A Hole In My Heart

I am relieved, and anxious to find out what is hopefully causing all of my health issues. It all started when I got pregnant with Katelyn, and has progressively gotten worse over the past 6 months. My symptoms were dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath and aura migraines, which included numbness, loss of vision and speech followed by a severe migraine. When I first had one of these I was pregnant with Katelyn and terrified. I went to the ER, and they thought I had a stroke. They gave me an MRI, but found nothing. I have had a lot of these episodes, and doctors have never been able to find out what was wrong with me. I have had several CAT scans and MRI's done, but found nothing. After moving to Utah my symptoms got terribly worse and I was at the Dr every week, trying different things and running lots of tests. I have an amazing Dr, who specializes in migraines, and was determined to find out what was wrong with me. The last time I went in to see him, my blood pressure was extremely low (90/50) and I was extremely weak. I was determined to find out what was wrong with me and knew that I couldn't keep dealing with this on a daily basis.

My Dr. then mentioned to me that he thought I might have a hole in my heart...WHAT!? That sounds awful! What does my heart have to do with my head? Anyway, I went in and had a bubble echo done on my heart, and sure enough there it was...in between the left and right chamber of my heart. I am still learning about this, but have found out that it is a very common thing (1 in 5 people), and most people live their whole lives and never find out they have it. I started having symptoms when I was pregnant because your blood flow increases 50% and my heart was struggling. The biggest risk of having a hole in your heart is having a stroke.

So, this Thursday I am going in the fix the hole in my heart. They don't have to cut me open, thank goodness. They are able to go in through an artery and fix it. Hopefully this will fix my symptoms and I can feel normal again, but the main reason to do this is to reduce my risk of having a stroke from 20% to 1%.

So, here I go. I am anxious and nervous, but grateful to have found the problem! I was so tired of Dr. telling me I was normal, when I knew I wasn't. My parents are in town for support and to help me with the girls, and Chad has been amazing. He has been picking up all of my slack for the past couple of months and I am very grateful for him. Thank you to everyone who has prayed and fasted on my behalf. The outpouring of love and support has been overwhelming. Once again, I am blessed!