Episode 42: How Ben Hunt’s Heart Health was Finally Revealed and Ultimately Repaired.

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I got a program where I could make a 3D image of my heart. Those images were probably they were the most obvious. And the interesting thing I found out is doctors will rarely look at the heart when they're looking for something like this. They don't look at it in the distal view when the heart is relaxed. They only look at it in the in the contracted view. So I looked at it in bulk because I wanted to see what happens. And the interesting thing, even when my heart was was relaxed, the LAD was the flow in the LAD was just almost gone.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

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. Something very special happens when you have a grateful patient who also just happens to be a teacher. Teachers like to do their homework, they expect the homework to get done, and they do class plans. And in this episode, that's exactly what we're going to find as we hear the story of Ben Hunt. Not unlike so many of us, his experience led him to many dead ends, multiple cardiologists, and what eventually proved to be his best process. That is the process he did himself. How he got to his end result is nothing short of miraculous, and today he's happy to say he's having some of the best months of his life since surgery. We'll also have Ben's journey that he documented, Road to a Cure, and his demonstration of an LED compression that he built into a PowerPoint. It's going to be available to you by simply emailing me with a request for Ben's homework. Jeff at HearmeowStudio.com. That's Jeff at Hearmeow Studio.com, and I'll get his A plus papers to you. Benjamin Hunt, welcome to Imperfect Heart.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Thank you, Jeff. I'm honestly very pleased to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So I'm I'm I'm excited to speak with you. And part of that is because every time I get a guest, no matter what the situation is, it's a unique story. And while there's familiar elements in all of these stories, each one still carries its own novelty. And yours, we're going to walk through. And I'll start here. You know, as a kid, a student, a collegiate, and even afterward into your adult career, you were an active person. So tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah, I actually grew up on a very rural desert farm and worked hard, played hard. Through my youth, I played many sports. Baseball was probably my favorite growing up. I gravitated towards swimming and to wrestling and football. And eventually the thing I loved the most is I I threw the javelin, also threw the discus and shot put in the track and field team and quite successful there. And then got married at a fairly young age and started my life. My wife and I love to be active. We played tennis and then eventually picked up pickleball. Okay, now now wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

On pickleball, when did you pick up pickleball?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Oh, we picked it up about 12, 15 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Oh my gosh, you're an early adoption.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah, we we were quite lucky to get into it early. We we definitely got beat up by several people that were much older than us at the time, but but it was good.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

So you're way ahead of your time, actually. Now it's the hottest trend out there.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah, it's been fun to fun to watch it grow and know that we were there a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

So you're an active guy uh just across the board, and something happens around 2015. You're about 37 years old, I think it is. What's what's happening? What are you doing professionally, family, kids, all that?

SPEAKER_01 4:41

By this time I was I was teaching full-time. I had just just got hired on at one of the local high schools here. I'd been I'd already been teaching for about 10 years, but I got hired on in my local hometown. And I coached the tennis team. I got three kids, family. My wife actually started teaching that year too. So we started getting really, really busy at that moment. And previous to this, I had I had noticed some issues when I was playing pickleball. And that's probably when I noticed it the most. There were times where I was playing in a tournament and all of a sudden I'd get really weak, get really sick, and feel like I was going to pass out. And so I actually noticed it a little bit before this. I I kept, I went to the doctors and my blood pressure was actually quite low. And and they were telling me, oh, it might be this, it might be this. I need to, I need to add more salt to my diet. A lot of things that I was always told my whole life, you don't do. And then in November 2015, I was exercising, do my doing my morning routine, and in the middle of push-ups, I had an episode, I call it, where I felt like I was going to die. I I got extremely weak. I couldn't move. I had to yell for my wife to come down. And she got me some food and water, and I started feeling a little bit better. And then then I had chest pain that started the next day. Finally, after about five days, I went into the hospital, the ER, and they they they did actually find that my troponin level was slightly elevated, just barely. I mean, it was enough. They kept me over the night to monitor everything, and ultimately sent me home the next day saying they couldn't understand anything wrong with me and to check in with other doctors. And this ultimately led to my very long path to where I am now.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

