Episode 8: From Bangladesh to Stanford, Raisul Islam Discovers His Myocardial Bridge

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I have always been trying to push through or ignoring this kind of pain. And Dr. Schneidgar told me in our first visit that you know there is no powering through a chest pain. If you have chest pain, whatever you are doing, you have to stop. You have to stop. There is like because you are causing more harm to your heart. If you are pushing through chest pain, I was in denial for many, many months, many even years.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Welcome to Imperfect Heart, a place for you to join me, Jeff Holden, in conversations, discussions, and dialogue about our hearts and the impact myocardial bridges have on them. 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. I hope you had an opportunity to hear our first journey story with Dr. Linda Cunningham earlier this month. If not, please check it out. Especially if you're still in the process of getting properly diagnosed or working your way toward surgery. I think it's going to be very revealing and supportive to be able to have others sharing their stories pre-surgery since so many of you are in the same space. Now, for a regularly scheduled story of a post-surgery outcome, my guest for this episode is, coincidentally, a doctor as well. Even more impressive is the fact that he earned his degree at Stanford. But I'm teasing you just a bit, as it's a PhD, not an MD that he possesses. Nonetheless, he's an impressive young man. Having grown up in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, he studied electrical and electronic engineering at Bangladesh University. In 2011, he moved to Stanford University to pursue his doctorate with a focus on ultra-thin solar cell technology, graduated in 2017, and currently works for a startup company that aims to revolutionize high-speed, highly scalable memory technology. Raisool Islam is somebody we need around as I think his work is so very necessary, and I'm glad he's here with us today, only three months post-surgery. Raisul Islam, welcome to Imperfect Heart. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. So many of our listeners have unique, diverse, and compelling stories. Yours is certainly that. We are so happy to have you here to share. Let me get started with some of the conversation we had prior. You're no stranger to an awareness that something may not have been right with you for quite some time. And I'm talking about starting all the way back in Bangladesh.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. So I think it all started when I was in high school, maybe in 11th grade or twelfth grade. There was one day when I just had palpitations and without any stressor or anything, it just started on its own. I wasn't sure like what has gone wrong because I was having this pounding sensation in my chest. And my blood pressure was like significantly higher, my heart rate was 160 without even doing anything, any exercise or anything. That sort of was the beginning of what I would call the awareness of these symptoms. And after that, I was seen by doctors and and many doctors. And since I was very young then, nobody actually looked into the heart initially. They thought, like, okay, this is probably some kidney issues. So I got like all sorts of tests regarding my kidneys, and the kidney functions were normal. But I still do have that high blood pressure. And the doctors prescribing this and that medication to control it. And it it responded well. And most of the times, then the doctors say that you don't have to continue these medications for long. Probably it's anxiety. And I was even referred to see psychiatrist as well. So, but it's it's always been said, okay, it's just anxiety. You you are probably having anxiety, you are probably going through transitions in your life. So that's what's causing it. And there is nothing wrong with it, uh with you.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

We ever hear that so so often from so many people that it's anxiety or it's stress or it's some other disorder.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

So the thing is, I was told anxiety so many times regarding these episodes of uh palpitations that I at some point I I kind of grew fed up with it. I thought like, okay, if it really is anxiety, then I'll probably not think about it ever again. So when in 2011, when I uh decided to come to the US from Bangladesh, I did not bring any of my medical records with me. I thought like, okay, I'm gonna forget that this happened, and if I do that, maybe then I don't have to think about it again.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

It'll be a fresh start.

unknown 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

You thought you were gonna get a fresh start, but it didn't quite work that way.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

No, it did not. It did not work that way. Not at all. So what happened is that after I came to Stanford, for many reasons, for typical flu, fever, cough, this and that, I went to see local doctors, the primary care physicians in the campus health center. And every time I go there, they had this vitals recorded. And and so I had I had like probably around towards the I think in the 2012, I had like five consecutive visits that where my blood pressure came out to be high, quite high actually, for my age. So the doctor told me, like, hey, it seems like you are continuously having this high blood pressure problem. And I know that you probably don't have any history, so we might want to check you. And then I actually told them, no, no, you know, I actually did not tell you all my story. I actually had a little bit of history, but I thought like I did not have it anymore. The issue is that my blood pressure has been high for so long, for so many years, that 140 over 90, I don't even feel it in my body.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

