on. I was like, that's gotta be what it was. But it was painful, very painful. And and the next episode, you know, still with the chest pain and short of breath occasionally, but at the same time, I considered myself fit. Does that make any sense?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

I mean absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

I mean, it it's weird, but because I was very active, I needed my sleep. And I remember that while, you know, going through the kids, and it was like, I'm going to bed, I'm done. Without that, I really was a wreck. There were some blessings in disguise being young and kept alcohol at a minimum because whenever I did overdo it, and there were times I did overdo it, it didn't take much. That already did I pay for those days, and I always felt worse than others. It's like, well, it's not worth it to me. And I think it was heartening. I barely touch it now because it's not worth the aggravation. Not saying I'm a teen torner, but I'm very, very careful. So the heart pain, those kinds of things. But then it was later my stepdaughter's grandkids were here. So I was actually in my early 40s at this point, and they had spent the night. And I the next morning I was having what I thought was a the beginning sign to the heart attack. It was like a spasm feeling in my heart, and it was a spasm. Knowing what I know now, it was probably the artery spasming. Went to the hospital, took the kids with us, which didn't help the stress level. But they they did all the tests they do in an emergency room. Thopamine, I'm probably saying that wrong. I think I am. The level, there were no levels at that point.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Your tropamine levels, yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Yes. My blood pressure was spectacular, but see, my blood pressure, which I know now, has always run very low, which became a problem later when they tried to give an intensive medication. So I didn't have high blood pressure, the spasming had slowed down. They sent me home. But they did say we're gonna hook you up with a uh cardiologist, and that cardiologist put me on a treadmill. So we went to that, the regular treadmill test, and I passed it. You know, again, I was fed in that point. My heart rate must not have been getting as high as it did later with a nuclear stress test. So he said, I think what you have is pericarditis, you know, again, with the side pain. And I'd been waking up with this awful pain on my side, still that never really subsided, but getting a little worse. And he just said, just take motrin, that's all we can do. Just take the ton of Motrin. If it gets worse, let me know.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

So it was possible pericarditis, and they said, Well, just load up on Motrin, and when it gets better, you can back off of the Motrin.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Right. And it will come and go, they told me. You know, it'll get better and it'll come back. Well, by golly, that's what it did.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Now, knowing it wasn't it, it was something different.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Something very different. And then from there. Another thing that that kind of finally pushed me, plus being older, you just start to go, enough of this craziness. We need to look further. My heart rate, I started wearing, you noticed my watch, the Fitbit. You know, they came out and were pretty popular. That sounds like fun. And my sister and I would share each other's because we I have a sister who's 13 months older than me, same grade. We just would do a lot together. And one of those things is we walk and we walk a lot, but we would look at our heart rates and I'd be like, Man, I'm 175. She'd like, really? I'm like 100, you know, those kinds of things that I started noticing. And it was like, this something isn't right. My first trip to the second cardiologist, he did a heart monitor where they strap you in this. And I think I wore it for three days. And I I think I mentioned she where they called, left a message and said, We had a few episodes of SBT where your heart rate spikes. I think that's no need to call us back, nothing life-threatening. Go on about your merry way. And I'm like, okay, here we go. You know, once again, and it continued to get worse. The heart rate, which somebody said, Have you ever calculated what your heart rate should be? And it's in 220 minus your age kind of thing. See, I wasn't aware of this. I brought, you know, you just don't think of it. And then I started looking at it, and it would my husband and I would do smaller walks, and you know, we'd get close to 200. And I'd be like, Wow, that's amazing. You know, meanwhile, I'd be having a sharp pain in my heart. I mean, how dumb can you be? But I've been told so many times that it was wrong.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

And and if it's any consolation, it's not dumb. We all do it. It's called denial.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

