My experience with heart disease is a long one. I had Rheumatic fever when I was in second grade. At that time they gave me penicillin and bed rest in a hospital. The damage done to my heart by rheumatic fever involved the mitral valve. In 1956 the best they told me I could hope for was to live to about age thirty, never have children, and always need to curtail my activities.. I grew up, had three kids ,was extremely active, until 55 years of age, when I had a tooth pulled. The bacteria from that tooth destroyed the mitral valve and I needed an emergency valve replacement. I hadn't recovered from that surgery when My INR dropped too low and I had 4 strokes. Sooo...I'm recovering slowly from open heart surgery and the effects of the strokes. I've tried a number of things to assist in my recovery; among them acupuncture and chiropractic, and have finally managed to find a job that I like and am capable of doing. I hope to learn more about recovery from others here.
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Me too, I was told I would need to have a sedentary life and the no children, short life etc.
I am about to turn 61 and yesterday I started on the coumadin. My rheumatic fever was 1952 also, I spent 14 months in hospital and had the residual mitral valve murmur. I have 4 adult children, have travelled the world, lived in UK 25 yrs, Australia 22 yrs and US 13 yrs so not too bad. I must admit I totally ignored the sedentary lifestyle advice. At the moment I am undergoing tests as I seem to be slowing down a bit (old age, I guess) but I thought I would mention the other ailments I have and see if they correspond with yours, I have lichens sclerosis, an autoimmune skin disorder, thrombocythemia, leiden v factor (that one is genetic) the list goes on but none of these conditions have affected my lifestyle, sometimes the lichens is miserable though. I had st. vitus dance with the rheumatic fever and wondered whether you had had it, I am a very nervy person and wonder whether that had any cause. Anyway, I am looking forward to lots more years and I am looking forward to lots more years for you too.
It's interesting to see that you lived in the UK. My daughter and her husband live there because he is a member of the US Air Force. She was a great help when I had the strokes. Her husband was on his third tour of duty in Iraq and her and the two grandkids were staying with us. She was the one who suggested accupuncture because it was so helpful for excema. I have no obvious problems with skin or joints etc. but there is a family history of allergies of all kinds. I get the best results for my atrial fibrillation from Chiropractic. The practitioner adjusts me and my pulse drops from it's customary high of 120 bpm to 65 -75. It also lowers my blood pressure to healthy range. These are results that can be measured so I continue to go rather than increasing the prescription medicines. Here's hoping we're good to go for the next 30 years!