And so unless it goes like really high above 150, diastolic 100, 110, then I probably feel something, but I'm so used to it that 140, 90, I don't even register it. So I don't I don't complain about it. And that's why it has gotten silent, it it remained silent for a while. And then the doctor said, you know, now that I can see it, I I measure it, you should get a test test again. So she again sent me back to Stanford Hospital and to the nephrology department, basically to a kidney doctor. And she again did all the testing for kidneys, and it came back negative. But she just prescribed me a water pill, a diuretic, for controlling my blood pressure. Um, what happened was that it did not suit my body too well because it actually caused my potassium level to deplete too much too fast. And there was like a specific event that almost sort of killed me because the potassium level was low significantly, and that when it happened the night before, I I actually ate a little bit of a salty snacks. And so in the morning, I I had probably the first episode or or feeling of what it like to have a heart attack, you know, like the severe chest pain, and I could I could not even breathe. My I had like severe shortness of breath. And I remember I was on campus that time, and I called 911, and then the 911 EMT technicians came and they hooked me up with a monitor, and I was looking at their faces and it was not great. I could see like they were they were not happy, they were worried about what they are seeing in the on the monitor. There were a little bit of an ST elevation within which indicates that there could be an ischemia. But it was at that time, luckily I did not have a heart attack. It was because of the depletion of the potassium. So they took me to the hospital, they did all the workup to rule out everything. And then again, I'm kind of on my own. But what happened was that after that I got another referral to the cardiology because that medication, the diuretics, wasn't working. And this is the first time I think I got like a little bit of or a more focus towards the cardiac treatment plan that I I first started getting.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

And was it in about 2012 right now? This is about the the timing still?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Well, 2012 to 2013. Okay. Towards that time, between 2012 to 2013. And so I was referred to Dr. John Schroeder. He is a very prominent cardiologist, and he's very, very experienced. What at that time still there was no thought or even any discussion of myocardial bridge. It's all like, okay, you have a high blood pressure. And around that time he did all the blood works and came out that my lipid profile is also too high. Both my LDL is high and my HTL is significantly low. In fact, I probably since then have never had like a test where I get like HTL high, no matter how much good cholesterol I take. So he said, you know, you probably have a bad gene, so you are at high risk because your cholesterol level was is way off, and you have high blood pressure. So you have two risk factors. Although, so although you don't have any family history, I'm going to get you hooked on a blood pressure medication, and you you have to take it properly and continuously, and also atrovastin or something like that. Yeah, initially I was on atrovastatin a few months. I developed some side effects to it like muscle muscle cramps, so moved to Crestor. And then what he did was that he probably also, based on my experiences at ER, on the the notes of the ER, he started me on Diltizin, which is a calcium channel blocker. And luckily, calcium channel blocker is also a very popular treatment or the first line or medication treatment for myocardial breach as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

For vasospasms.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yes, that's that to that to take care of the vasospasm. Yeah. And I know that one well.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Same situation.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Right. So so a lot of the myocardial breach patient patients also have endothelial dysfunction which causes vasospasm, and I have that. So diltiasm actually helped quite a bit. And my blood pressure was good, my heart rate was also most of the time the resting period relatively low. So I I think stopped going back and forth to the ER towards the end of 2020 2013. So I thought, like, okay, this probably is fine. And then initially I was seeing Dr. Schroeder for long or frequently, and then after a while, starting in 2014, I was seeing him like every six months, and probably around like 2017-ish, I started seeing him like once a year because everything was working fine. And he had to increase the dose once because the blood pressure wasn't getting getting fully controlled, but it was more or less fine. And I was able to do most of my stuff. I was able to do I was able to play soccer and everything. And it it sort of the all the all the symptoms came back again pretty recently, actually, in the in the last few years, actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So even still your blood pressure had been lowered, and you were on the medication. Yes. And everything was seemingly going well until it wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