So you would say at some point it was is an ischemic attack of sorts that might have been even more severe had you gone in sooner, had they measured everything. But we all love that word denial because that certainly can't be happening to me, whatever it is. Why not? You wait five days. Right. Note to self and everyone else listening. If you don't have to wait sooner is usually better than later. You're in good shape and you've got something going on now. What happens? We progress from dismissals over a couple of years, which is not unfamiliar to most of us, and you're being told it's not your heart, and you find yourself now a couple years later, what, 2019, I believe it is, at about 41 years old, and it's and it's getting worse. Some whatever this thing is, isn't improving. What were your symptoms? And tell us what happened.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, the biggest the chest pain actually never went away. It was pretty much always there ever since that first attack. And uh, and I the big thing that that was the problem, the problem was I it's known as exercise intolerance. Anytime I would exercise, it would take its toll. I was a young guy and it wasn't supposed to take as much toll, but it started out. I would I would work in the yard, I would exercise for, you know, I would exercise for an hour or whatever, and then I would have to take two days off. And then what I mean by two days off is I just felt exhausted, worn out, just had no energy whatsoever. And I just felt very sick. And then I would work for an hour and I'd have to take four days off. And then it just kept progressing. By this time, if I did anything that was that was exerting in any way, it would lead to me taking a week, a week and a half, two weeks off, whatever I was doing, just so I could feel okay again. So that's so that's where I was at this time. And and I'd gone through this by this time, I'd gone through two year or two rounds of heart workup. And and the frustrating part is I actually knew, I I knew deep down from the first round that it was my heart. And I knew it was a mechanical issue. And that's what I keep telling people. It's not chemical, but some of my some of my levels were a little low. So we tried some hydrocortisone replacement at this time, thinking that my adrenal glands weren't working very well. And and honestly, it helped. Yeah, and and I looked into it after after I found out what was wrong. And hydrocortis, hydrocortisone actually causes the uh the arteries to relax and it also causes them to dilate. So ultimately I was counteracting the bridge symptoms. I just didn't know it. And it did help. But unfortunately, I think it also caused me to work too hard and work too much during the year or so when I was feeling good. So that about a year and a year and a half later is when I really started going downhill scrolling.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

So what happened? It masked the deterioration for a while. So you went from what would have been, you know, symptom minus to really symptom minus, minus, minus over the course of that that period of time. You're a teacher. And I have to say, we we'll share this a little bit later in the episode. You dug into this deep and you documented and you researched really to a level that I've seen very few people do, myself included. You know, you do your homework and it's really clear to you now that something's going terribly awry, and another couple of years still go through because you got to get through COVID and you you're getting these these diagnoses and these roll-ups of what you're seeing. And we get to 2022, now 44 years old. This started at 37. You're seven years out on this journey of something not being right, and you knowing deep in your heart that something's wrong. How many doctors later are we at this point? And and what are you being told?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