And you look and you think, well, it probably shouldn't be 200, but it's not that bad. That's the pain I feel all the time. I'm used to that pain, so everything's fine. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Mm-hmm. So ended up back in the local doctor's office in my PA. God bless her, because I think she was the beginning of saving my life. Catherine Smith. And I went in and I don't honestly, I can't remember why I was there, but something. I was pretty kind of shook up. My heart rate, they did a they did my heart rate, my blood pressure, and my heart rate. She said, blood pressure's good, but your heart rate's up over 100. That's tachycadia. Then they did an EKG. She says, We have to do an EKG. And at that time, for my left arm hurt. And I thought it was from holding one of our newborn babies. Couldn't be, I don't know. I was kind of nervous about it. And then she brought the EKG and said, This says abnormal. I don't know what it means. I'm not a cardiologist. I'm gonna send you back. You know, at that point, you just kind of go, okay, whatever. I don't know if it was the same guy. Why don't I remember that?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Repressed memories.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

It could be, it could be.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

I think what you find you did get to a to a cardiologist who he did the first heart calf. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

But it took him a while before he did that. How did I say that? Because the same kind of thing, and he just said, Your heart seems okay, and I said, That's I said, That's just not working for me anymore. At that point, I finally found my voice, and it mentioned you, my ex-husband had passed away. He was 51, died of a heart attack. And my kids were young, young adults, and I just well really could rock your water. And it did. And I just said, I don't want to leave my children complete off and said, No, they're not babies, but they need he's reluctantly said, All right, we'll run some more tests. An echo came out fine, some kind of ultrasound thing came out fine. Nuclear stress test. They stopped me on the treadmill. This time it was like, and I'll, you know, start going. And I hadn't taken hardly any steps and well, a few, and I was at 165. And she says, We're sharp to die. And I'm like, Well, why? She said, Because you've reached the maximum that that we can tolerate or whatever. And I always interest that's nothing. 165 is nothing. Just watch, you know, can hold my beer, I'll show you. I can get to 200. And so, anyway, then but they did finish the test with the dye that goes through that for the arteries and whatnot. So before I got home, I got a phone call from the cardiologist saying, I need you to come in, we're gonna schedule Demorique. What she said is it looks like a blockage, we don't know. So he was a nightmare. You know, heart casts are scared enough, and he was not pleasant, not kind, not gentle. But he but did find the myocardial bridge. He didn't do the second part of the test, which again I had no idea was a better test. He just went in and thought he was going to do an caller, angiogram more the yeah, that's what he thought he was going to do. He was not prepared to do the rest of it that he defined myocardial rich. So he comes out and he's like, Yeah, well, during it though, he was like kind of stumped. He just stopped and put on his tracks, and he's like, What? I could see the look on it. He's like, What is that? He just couldn't figure out what he was looking at. And he said, He asked me if I smoked, and I said, Years ago, I said I don't smoke. And then finally it's like something he says, oh, it's a myocardio bridge. Okay, we're done. And I meet him in the recovery room, and he's like, Do you have a myocardio bridge? He drew a picture of how how what it is, and yeah, I never had heard of a myocardio bridge until that moment. And he said, You're fine. He said, No problem. It's what was his term, minor or something like that. That it's you know, it's not a not a big deal, not a big one. And how would he have known? So, but I remember thinking, I don't know. And I remember his nurse in there was kind of looking at me, and after he left, the nurse said and said, Stress is a big factor of this keeping stress on it down. So once again, I'm back to what are we gonna do? I know I have something, but he did give me beta blockers, channel blockers, statins, and asked when I was to take the beta on the channel twice a day. I was so loaded up, and as I mentioned, I have low blood pressure. I mean, it's actually it's like perfect. Any doctor tells you it's perfect, but taking any meds, it gets pretty well. If you've ever experienced that, you don't feel well. I felt slight on all these medications. Didn't help the heart rate, didn't help the pain. So I then pushed him again. I went back in and he didn't want to. I said, I'm I'm doing my own research. I said I'm finding things. I don't think I'd found this group yet, but I've been doing my own research.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