It wasn't. So uh before uh before this cardiac history started coming back again, around 2019, I was also diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. And I I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. So that's a different story and a and a longer story, but like the gist of that was that I told Dr. Schroeder about it, about the diagnosis. So he said, like, you know, you you now have more risk for this is another risk factor for cardiac event. So we are gonna increase your cholesterol medication. So he added one more cholesterol medication. So he said, like, now your LDL cutoff should be even lower. So you need to maintain a strict regimen of LDL. And I started doing that. One of the things about the psoriatic arthritis is that besides joint pains and it it comes and goes, it has its flare flares. And I was on the treatment and it was responding, the treatment was responding well. But occasionally, after 2019, specifically around 2020, I started having these episodes of extreme tiredness, like extreme fatigue. And there is like no explanation of like why this fatigue would be there. And I don't have enough words. I don't know if you have ever experienced those kinds of fatigue, but like if if someone has not experienced it, it's really hard to explain them. That, and and I was I was very surprised, like what is happening because my joint pains were gone. And I was telling my rheumatologist is that, hey, you know, maybe I have this, some of these, you know, tiredness, some of this flare-up is still coming. So she said that no, but you seem to have your joints seem to be fine, so I'm not sure what is causing it. And in 2020, I was going through another big change in my life. So I was expecting my firstborn, my first baby. So my first baby was born uh towards the end of 2020.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Yeah, yeah, thank you. And so there has been a lot of transitions, a lot of things going on. And after the baby was born, there were a lot of you know sleepless nights.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Yeah, and stressors and everything else, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yes, yes. So it is it has a lot of stress. So I attributed everything to to those stress, to those sleepless nights. And 2021, it kept on kept on going, kept on building up.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

And I kept building up, meaning the the the fecid fatigue and okay. How was the chest any chest pain or unusual?

SPEAKER_00 15:56

So now that I don't have chest pain, now that I like I don't have anything after the surgery, I feel so better. Now I can feel that maybe I had I had like heaviness in my chest. Because I always thought, like, okay, maybe I'm just too stressed. This is probably an anxiety attack or something. Because there is a heaviness to it, it's not a pain, but it feels like I have something stuck on my chest. I I could not get it off of my chest. Something heavy is on my chest. So this is also very typical of anxiety. And so I just thought like, okay, the fatigue and then this heaviness is all about all about all the anxiety I'm going through. Until 2022, the first time I actually collapsed. It was in July, and I I was I was in a grocery store, and I I just fell. Um, I didn't know what happened. I was almost almost passed out, but like I could I could regain my consciousness very quickly. I did not have any control of over my body. So that's the first time it was in July of 2022. And I thought, like, okay, I'm I was probably very tired or dehydrated. So I took electrolytes, hotter, fluids. Next day, the same thing happened again.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Oh my.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Yeah, yeah. And then I went to went to the ER for the first time with this. And at the same time, I sent a message to Dr. Schroeder that hey, I am having this problem. And it was the local ER. So they they ran all sorts of tests, like EKG seemed to be the EKGs was always like at the borderline, but I think it was not very significant, at least at that time. And then the all the cardiac enzymes were normal, and then there were no rhythm issues that they could find. Imaging, mostly the X-rays and everything looked normal.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

So You know, it's interesting too that you didn't have any arrhythmia because that tends to be common with condition.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