So yeah, about a little bit, a little bit before 2022, I I had I had my final crash, I guess I'd say, in October. So I'd gone to two cardiologists before this, but this time was different. I woke up in the morning and I just I had full-on heart failure, shortness of breath, all of the symptoms. So this time I went to a doctor and I demanded an uh echo. The echo showed the only thing the echo showed after waking up in the morning with inspiration to go look at the echo, I found low stroke volume. I was I was a 230-pound guy with a stroke volume of 49 milliliters. Somebody my size to to maintain my health would need to be in 100, 120 milliliters. And so I went, I started, so I'd already had two cardiologists, and then I just started going at it. And the first one I went to, he said the stroke volume on an on an echo doesn't matter. And I was like, oh, well, that makes no sense. And but he said, Well, uh, but I can see you don't feel well, so I'll I'll do an angiogram on you. I was like, Thank you. I think that would be great. This same doctor, while he was talking to me about it, this was just after COVID, and he he found out I didn't, I elected not to take the COVID vaccine, and he he got very noticeably changed, different in his demeanor toward me. He actually got quite frustrated with me. And right then he said, Oh, well, then you obviously have long hauler COVID. And the the funny thing was is I had actually coached two sports the year before, all through COVID, and we were tested every two weeks. So I had been tested almost every two weeks for a year before he said I had long co long hauler COVID, and I never had COVID. So so he had he had very little evidence for that. But he did the angiogram and it didn't show much other than something called low stroke work, meaning my heart wasn't working very hard. So I, with his attitude, I decided some to go to somebody else. I in 2002 alone, I ended up going to let's see, five five cardiologists in 2002. And finally, through a lot of a lot of inspired and amazing events, I found, I found through lots of tests and whatnot that I I believed I had a myocardial bridge. And this led me to one morning waking up saying, I need my images, I need my angiogram. So I went, got the angiogram, and I watched lots of YouTube videos and figuring out how to read a how to see what was on an angiogram. And the one thing I found is in my LED it had they call it slow flow. I would saw, I would call it truncated flow because the blood would just stop at one point in my LED. And so I took this to the to cardiologist number five, and I said, Hey, I need somebody to look at this. And and he said, Well, I don't know how to read angiograms. So I said, Okay, can you please have me talk to somebody that can? And that's so I finally got to somebody in January of 2023 who could see, who could read an angiogram. And the funny thing was, as she saw it, she's like, I had to show her, and I was like, that looks really slow to me. And she's like, Well, yeah, I can see that, but I don't know why. And I was like, okay, could it be a bridge? And she said, No, I don't see a bridge because there was no ghosting. But the reason why there was no ghosting on mine is because it was, well, now I know that it was just some fibers that were just cutting off the flow. So it was literally cutting it off, not just ghosting out a section. And she, so she diagnosed me with microvascular disease, even though she didn't know what was wrong. And so she started treating me with, I think it was a beta blocker, I think it was a beta blocker and vasodilator. The vasodilator worked for about two months. The beta blocker was actually a vasoconstrictor, so it made me sicker. So I got off that.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

And you basically had competing medications there.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yeah, yeah. And and it's funny, I bring that up to them, and they're like, oh no, it oh no, yeah, it does. I I looked it up on the the actual website for the medication, and they said it was a vasoconstrictor. So so yeah, it didn't help. The vaso vasodilator did help for about two months, but again, I got back active. I started working hard again, and I got I got quite sick, very sick. I couldn't even finish out the school year that year. Mike almost took the last week and a half off of school just because I was so sick. So I demanded at that point when I demanded a cardiac CT scan. Because I had found the myocardial bridge group and knew that the CT scan was the way to go, I demanded that. So I got that in January of 2023. They the radiologist said there was no bridge. However, there was some soft plaque buildup at the start of my just after the start of my uh LAD. And as we know, plaque buildup is 100% there. And after after I got the surgery, it was confirmed that there was plaque right above my bridge. So they saw nothing. But I got those images as well. I learned how to I got a program where I could make a 3D image of my heart.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

And that you got yourself the program to make the 3D image?

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, there's there's an open source program you can get and download, and and as long as your computer can handle it, it can do the images.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

So here here is herein lies the distinction between, you know, a very distinguished teacher doing his thing versus most of us. I would try to find somebody who could do that for me. I wish I had you as a friend back in the day when it was my turn.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Well, yeah, it was, you know, it's funny because I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie and say I don't have different abilities than others, but because I do. I I mean I've done a lot of research in science and and and I love computers and I have a lot of background there. But it was it was a lot of inspiration. It was a lot of help from God because I just couldn't do it otherwise. I my brain didn't work. I don't know if anybody else, I I know a lot of people say they have the brain fog, but I I had trouble speaking, I had trouble thinking at work and teaching. So the fact that I understood this stuff, yes, I had abilities, but but God made up the difference because I did find this program, but man, it took a lot of work to understand it and get the images to come out because it's not very user-friendly. So but yeah, and and I I did share the program, I think, a long time ago on the Facebook group, but I'll try and I'll try and send you a link to it or if you want to put it on or whatnot.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Yeah, I'll put it in the show notes. That would be wonderful for anybody that has the the wherewithal, the capacity and the inter interest in doing it.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Yeah, it's honestly it's a lot of fun once I figured it out. So but yeah, those images were probably they were the most obvious. And the interesting thing I found out is uh doctors will rarely look at the heart when they're looking for something like this, they don't look at it in the distal view when the heart is relaxed. They only look at it in the in the contracted view. So I looked at it in bulk because I wanted to see what happens. And the interesting thing, even when my heart was was relaxed, the LED was the flow in the LAD was just almost gone. So it kind of proved that it didn't fill up when it relaxed. And it was, I would love, I always want to sit down with the doctor and say, look at this. I mean, this proves it, you know. I didn't need all of the other provocative tests because these images were very obvious of what was going on. However, it wasn't enough. I still shared with doctors and whatnot. And I found another program that doctors use, I think it's called Horace. I'll look that up, but it's on my slideshow too. And it gives a the the side view of the artery. And that one helped me see that it was just two muscle strands. My artery just dipped down right toward the heart and then bounced back out, but it was just enough that there were some muscle strands there. And I was able to finally, finally know for myself what was going on. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