And where are we now? We're about five or six years ago.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Yes, yep, well, yeah, five or six, probably close to this because it's I'm coming up on and I'm almost done with my whole I got there. Reluctantly said, Okay, we'll do some more tests, and I can't remember which ones it did, and you know, nothing, nothing. And finally he said, Well, there is one more test. That is, and he said, and you you're gonna ask me, and he was so unprofessional, you're gonna ask me why I didn't do it in the first place. And I said, and I just kind of you know, because again, I have no idea. And he said, There is, and actually, Jeff, I'm gonna get the my wording long, you might be able to help me. Where they it's a smaller wire that they tape down through the the artery so they can measure and get a closer look.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah, it's for the IFR, it's the fractional flow rate that they put in there to see what's actually going through the artery.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Yes, yep, yep. And there were some pictures on the website when I sent the pictures are startling because they're red, you know, where it's just red, nothing's going through. And he said, you know, that's what we can do to get a closer look. I doubt he'd ever done it before. In fact, I doubt very I don't think he's ever done one. Because when I got there the day to have it done, we actually had a blizzard here. Man, he called me and said, You don't have to come in, you know, it's you're you're not a priority kind of thing, basically his exact words. And I said, I'm coming in. He said, We're driving. We drive in the winter, we'll be there. And we did. And when I got there, never even saw him. Another woman came on. Her name was Karenko, Barbara Karenko, and she was also a blessing. She truly was. I mean, it was a to me, divine intervention. This woman was there that day.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

We all have had those and they're not familiar, they're not sensitive to what we're trying to tell them. And it's so important, it's a great point right now to put an exclamation point on it. You have to convey and communicate to the doctor exactly what's going on if you're going to have any expectation to get any resolve. And if you do that and the doctor is non-responsive, then you know you need to make a change.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Absolutely. Yeah. And and I don't think he had the skill to do it. That's something, you know, it's it's good to know what you're what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

That's what you did, right? You found a different surgeon.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Well, he wasn't the surgeon, he was the cardiologist.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Cardiologist, got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Yeah. And then this Barbara Karenko, who was the Cardiologist who stepped in for him that day. I don't know if he called her and said, you know, how's your workload? She probably had cancellations because nobody else was crazy enough to drive there on that day. So, like I say, it was sort of a miracle that she was there. And we talked before we did it. She was familiar with what I had going on. And she said, You don't want to do surgery. She said, That's, you know, we don't want to have to do surgery on you. And I just looked at her and said, I don't want to do surgery. You're right. It's the last thing I want to do. But I want to get to the bottom of what this is and why it's causing me so much grief. You know, I need to get on. And so she did it. And I was expecting her, you know, waiting in the home with my husband. And I'm like, you know, I was at a point where I just kind of given up. You know, in again, her catheterization is not exactly a fun time.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

So you you kind of just, I don't know, I'd kind of given up, beginning to think if there was, you know, it's just something I'm gonna have to live with, whatever. And she came in, and and I could tell but a look on the face that there was more to it. Um, the first thing she said to me is, you have a hemodynamically, what is it more like than wrote down a significant myocardial bridge. And then look at what that means. And she used her fingertips. And I read about this. I she's the only one I've heard some of the since where she went like this and said, Your artery is doing something like this. It's going, you know, already newly it went into the muscle, but she used, and this is an old term used, you know, years ago, the fingertip then. And she said, I'm gonna recommend you for surgery. Well, you know, before she did it, she said, I don't want to, you know, you don't want to have surgery. But by the time we were done with that, she said, You need surgery. And it was like a wash of I'm not mouse. No, this is finally you've got some validation.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yes, it's very real. You finally have somebody validating that something's wrong, and you can reflect back you know, 50 some years going, there it is, finally. Yeah, now it's now what?

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Well, yeah, then there's not what, but it did it does that, it's like that's what that was, and that was, and that was, and that was, and it's like, yeah, it now makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

So you know, it's so she she recommends surgery. She did and how long did it take from the time that she recommended surgery to the time that you actually had your surgery?