No, I did not have any arrhythmia, luckily. And then I also started seeing that my heart rate again started shooting back up subsequent in the subsequent days since my ER visits. And then I saw Dr. Schroeder again after a long time, and he said, Okay, maybe you maybe the deltaism is not working, so let me give you a different uh calcium channel blocker, amylo dipine. And it didn't work either. I I still having this dizziness. By that time I was kind of careful, so it did not result in any falls, but it almost felt like the same. Then he stopped calcium channel altogether. Each and every week, I was I was on a new medication. I started with amyloipine and then carvedolol and then metropolol. So every every drug I was trialing for one week or two weeks, and I I had like a video call with with him, and it all seems like okay, something is maybe 20% better, but I still have chest pain, something is maybe 50% better, but I still have chest pain. So Dr. Schroeder seems to be concerned, and he said, you know, you should not have any chest pain, you know. That's that's the point. You should not have any chest pains. And if that is the case, then let's see what's going on. And that's the first time, I think around August or end of July or early August, he he prescribed or referred me for a CT scan, CT angiogram. And the report was mixed, report had a lot of issues. So, in fact, the report found plaque on the on the LED, which is common uh for people with myocardial bridge, and then then there was a myocardial bridge as well. So the radiologist actually pointed out that there is a grade three myocardial bridge, so the radiologist did not put any numbers there, but I I think grade three is kind of deep, like fully, fully immersed in the muscle. So I read about it. Dr. Schroeder did not seem to be too concerned, he was mostly concerned about the plaque because the plaque it was mentioned in the report that the plaque was 50 to yeah, significant, 50 to 69 percent. It is it is significant for the age, but it is still not critical to have an intervention, right? Because for that they require it to be above 70 percent, 70, 70 percent. So it is still not critical. I started on the on some aspirin as well, just to make sure that you know there is no blood clot. Right, and then in the middle of August, I had again this fully blown heart attack like symptoms.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

And we're talking August just of last year, yes, August last year. Like eight months ago, nine months ago.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yes, and I was taken to the Stanford hospital at that time. I mean, my I live 30 minutes from Stanford campus now, but I still drove, my wife still drove me to Stanford Hospital because Dr. Schroeder told me, you know, you should always come to Stanford Hospital because that's where all your you know doctors are. So I went there and they admitted me immediately because already there was a CT scan that shows like 50% plaque, so they thought like this is definitely a heart attack. So they started heparing drip right away. So they just preemptively did all the protocol for an NSTMI. Luckily, it was not a heart attack, but it still was a significant issue. And so finally, since that hospital visit, I was referred to the myocardial bridge clinic. Because in that hospital stay, they did they did the full heart cath.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Because you had a provocative test?

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Not a provocative, it's just an invasive angiogram.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

So they just checked whether the arteries were open or not, whether there is any obstructive coronary artery disease or not. And these blocks uh or these plaques were not blocking. So it it was clear. So the doctors there, the attending physician told me, you know, you don't have you don't have anything, you don't have an issue, so you don't have to worry. And then I asked her, like, what about the myocardial bridge? And she said that uh it was her quote that it was a very controversial topic, you know. And she she told me, like, you know, this surgery is a very big surgery, and you might have to stay out of work for a while, it will take you a lot, so you probably don't have to worry about it. I was a little bit surprised to hear that because I mean, whether the treatment protocol is invasive or not, that doesn't matter. As long as if I need a treatment protocol, I have to get it, right? So, but at least I told her that you know, at least what you can do is that refer me to Dr. Schnitger's office or Dr. Schnitger's clinic. And that she did. Good. So then I got I got into Dr. Schnitger's clinic.

unknown 23:24

Dr.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Schnitger, as you know, is a very busy, has a very busy clinic, and uh everywhere from US people comes here with myocardial bridge. And luckily, since I was already on Stanford system, it was very easy and quick for me to get their attention. But the but their scheduler called me and said, you know, that was end of August. She said, we don't have any availability until November.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Okay. So I'm gonna interrupt you just for a second. For any of us that have been through this, we we don't know that we're not gonna die. We don't know that this isn't gonna cause something significant. So any duration that's longer than immediate is too long. So go ahead. And I just I can't stress that enough for everybody. You have to advocate for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Exactly. In fact, in fact, you are right. And by that time, I was almost the ER became almost like my second home. So every now and then I was having this chest pains. And and actually, although they did not tell from the hospital, they said that you know you don't have any obstructive disease, but they still gave me nitroglycerin, uh longer acting nitroglycerin. And and they said, you know, if you take one nitroglycerin after chest pain, you take two, three, and if if it doesn't go away after three, you you have to come back to the ER. So since then, since August till the surgery, ER became my second home. In fact, I have been to ER so many times that there are certain physicians that I actually got got in repeat. There were like one time I went there, I saw like one doctor, and then a few weeks later I went there, she was there again on that same day, and she said, Oh, I recognize you a few weeks ago. So this was my story, you know. I kept on going. So I after learning that I won't be able to get until November, I used my Stanford alumni email address to email to Dr. Schnitger directly and asked her, Hey, I was a student here. So as an alumni, would you consider to squeeze me in earlier? And and she was able to get me into her office sooner than November. So in September, there was another cancellation, and I was I was able to see her for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