So you could see the actual constriction point where those strands, and we all know, and if you don't, it could only be a couple of strands. It does not have to be an entire muscle mass. It literally could just be what looks like to us in an image, maybe fibers if we saw that as a as a picture. Right. Very, very thin. But if it chokes that artery down, it doesn't matter. It'd be like taking a fishing line around a hose and just tie it as tight as you can. If you can get it to constrict the hose, which in our case that's what happens, it's going to cause a flow issue.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Right. Yeah, I could see those on there pretty clearly once I got the the side view. And and the interesting thing is it corresponded to my angiogram. I knew where the angiogram was cutting off. And once I got once I got those images, it it corresponded very, very readily with where my blood flow was cutting off with the angiogram.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

So you've self-educated, self-advocated. You're in probably what, mid to late 2023 at this point? Yeah. By the time you've gotten to the point where you know this is my issue, right? Now you just got to find somebody to agree with you. Yeah. This the self-diagnosed heart surgeon who recognizes and can actually describe and demonstrate his condition visually. So what what happens?

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Well, at this point, I I after after seven cardiologists, I decided to try heart surgeons because the cardiologists weren't able to help me. Oh, and just a side note, the seventh cardiologist actually actually took my angiogram edge images and showed them to Dr. Tremell from Stanford, and she actually couldn't see any issues there either. So so it was even even getting Stanford's opinion. I I wasn't a candidate there. So I started with a local surgeon who was willing to hear my case. Unfortunately, he had no experience. And he he actually said he actually said he believed me. He said, Yeah, I I think you've done your homework and this looks like you know what you're doing. But he said, I just don't have the experience to do the surgery. So that was nice. It was nice to hear his surgeon say that. However, he was like, I I don't know how to help you. And I've talked to my colleagues, and they don't either. So this was all of southern Utah. There was what wasn't a surgeon anywhere near me. And so I started searching. I found a surgeon in Spokane, Washington. She was very nice, but again, she said, I I I don't know where to cut. I said, you know what? I have a diagram I'll send you. You can just cut where I say, but she didn't want to go for that. And then actually in this the summer of 2023, we had those of us on the Facebook group had an opportunity to do a Zoom call with Professor Kofus. And he actually offered then that if you wanted to reach out to him, if he could do a consult. So I actually was able to do that about October of 2023. He and I had a consult and he had looked over my images and he said, Yeah, I I believe you would benefit from the surgery. All you got to do is get to Greece. And so in October, I was, I knew honestly, when I heard him talking on the on the uh Zoom call, I was convinced he was he was the surgeon I knew could help me. And I never thought it was possible that I would end up with him. So I just kept looking for surgeons. About the same time, I made an appointment for January for a surgeon here in Utah that had done surgeries before. One of our members of the Facebook group had mentioned. So I reached out to him. In the meantime, I actually tried to get surgery with Professor Kofitus in December. I made plans, I made goals to go, and I just couldn't get the funding. You know, as many people I'm guessing on this group know that you rack up the medical bills. And before I even considered this, I had too many medical bills and I couldn't afford. So so I really couldn't make it work for December. However, I went to I went to religious services at the end of December, right near Christmas. And I ran into a friend, and we'd been friends for a while. He knew he knew my situation, my health issues. And he asked how things were going. And I said, you know what? I know what's wrong. I have a surgeon that can do the work. And the problem is he's in Greece and he he's charging and I can't afford the trip. So, but this friend was amazing, and he said, you know what, let's let's figure out how to get you there. So I helped, I kept my appointment with the doctor in January with the surgeon. We talked. He looked at the angiogram, didn't see it on the angiogram, wouldn't even look at the CT scan. He said that he only looks at the CT if he needs more more information. And I was like, Well, that's why I'm asking you to look at the CT, but it's all right. So he said he couldn't see it. So then I my friend was able to help me get some funding so I could make the trip to Greece.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

And you know, let's let's take just a small step back. You're almost there. In your mind, you're almost there. You're not not quite sure, but you think you may have a solution between a local surgeon and Dr. Kofitis, and you're you're kind of weighing the two or trying to figure out how to put it together. Where's your your head? Where are you mentally, you know, emotionally?