SPEAKER_02 24:38

I want to say I was December and I had surgery in April. Maybe it was January. I know, I mean, obviously it was very bad weather snowing. It was either December or January, deep in the winter.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

So three or four months from proper diagnosis to surgery.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And and then yet she recommended me to Maria.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Was she the surgeon?

SPEAKER_02 25:04

I had Cardi Alice recommended a woman surgeon.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

She was at Spectrum Health in Grand Ramples, right. Frederick Meyer. And she, yeah, she was a woman. So there were three women in my in all of this that each one of them took me seriously. And it's it's really to me, it's a remarkable story when I think of it that way. And when I for the first time I saw her with my husband, and she pulls it up on the screen, the outer, you know, the the her calf and what it was. And you can't, I mean, it was it's just so amazing the way that's this artery just, you know. And she said, Yeah, yeah, we can fix that. Went from there. And he had a couple meetings with her. She started to get a little Kofi, did another test, sent it to the University of Michigan. I think she needed backup from them because I think, because they've never done it. I was the first one in that hospital, possibly the first one in Michigan. I don't know if U of M. I know they've done one since then that I've heard of, but I don't know if they've done one before. I haven't, they just didn't do them. So, you know, I think she got pushback from the other surgeons in the group because they they got together and did everything in the group. And when she got back to me about the tests that came back, she said the University of Michigan says, Yeah, that you definitely have a flow problem there and it needs to be corrected. And she said, we went to our board, which is all of them, all other surgeons get together in cardiologists and make a decision. And she said, our decision is that you are a candidate for surgery, not just because you need a fix, but also because you're healthy enough that we think we can do it. They did it, and it was two surgeons, her and another one that they had two in there. She did it, but they did two because it was the first time done in that hospital. So they their protocol is you have two surgeons that can. Um, another little side story. When I was recovering the hospital, I think it was maybe the third day, one of the night nurses came in and we'll talk and then sat down and she said, Oh my gosh, she said, I'm so glad to meet you. And I'm like, Really, I'm barely functioning. And she said, Those of us that got to be in that surgery room were just so excited. And she said, I've never seen a heart catheter. She said, We've never seen anything like it. So what she was talking about is the bend, you know, where it collapses into the heart muscle. And she was just so cool. But I'm like, Well, I'm glad you adjorked it. So, yeah, it was kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Well, if nothing else, you made some converts that day for sure, who now believe in the challenges these bridges can create. And they'll tell others and tell others and tell others. So that viral effect will have some benefit to somebody down the line when that student or or doctor leaves and goes to another hospital in another state, in another system someplace. So look at all the good that you did as a result of it.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Yeah, and and I try to look at it that way. Um, and then the article that the surgeon said to me on Gendo, I was in there for about a week and remember what day it was. She said, When you get a little more recovered, would you be interested in doing an article? She says, I want to highlight this. And her, her, you know, she was about more on the women's side of it. Women can be ignored a lot. And she said, I want young women that have the symptoms that you had to have a you know, a better chance at maybe getting high rather than waiting till they're 58 to have it fixed. So I said, She better believe it. I'll do it.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

So you did, yes. I remember you telling me.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

So you did your article and your article was published on in somebody's Yeah, it was basically a hospital thing, but it went out and and I'm I'm on Facebook, as you know, and somebody that isn't even a friend of mine posted it. And I started getting all kinds of people sending me messages. What Gathy, my God, wow, you know, this. And I'm like, what are you talking about? So I went and I saw it. I didn't know it was out. They hadn't told me. So it circulated quite a few people.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Well, good. And thank you for doing that. And and just like you did that article, here's your audio article, yeah, so to speak, you know, five years later. Now you had a bit of a challenge too a few weeks after surgery. What what was that all about?

