I was first diagnosed with mild Mitral Valve Prolapse with trivial regurgitation on 2015.
It was all started in March, 2015 when I started feeling my heart beat is faster that usual. Last year in 2014, I noticed the same thing for about a week but my heart beat was back to normal again after a doctor gave me a medicine to lower my blood pressure.
So, when my heart was beating faster that usual I didn’t worry much because it happened before and it goes away in about a week. So, I visited the same doctor and he gave me the same medicine.
But, I was about to be surprised.
Rushed to the ER
Two days just after taking the medicine I was rushed to the ER because my heart was pounding so fast when I was driving my car with my family, I thought I was having a heart attack. I was taken to the ER by taxi with my wife and my daughter, we left our son with her grandmother.
In the ER the nurse check my heart beat with EKG and the EKG shows that my HR was 138 per minute. It was way too high!
Just to keep thing short, I was released from the hospital 4 days later and the cardiologist just said that my heart was still fine and he only noticed the structure was a bit abnormal. He didn’t mentioned anything at all about Mitral Valve Prolapse or anything else. I totally hate this guy!
Mitral Valve Prolapse was Total Nightmare
For the next 4 months, it was like a total nightmare. I can’t walk more than 200 meters without resting, I even have to walk slower just to prevent my heart from beating to fast.
I was also having panic attacks, I was too afraid to drive a car, I can’t be left alone in the house because I always had the feeling that I could die any minute. I didn’t go anywhere a side from my office which is only 200 meters from my house. If I went somewhere, I need someone to accompany me all the time.
Once, I was going to visit several relatives house during Eid Fitr holiday. Before I go with my family by Uber, I checked the location of nearest hospitals in my driving path. So if anything goes wrong with me, I know where to go. Yeah, I was that terrified!
Fyi, some times my heart rate could reach more than 100/minute when I’m just sitting on the couch, when I stand up it can reach 114 or more.
Asking for Second Opinion
During these 4 months I visited several internist because the previous cardiologist said my heart was fine. I did an endoscopy to check if I have any digestion problem, apparently my stomach was fine.
Because nothing changed in 4 months, I decided to visit another cardiologist and she put me on EKG, Treadmill stress test and Echocardiogram.
My stress test was not that good, I can only last 3 minutes 23 seconds on the treadmill. Luckily she found no blockage in my heart and I can reached 173 beat/minute, which is 93% of my max heart rate. I also didn’t feel any chest pain during the stress test.
When the stress test started, my wife said on the monitor my heart rate was already beating 120/minute.
In my Echocardiogram, the cardiologist said that I have mild Mitral Valve Prolapse with trivial regurgitation. She said it was not life threatening and I just need to visit her regularly to do routine checkup.
She prescribed me with a beta blocker (Concor 2,5mg) and I should take it once per day after breakfast. I should not do anything physical before taking the beta blocker.
Feeling Much Better With Beta Blocker
After taking beta blocker I noticed that I’m feeling much better.
During the next several months I can do regular activities, I can also do routine exercises almost everyday (I usually walked for 15-30 minutes). Regular exercise is important, even for people that have heart problem. Start with something small such as walking but first consult your cardiologist.
I started with walking 100 meters a day at first and after several months, I can walk 2 kilometers without resting. I know it’s not much but it was a big milestone for me.
I can now drive my car, although I still need someone to accompany me while driving (my dad asked me to) and I can go to attend events and seminars or hangout with my friends by my self, thanks to Uber!
It’s been more than 2 years now since I’ve taken beta blocker. Sometimes I still feel several symptoms every now and then.
The most terrifying one is skipped beat, but I started to not to worry much when the symptoms started to arise. They tend to go away in a few minutes, hour or days if we stop consume or doing anything that could trigger it.
In my case, skipped beat (you feel your heart pausing between beats) only happens when I ate something that I shouldn’t have.
I’ll write a separate article about what you should not eat or consume if you have MVP.
Hope you this find article useful, MVP is not life threatening especially if it’s only mild MVP, even if your MVP grows to severe regurgitation it is still treatable – your cardiologist may do heart surgery. It’s not going to make you die of a heart attack.
Just make sure you took the medicine your cardiologist prescribed you and try not to worry to much (yeah, I know it’s hard but it’s doable).
Stay healthy!
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