SPEAKER_01 25:02

That's that's a great question. You know, it was before all of this I had received quite a bit of confirmation that I was either going to pass away from this and move on to the next life, or I was gonna get healed. But either way, I I and my family were gonna be okay. So it was a strange sense of, you know what, I I feel like it's going to happen. I feel like I'm going to get the surgery, but if not, I'm going to be okay. And so I I was able to move forward with faith and in that point and just keep trying because I knew somehow, some way it was going to work out. I I truly, I truly did believe it was going to be with Professor Kofutus. I just didn't know how. And I believe it worked out the way it was best to work out. So I was hopeful and just moving one step forward because that's all I could do. One day at a time is that actually became my new mantra is one moment at a time because that's all I've got.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

I there was more certainly a familiar one to many people. Yeah. Ben, as you were in that state, many of us have this there's there's an anxiety, there's a concern, this thing could kill me. And we don't know. We fortunately I haven't heard of anybody pass from it in the process, but it's there because we we know something's wrong. We know it's our heart, and we know if that goes bad, we're gone. Did you have that that level of anxiety at some point as you're going through the the process?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yes. Originally it was it was even worse. I'll be honest, and originally when I when that doctor told me I had long hauled COVID and when I left that appointment, I I had a hard time not being done that day. And it took it took a lot of prayer and a lot of faith to get through those first few months. But it was interesting because through through my faith and through prayer and blessings, I I was actually got fairly early. I got confirmation that I was going to be okay. I don't know what that meant, but I had during the time I had to be patient with the doctors. I actually received that message several times and I didn't know how patient I had to be. But it was early on, but really probably after about three months, and and when I started understanding, there was it was definitely my heart. It was it was nice at that point because I knew I just kept kept going and one way or another I was going to be taken care of. I was gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

So the new year comes, 2024. You really only have one option at this point. You have, by the grace of God, the benefit to get to Greece. Yes. Walk us through it.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Okay. So unfortunately, because of situations and circumstances, I I ended up with the need to go by myself. So I hopped on an airplane. This is only the third airplane ride I've ever gone on, and the last one was just to Boston and back.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