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Well, I think I overdid it. Well, that's my personality. I'm overdue. But the spasmy feeling again, I felt it that the night that I the day that I really overdid it. It was my first time kind of away and doing something. I thought it was fun and talking to people on my feet a lot. Two beers, probably a light beer, I don't know, but two, and vacuumed, I think. That was just all kinds of stuff that I'm thinking, I'm great. I'm doing wonderful. I'm walking at least a mile, maybe two miles by then. But it wasn't great. The artery was spasm back into the hospital. I went, which was really not a fun time because the emergency room is just all over the place anyway. Unless you were you really are having a heart attack or dying, that's it, you out, basically.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

I mean, it just does, you know. It's you know, this is a crisis center. You're not having a heart attack. They would give me nothing for the pain. The young whippersnapper cardiologist that was on duty, he was just his person, he was just awful to me. And he just said, Well, I hope you haven't done more damage by having this surgery. And I'm like, you know, I just at that point, I just thought, we're out of here. I'm done. And to tell you the truth, I I just stay away. I I will talk to my cardiologist, that's Karen Karenko. She's the one that recommended me surgery because I see her once a year. I deal with her, but if I ever have like something serious, honestly, I'd be reluctant to go to the emergency room because it's they don't treat you well.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

And certainly that's part of these conversations is to get to the point where we can get the acceptance that when somebody presents with a myocardial bridge, take them very seriously. Because we don't know that they might not be having a heart attack or go into myocardial infarction, heart attack, it could and it could kill them. We we just have to be recognized, and that's part of what I think we're all trying to do is get that recognition and acceptance so that when you do go to the ER and it doesn't look like anything is wrong until they identify, oh, this person has a bridge, we have to look at this differently. And so I yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. It's it's it's so frightening to think that it's a dismissive situation.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

It really is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

So if there's if there's something, if you reflect back on your time going through the process, what helped you get through it? You seem like a very even keel-driven person.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Yeah, I think as we all go through life, there are things that you have your ups and downs. I think a lot of it was just strength, faith and faith, my faith in God, me and the the later years, you know, going through the surgery. My husband is my bra. Just can't even imagine doing that without him. And the the will to live and live well, if that makes any sense. It's just, I want to live and I want to live well, as well as I can. I'm the flight for that. So anybody else going through it, I would say, first of all, educate yourself as best you can. This group has been a godson because I'm so ignorant. You know, it's just so ignorant. And by educating yourself, you know, find out as much as you can about myocardio bridges and then research your doctors and find you know whoever you're dealing with. Or don't deal with somebody who doesn't know what they're doing, it's a waste of time. Stay strong. Just be healthy, because if you're not, you're gonna exacerbate this. And some of them, and I think mine, because it was so deep that yeah, had it been found when I was younger, it would have made a big difference for me.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

There's a there's a line that one of our clients uses all the time. If 20 years ago was the best time to plant a tree, the next best time is now. So if you've waited and it didn't happen, it it's not too late. It's do something.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I was 58. So and you were in your 60s, were you not when you had yours done?

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Yeah, 65.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Not because I was waiting. I I didn't know everything was fine until it wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Yeah, I I had a I had a heart attack. And as much as it is frustrating to say, because I, same deal, great shape. And oh well, it it got tired, just as we all know. That artery where it enters the heart gets occluded or or I should say constricted. It it narrows, not necessarily because of plaque, but it could be plaque. And you you find yourself in trouble. And fortunately that happened as opposed to waiting even longer, because I wouldn't have known.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

You're lucky you survived a heart attack.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Yes, I am. There's not a day that doesn't go by that I don't think odd. And I wear my little gratitude bracelet here with the little silver piece.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Very nice. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

To remind me.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Today, five years later, almost almost to the day you were done.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Thursday is my five-year anniversary.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

How special. I I I love that. That's really it's happy to be a part of it with you.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

You know, that that celebration. How are you today? For the benefit of the people who are going, okay, well, she did it. She's she's one of the longer people on the Facebook page who's had it done for a while and you had a full sternotomy. And you know, how are you? How is everything? How do you feel? What would you say?