One thing she does say, and to your point, you're a young man, and the longer this goes, especially if you have you know a cholesterol issue, 100% of the myocardial bridges have occlusion where the artery enters into the heart.

unknown 26:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Everywhere. So the longer it goes, the worse it gets. It's not going to get better by delaying it.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

No, it it won't. And even I my cholesterol was kept under control with medications very aggressively. And still I I had plaque at the entrance of the myocardial bridge. I got myself in the first time. And and she, it's the first time. By that time, she saw all my results, the cath, the CT angiogram, and everything. And the first time I went there, she actually got all the images in her phone and showed to me, like, hey, here is the actually we think is the bridge. Here it see the cath. This moment, there is like uh sort of like the the arteries getting vanished for a few seconds to slow down the frames. That's where it's getting you know pressed by the muscle. And she this is the first time she said, like, you know, your pain is very real, and and it's it's being caused by the ischemia because of the myocardial bridge. And I I think we I mean she initially said that you know the surgery is definitely a big one, so we are going to try the medications first. And she said that you already had a cath, although it's not a provocative cath with all the measurements and everything, but I am convinced that you will you will need this treatment. So she started me on this nebivolol that she actually prefers. This is a beta blocker, but it had some it it has some other effect of increasing the release of the nitric oxide inside the artery. So that's the first step. I think I think it was the general all the steps, this type of first medication and then then invasive. It's basically the standard of care for her clinic. I think you also know about that. So I started taking the medication and it did not really solve any problem. And then it almost felt like a house of cards. Like in July, it started. By November, by October, November, I was almost disabled. And in fact, I had to ask to my primary care physician to issue disability placard for me because I wasn't able to walk. I wasn't able to get up the stairs. Every time I go up the stairs in my home, I get like palpitations and I I get chest tightness and I I am short of breath. I have two dogs and I could not take them to walk. And in fact, one time it happened that like I I went in the neighborhood with my dog, and in the middle of walking, I had to call my wife that, hey, you need to pick me up because I it's it's too much. And and she's the one I have always been trying to push through or ignoring this kind of pain. And Dr. Schneidgar told me in our first visit that you know there is no powering through a chest pain. If you have chest pain, whatever you are doing, you have to stop. You have to stop. There is like because you are causing more harm to your heart.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

If you are pushing through chest pain, and so many of us did exactly that. We all, because we're in disbelief or denial, this can't be happening. No, I'm good. That's something else, it can't be my heart. I'm too young, I'm too this, I'm too that, too fit, whatever. And it comes out in every conversation we're having where the acceptance of the reality of this can't be. It can't be happening to me.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