So Oh my gosh, if the airplane ride doesn't give you a heart attack.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Right. I was I was blessed though. I, you know, I when I made the tickets, the arrangements, I made a plan for a flight. And I didn't even know when I made the plan, but there was a 16-hour layover coming home in Paris, and I didn't see that until after I'd made these plans. I was like, oh no, I can't do that. So I remade the plans and ended up ended up being able to upgrade on my flight over and on my flight back for just barely more than I was paying. And it, you know, I see the I see the hand of God in everything that I'm doing here. But I'm thankful because my flight over, there it was a mostly MP flight. So it was very peaceful. It was actually quite nice. I I felt very positive going over. I got there and and was received by one of the best people in the world. His name's Gregory. Those of you that go to Greece, you probably get the opportunity to meet Gregory. He's amazing. And he took care of me. I I was scared to death. I didn't know the language. And when they say it's all Greek to me, I really understand what's greek. I, you know, there's a lot of languages. It's funny. I know I know a little bit of a lot of languages, but Greece, I didn't know any Greek. So so it was it was a little tough, but I got in, got settled in, had the surgery this the second morning I was there. And honestly, I felt I was it was weird to say. Uh most people would not probably feel this way, but I was excited. I knew I knew Professor Kofitis was going to take care of me, and I knew that this was the right surgery. So going into it, even though I was alone, I wasn't, I was, I was looking forward to a new life. And then uh then I woke up in the uh ICU and the pain was there and and the sickness from unfortunately I I did not handle the pain meds very well. So I was quite sick and in a lot of pain. And so when I moved to the when I moved to my my regular room, it was it was the hardest time of the whole trip because I was in pain, I was by myself, I couldn't understand, they couldn't understand me. Some people, I mean a lot of people could understand me, but so right right when I got out of the surgery, I didn't have time to think about whether I felt better. I just because I was just so alone. And I definitely prayed and and and it was hard until I finally was able to get my cell phone and contact my wife. And once we were able to connect and talk, then I was able to start the recovery process. And it was it was amazing. I I couldn't, people had said that the next day is just amazing, you feel great, and the pain's gone. And and it was it the only pain I had was from the incisions. And the funny thing was they were in the normal, they were near the normal spot where my heart pain was, and so I wasn't sure what was going on. But then I realized it was just my incisions and I was fine. I lost, I lost 10 pounds in the first week I was at the hospital. It was all water weight. It was funny. All the years, all the cardiologists I said, I told them I had lots of water weight, and they're like, no, you don't, because they would feel my ankles and there was nothing there, but it was mostly in my belly. So but yeah, I lost 10 pounds in the first week just of water. And then so I spent a week at the hospital, a week in the hotel. Um, that was a hard time. It was a hard time to be alone and and and not have anyone there with me and can't watch TV because it's all in Greek, except for BBC. I started watching the BBC because that's about the only pick I could find. But but it was it was a long and difficult trip. The plane ride home, even though I was in a nice seat, it was a packed airplane and it was a difficult ride. However, I met some very nice people in the layover who were kind and and helped me to to be less alone on the way home. And then I was able to finally get home exhausted, but re-reunited with my wife and family. And since then, it's just been so many days of just being blessed and thankful that I'm still here and that I can move and that I can talk and I'm not a zombie. It's it's it's been amazing.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

When I can imagine just the anticipation on your wife's side, too, the uncertainty. There's this gap in here of silence. Yeah. It's like the Apollo astronauts going up into space and they hit that dark zone, and nobody knows until they come on the other side of the moon. It's like, well, is he okay? Is he not okay? And then you guys finally connect. And at least at that point, that connection can continue to create that excitement and the energy of he's going to be okay and he's coming home. Yeah. And yours was a bit different. And I know that Dr. Cofides does do minimally invasive. You were fortunate to be able to get the minimally invasive procedure. This is not robotic, but thoracotomy, right? Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Yeah. And I was blessed because my those two muscle strands that were called causing the issue were down on the end of the LAD. He was able to just go between my ribs. And it was such an I was very thankful. When I woke up, I had to ask because I didn't know. Going into it, he was like, I'm pretty sure we'll go between the ribs, but he still wasn't sure. And so when I woke up the next the next day and I was like, okay, I started feeling my chest, and I'm like, okay, I only feel stuff over here. So see, yeah, I was thankful and I was I was lucky. I hesitate to understand how diff much more difficult it would have been by myself and and trying to get home and everything if it had been through the splitting the cernin. So I was thankful.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

So nine years of struggle, the fear, the anxiety, finally relief, and you're now eight months out of your unroofing surgery. How are you doing? How is everything today? You're healed, is is pickleball back in the daily activity?

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Yeah, it was this summer. This summer I played a lot. And it was fascinating because before surgery, before I really started with the heart failure symptoms, I was I was lucky to get in an hour of play, switching out every game. So I was getting like three games in. And then this summer I played for two, three hours and didn't really even notice. I could play and and before I would do it, and I'd have to rest for a week and a half, two weeks, and and I had none of that. So this summer was a lot of pickleball. However, once I got back to teaching, I realized living your life takes a lot of energy. And so I haven't been, I haven't been extra active, but teaching has been a true joy. I'm the last two years of my teaching, the the two years previous to this, I was having to sit down pretty much the whole lesson the whole time. And I hated that. And so this this year has been a blast. I'm walking around the room, I'm I'm talking, I'm not coughing every five minutes that you know, with that congestive heart failure. I was coughing all the time. And so it's been, it's truly been a blessing. My relationship with with my wife is so much better. And that's it's partly due to health issues, but but facing death for so long caused me to change a lot. I I was able to see the world totally differently, but so emotionally, physically, and mentally, I'm so much more present. And so my wife and I have had a fabulous eight months. It's been so, so blessed.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

