Cardiovascular disease (CVD) does not discriminate. It is far-reaching, affecting all ages. I thought that I was immune because I was "young".
In high school, I joined our track team and enjoyed road cycling on the side. During many workouts and races, I experienced near fainting episodes, but chalked it up to the sizzling Georgia heat and intensity of my workouts. Fortunately, I acquired a heart rate monitor while in college and was astounded to learn that my heart rate was 200-240 bpm during some of my workouts. My friends and coaches couldn't believe it! Surely the device was wrong. Maybe the battery was dying? Maybe the power lines were interfering with the device?
A treadmill test while monitoring my cardiac response showed that I had paroxysmal atrial-reentry supraventricular tachycardia. In other words, I had an extra node in my upper heart that became active during exercise that caused my heart to beat much more quickly than it should. My heart was beating so fast that it had no time to fill with blood, greatly reducing the amount of blood being pumped to my body. With my cardiac output being nil, no wonder I was lightheaded!
At 19 years old, I underwent a radiofrequency catheter ablation, a procedure in which radioactive heat is used to burn off the ectopic node. After this, my exercise capacity greatly improved. Hooray!
I thought I was out-of-the-woods once the ablation removed the extra node in my heart. I went on to race road bicycles collegiately, earn a PhD in physiology, marry my sweetheart, and began looking forward to starting a family. Little did I know that I would encounter a deadly situation.
It began during the second trimester of my pregnancy with my first daughter, a dull aching pain in my left hip and upper left leg. I thought this was odd, but I was actively cycling full 60-mile loops on the weekends and then sitting at my desk during the week as a postdoctoral research fellow. I was convinced that I had a musculoskeletal issue. It wasn't until 40 weeks--right before delivery--that my left leg swelled, doubling in size. My husband and I rushed to the ER to learn that I had massive clots throughout my left leg. It was a life-threatening situation. I was at high risk for a pulmonary embolism. If one of these clots in my leg broke loose and traveled to my lungs, I could experience instant death. The hospital started a heparin drip to thin my blood and stabilize the clot and we hoped and prayed that the clots would dissolve and not migrate.
Five days later, I gave birth to my first daughter and was later told that there was up to a 40% chance that I could have died. Blood clots are a serious business and the hormonal changes with pregnancy, combined with the extra weight of the baby, increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism during and the 3 months after pregnancy. In my case, I was born with a compressed iliac vein increasing my risk for this (called May-Thurner Syndrome).
Now, I am happy to spend time with my family and have the privilege of raising a second daughter. But cardiovascular disease is still affecting me. I have venous disease (also known as "post-thrombotic syndrome") from the blood clots. A foot-long stent was placed in the major vein in my hip to help keep it open, but the one-way valves carrying the blood from my toes back to my heart are permanently damaged, and there is an ongoing risk that the stent will reclot.
This is exactly what happened this past April. Thankfully, the interventional radiology team at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin were able to reopen my stent with a thrombectomy procedure. After a four day stay in the hospital, I was back on my feet.
At this time, no surgical treatments are available to fix my veins so I take blood thinning medication. Research and advances in clinical care are needed!!
These experiences motivate me to support research and education on the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Please join me and the rest of the team from the Herma Heart Institute and Medical College of Wisconsin's Cardiovascular Center in supporting AHA's efforts so that people, people of all ages, can become more educated about the signs and symptoms of CVD, better treatments can be developed, and save lives!