No, yeah, that's true. Yeah, I was in denial for many, many months, many even years, right? So finally, I told her that that the medication is not working, and I I was referred to Dr. Tremel, who does the provocative cath, and I had my cath early December. Uh I think 8th December, I had my provocative cath, and she did all sorts of debutamine stress, and she checked for the endothelial dysfunction. So finally, we got a quantification of the of the myocardial bridge. So it was a six centimeter long and one millimeter dip, which is basically the dip towards the deeper end. Yeah, and it's very long, it's six centimeters long, and and there is a severe endothelial dysfunction which causes the vasospasm. So I have like the whole shebang. And so the follow-up visit, Dr. Schnitger told me that time she seemed to be very positive about the surgery because she said, like, you know, I think you you will see a lot of improvement in your life if you do that, do the surgery. By that time, I was I was kind of scared, not only scared, but also worried about like what would happen. Like, I have a daughter, there are two dogs, it's going to be very difficult for for my wife to take care of all of them. So I was a little bit worried, but she seems to be pushing me. Like, we we spent there for about an hour, and she said all the things, she answered very meticulously about everything, every detail about the surgery and everything. And then then I was referred to Dr. Boyd, and I saw Dr. Boyd on January 23rd to have a surgery on 24th. I did not meet Dr. Boyd right away because there was like holiday and everything, but by that time Dr. Boyd had all my records and measurements because it's within the same hospital. So, and they scheduled me early in January for a 23 January appointment and a 24th January surgery date. So that's when the surgery happened, January 24th.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Which is very quick, relatively speaking.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

It is extremely quick, and I think you know it very well. So you have also interviewed a few other patients who actually traveled from out of the state to get the surgery done here at Stanford. That it takes almost six months to get even the first appointment from the referral.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

And I feel extremely lucky that it took me a relatively short period of time to get into the bridge clinic. And most importantly, I the I mean we all the all myocardial bridge patients go through this sort of disbelief or or sort of people around them or the doctors actually do not want to believe them. But for my case, it was probably the least because I was always on in the system, Stanford system. So all the cardiologists, at least they knew what it is.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Well, they tell you as that regular patient in the hospital so frequently in the emergency room, they said this is we gotta do something for this poor guy. He's probably costing us a fortune in just the emergency room.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Yeah, it's true. So that was January 24th. I mean, we're talking to you in April, we're not even four months out.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

No, it's three months. Just it happened three months.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Yeah. I I'm looking at you on the screen. You look amazingly healthy. You sound wonderful. You're just to the point now where you can start to lift a little bit. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

So I started a few weeks ago, but still it I don't think I can still lift very heavy stuff. It's probably 20-30 pounds for a shorter period of time. It's fine with with keeping my posture and everything. But if I have to do like awkward stretch with like heavy stuff, probably won't be able to do it. And I still do get muscle pains, pain in the joint, and then every incision, if the incision is really big, a lot of nerves basically are cut open. So you get all sorts of fancy feeling on the incision side. So those are all there. But I am much better than any point in the in the last one year or or more than more than a year. Most importantly, besides the besides the chest pain, the fatigue that I was always talking about, that's gone. That's gone. In fact, now that it's gone, I can realize or appreciate even more that wow, I was on s I was in so much fatigue, and I was able to do whatever I did in those last three years. I could not do much, but I still was able to do a few things, and I was able to do that, and I feel like wow, I could do that even after feeling like like that bad. Because now I think I I feel a little new normal, and it seems like the surgery actually sort of created a new normal for me, which I have not have not felt for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

That's wonderful. That yeah, and I think that's what we want to hear. The majority of people who experience the surgery who we have the benefit and the good fortune to have the unroofing procedure done are in much better position than they were prior. And not everybody comes out a hundred percent because of other conditions, you know, age, etc. But for the most part, and and that's the purpose of why we're talking about this, is to make more cardiologists aware and to give those people who have the symptoms and know solution an opportunity to know that there is someplace they can go to get help.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