So And this is not a uh an approach that I would recommend for anybody who doesn't really have this condition to pretend to establish a better relationship. It's it's it's gotta be the real deal. But I I concur. And even in our meetup that we had just in uh mid-September, all the others that were either married or significant others who attended had the same thoughts. It changes the relationship. And I think there's a reality to the fact of what could be finality. Right. And we just don't get to know. And the reality is even though we've now been, I don't want to say use the word cured, but we've we've got a remedy to our symptoms, it still doesn't mean that there isn't the awareness of something that could always happen. Right. And not necessarily because of our heart, but just the reality of it could always happen. We've been there, we understand it a little bit differently. So I really appreciate you sharing that. What would you say to somebody who today is going through this process? And certainly I don't expect everybody to be as technical as you or to dig as deep as you. They can find a lot of information on the Facebook group, they can listen to the podcast. There's more information coming out daily now that is supportive of myocardial bridges being real. What would you suggest to somebody who's struggling with this decision at this point?

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Probably the most important thing I would say is you you don't know what tomorrow brings. I there were so many times I wanted to be done. I wanted to not wake up the next morning because every day was so hard. But I kept going. I kept waking up, I kept, I kept moving forward. And yes, I I know my circumstance, and even my bridge is so much different than many people on here. But we don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring us. Keep fighting, keep keep advocating. Believe it or not, we know more about our bodies than our doctors do. I know that sounds weird, but you know, you can you can trust that and believe in that, and and just keep keep fighting every day. And and in my case, it was a whole lot of prayer every day, too, because in my case, I believe that I have a God that believes and cares about me, and and he cared what was going on in my life. And yes, I was actually willing to say, you know what? If I don't I want to wake up, I want to feel better, I want to be healed, but if not, I'm gonna be okay. And it got me through. It got me through every day, every moment. And that's probably the the last thing I'd say is enjoy every moment. Through the pain, through the hurt, there's still good moments. I had some amazing moments, even in the worst, worst of my days. When I started focusing on the moments, that's when I started living. Because before that I was always worried about the future, regretting the past. But once I started living in the moment, it was it was a beautiful life. And I hope that everyone could could learn that because it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

So what wonderful words. Yeah, and and a great way to wrap the session. I'm gonna add that you have put together this incredible overview of your journey. And I'll I'll post that on the website so people can get it. It'll be in the show notes on how to get to it. I will say that the slide deck on the descriptive parts of it is really quite technical. But for those of us who have seen enough of these things, you start to recognize what's going on there. Right. And I think if you take that to somebody who is maybe on the edge of belief, wanting to maybe believe it's a cardiologist or a surgeon, when they see that, I think they'll recognize and go, okay, maybe there is something here. Right. And I think that's going to help a lot of people. Ben, so for thank you for putting that piece together. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I I know we we all look at this and say, what can we do to give back? You you just did. This is this supports somebody else. Even if it's just one person who is moved enough to continue to keep the hope, keep the faith, and get to the solution that they need, it's made it worth it. And I suspect this description of your journey is so different as they all are. Every time I enter into them, I just can't wait to see where it goes, because no two are alike. And to really stress, no two are alike. You are not like the next person, the next person is not like you, and nobody in the entire Facebook group has the entire or has the same situation as somebody else. So I really believe others are going to gravitate toward this particular one, especially if somebody of faith and they want to hear and they need to know and they need that reinforcement, that prayer can help. It can get you through it. Some of us, you know, use it as a higher power, some of us use our friendships and our relationships or our community organizations, whatever it may be, we are not doing this alone. Right. You know, lest lest we think we are. Uh that that is not the case. So from the very bottom of my imperfect heart, Ben, thank you. Congratulations on getting to where you are today, and I really appreciate you sharing your story.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

You're welcome. And thank you so much for having me. I really do. I I I want to share this with everyone I can. So I'm glad for this opportunity. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

Wonderful. 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. The views and opinions expressed in this program are solely those of the host and the guest, and are not intended to provide, nor are they a suitable substitute for professional care by a doctor, therapist, mental health professional, or other qualified medical professional.