SPEAKER_02 35:24

I'm good. I just I feel so lucky. I I don't quite know how to say that. I know some people after heart surgery go through a depression, not me. I have been elated ever since because I feel like I have a second chance of life. And you know, trying to do what I can. Health-wise, I take pretty good care of myself and I try to. Slaten sometimes I don't get enough. But who does? I I do occasionally will have a spike in heart rate. I'm not perfect, but I'm so much better than where I was. It is just so much better. But I can say that I I'm not, yeah, other than saying I'm not perfect. I still am careful about what I do. And I mentioned I I don't, I hardly jump if I do it's a little bit. Because I mean, there's a lot of reasons, but that's the heart reason is a good one. The and the heart rate, just yesterday I hit 156 walking, but it was uphills. I hadn't slept, or you'd have the grandkids, long story, but anyway. So in things like that, if I'm not tip top, I watch my heart rate. I mean, I'm not, you know, I I try to be aware. So there are some things I'm still watching. The endothelial dysfunction I did have for a long time. And I I wasn't expecting that. I didn't know what that was either. So again, because of the screwing, I was aware of that. I did what I could to eliminate that. But that just takes time. And for me, I think it was close to four years before it was gone. Um I just I don't even think about it anymore. It's just gone. So it does go away, but you know, one big point truly. So I'm I'm good, I'm happy.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

You look wonderful. You know, one of the things that we ask all the patients that have had the surgery as we wrap up the episode is what would you say to somebody who's considering this surgery? They're maybe afraid, they've been suffering the consequences of the condition for some time. It's getting a little bit worse because it always does. What would you say from your perspective to those people? Because they're listening.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

Yeah. Yeah. I would say that the benefits outweigh the risk, at least it has for me. I'm not going to tell you it was easy because it wasn't. It's a life-changing, at least it was for me. I know there are some out there that are bounced back, and but it was a life-changing thing for me. But I would, I would do it because life is better.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Well, Kathy, I have to thank you so much first for for the encouragement as that first post on the podcast, because it made me realize there's somebody actually listening to this thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

And secondly, to be willing to do this, because it's it's not easy to get out there and tell the story and and share it in detail and refresh it and have to go through it all again and over and over. But it's such a blessing to be able to have people who have gone through this, who are willing to share it, to benefit the others who are in the same place. And we know where that place is. We understand it. And when somebody hears you speak and tell that story, even though it's different than theirs, everybody has endothelial dysfunction, some have shortness of breath, some have just different pain in other places. But to understand that that means something's wrong. It's not okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

It's not okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

And it's not stress. It's just such a benefit to be able to have you come on and share that story. So, you know, I I thank you. You're you're an inspiration for us. And your children and grandchildren now, how many grandchildren? Eight. Oh my gosh. No wonder you're not getting any sleep. Great for you. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Well, from the very bottom of my imperfect heart, thank you for sharing your story.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

Well, thank you for letting me and you're the blessing because you are sharing stories, and that's a wonderful thing. So keep up the good work.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Well, and have a great anniversary on Thursday.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Thank you. I will post some a second birthday. Yes. Yeah, there you go. All right. Well, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Thanks, Kathy. Thank you for listening to Imperfect Heart. It's my hope that this information helped in some way to improve your situation or will help you better understand this condition. More importantly, that it gives you hope through stories that there is help and you most certainly are not alone. If you've been diagnosed with a myocardial bridge, please be sure to join the private Facebook group, Myocardial Bridge Support Group. For more information about our program or to reach me directly, visit the website myimperfectheart.com. If you like what you heard today, please give a positive review, thumbs up, high five, whatever your app likes. And be sure to share with everyone important to you so they understand what it is you're dealing with. Please subscribe as well. Welcome each day with gratitude and positivity. Imperfect Heart is a production of Hear Me Now Studio.