True. And also, I had myocardial bridge and endothelial dysfunction, which caused the vasospasm. And Dr. Schnitger told me, you know, we will solve the myocardial bridge by the surgery. It will take a while to get better from the endothelial dysfunction. But at least your surgery will jumpstart the healing process because now the artery is not going to be squeezed every like so often.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Every heartbeat, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Yeah, in every heartbeat. I still do have those endothelial dysfunction and I feel the spasm, but they have been so mild and they have reduced to almost non-existent. And especially with the follow-up medications that I'm I'm on, I have not had any single chest pain in the last two, three weeks, like even probably a month, that I have not had any single chest pain episodes ever. In fact, yesterday I was on my cardiac rehab and I was trying to run. I had a cramp on my leg muscle. Still then, I did not have any chest pain. So it will take some get used to, but at least I felt much better. I felt I did not feel heavy. So that's the that's the blessing of what I had experienced. It it has been a difficult surgery, but it was totally worth it.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Well, and I can tell you from experience, my surgery was on January 4th, 2021. So I was you know, just say month, a year prior. And I can't remember the last time I had any sensation of a vasospasm. Wow. So that's amazing. It does heal. And I'm exercising and doing the majority of things I did prior. So it it gets there, it gets there. So yeah, and and for you and for anybody else that's in that position right now, going, oh, yeah, I wonder if I'll be able to do this or that, whatever it may be. Yes, the likelihood is good.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Yes, and and I'm only three months, and so I think every day it will get better. And I cannot, I mean, I I cannot feel enough grateful about my luck and the coincidences that happened that I came all the way from Bangladesh. I could have gone to anywhere in the US.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

You're taking that question right out of my mouth. Because I was gonna say to think exactly that, that you come from Bangladesh to Stanford of all places, which is the number one place, certainly in the country, if not the world, for this condition.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Yes. I think you can call it a coincidence, anyone can call it a karma. I don't know what it is. I'll take that. I'll take that as a blessing. And because of that, I had so less hassle to go through all this. And I hear all the stories of all the difficulties that people face coming from out of the state. I didn't have to face any of those. I was able to get everything done within within less than a year from the first diagnosis to like to the full surgery done, probably six, seven months. So this is incredibly I'm incredibly lucky, and I'm grateful every day. Yeah. That's all I can say.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

I'm gonna concur with you on that. We are extremely fortunate, blessed, luck, full of gratitude, because we get to continue a life as we knew it versus a life as we thought it might be, with the pain and the discomfort. And in so many cases, people with the condition who can't get a proper diagnosis are living with it. And being told, as you know, and we both know from the Facebook page and from the other people discussing it, that's it. It's stress, it's anxiety, and you just have to live with it. And you don't have to live with it.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

No.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

So let me ask you something, Rice. If there was one thing that you would like to leave those listening to your story of your imperfect heart, what would you say?

SPEAKER_00 40:44

So I would like to reiterate what Dr. Schneidger told me. There is no powering through a chest pain. You should keep looking answers. If you have a chest pain that you do not know what's the origin about, you should know what is the origin. It might not be cardiac related in at the end, but whatever it is, you should take care of it. And always listen to your body. Because I think all these signs and symptoms that your body is producing, it's trying to tell you that something is not right. Not everything is in your mind. Because I have been telling that myself about my about my fatigue. That something is, I mean, maybe I'm just too tired, maybe it's all in my mind, maybe I have become more lethargic these days. I'm not I'm not as active anymore, but it's not. That's the last thing that I want to tell everyone. And I think the doctors also need to listen to their patients. And there are many doctors who listen to everything, everything that their patients say. In fact, it was Dr. Schroeder who listened to my complaint about the joint pain who actually encouraged me to go see a rheumatologist. Otherwise, I would not have done that. So these small complaints that the patients make sometimes and many of the times, they are of significance.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

I I think that's wonderful, and it's and it's so true. Right. So I can't thank you enough. Only three months out of surgery, you reached out to me, and I so appreciate that you did that because I think the story you just told is going to resonate with so many people who have been through some of the same situations, have experienced some of the same feelings, and I mean literal feelings, physical feelings, as well as the emotional part of it, that it will maybe move them to another diagnosis, and maybe move them to pursue a different doctor or a different situation when they've got similar similar symptoms to what you've got. And every one of us has a different story, but the end result is the same. It's the myocardial bridge causing the symptoms. Yes. And I'm so happy for you as well and and your family and your daughter, because now she's got her dad back.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Yes, yes, I'm I'm lucky. And thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 43:25

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your contribution. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Imperfect Heart. It's my hope that this information helps 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. Iimperfectheart.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. Imperfect Heart is a production of Hear Me Now Studio.