I am 30 years old. Over Memorial Day weekend I was admitted to Vanderbilt hospital for a viral infection in my heart and congestive heart failure (my ejection fraction was 20%). They also found, through an echo, that I had mitral vavle prolapse, cardiomyopathy, and arrirthymia. After 4 days they did an MRI of my heart. The MRI came bck saying that my ejection fraction had gone back up to almost 50% and there was no real sign of infection. I was released from the hospital and told to see a cardiologist. Since then I have continued to have chest pains, been very weak, can't hold down anything but very small amounts of food(not dinner), and have gone from just getting alittle dizzy/lightheaded to actually having passed out 5 times in the last week. I have tried to tell my family doctor about this but he just keeps telling me that all the tests from my hospital stay came back ok, which I don't understand since the echo that was done thre it what got me admitted. For some reason he doesn't seem to think this is a problem. My husband has taken off the last 3 weeks of work because he afraid to leave me alone. I can't even walk to the bathroom, which is only about 10 feet from my bed, without getting lightheaded or momentarily blacking out and forget about a shower, both times I tried that my husband ended up picking me up off the floor. I'm starting to get really scared about this and I know my husband and 4 kids are too. I continue to have chest pains and very abnormal heart beats. My heart rate as been around 102 while I have been laying in bed doing nothing at all for over anhour or more. Palpitations, skipped beats, double/triple beats, fast beating then slow beating. All of this happens within about 5 minutes then goes somewhat normal and happens all over again. I have been listening to my heart with a stethescope for most of day hearing my heart do this. Does anyone know what the hell could be going on with me? Give me some kind of idea or something to go on please. Has anyone had similiar problems? Anything will help since my family doctor doesn't seem to want to listen.
Q: Diagnosed with CHFabout 2wks ago.Still having alot of issues.Can you tell me if I should be worried?
Hi Adrjen: A cardiomyopathy is a weakening of the heart muscle. This can be from many causes, but a virus is a frequent cause in a young person. Often in Viral cardiomyopathies, the virus can injure the heart, but quickly be resolved. It appears that his is what happened in your case.
The good news is that your muscle function is substantially better. Unfortunately, you are having symptoms. I would definitely recommend that you see a cardiologist. You may need to be on medications to reduce the skipped beats. Fluid in the pericardial sac that may still be there could be causing your pain.
Ask your doctor for a referral to a cardiologist and tell him your symptoms.
This is my suggestion,
take care.
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