A different story

• by Louie70
• 2014-09-26 11:09:50
• General Posting
• 1406 views
• 2 comments

Hi everyone. I have been lurking here for a few months learning a whole bunch from all of you. Thank you very much. I am a male, almost 70 ( in a couple weeks). In May 2011 I had my first heart attack with 2 stents installed. I had shortness of breath before the attack and it continued afterwards. All pulmonary tests showed no problems of significance. In the fall of 2013 I went to an integrative cardiologist because of this. An echo showed I had left bundle branch block and ejection fraction of 25-30%. He treated me with meds and supplements but I showed no improvement and my breathing got worse. In June of this year at the gym doing chin ups I thought I had another heart attack and spent 2 days in the hospital. All tests and a heart cath showed nothing and they said it must have been angina. Another echo showed an EF of 25% with the LBBB . A new EP and my cardiologist and my family doctor all recommended a dual chamber pacemaker. I was scheduled for this on Sept 18. The EP wanted another echo before this to make sure. It was done on Sept 4. My EP promptly cancelled my pacemaker install. It seems my heart function between June and Sept returned to normal with an EF of 52%. Also during that time period my shortness of breath got considerably worse. Nothing made sense. If my low EF was because of my LBBB and my shortness of breath was from my low EF why in a matter of 2 months did my EF return to normal still having a LBBB and my breathing got considerable worse? No sure answers yet from anyone. My family doctor thinks it was the high dose ( 1200 mg) of CoQ10 she put me on a week before the Sept echo. My cardiologist sort of agreed and thought my heart problem was metabolic ( he couldn't really explain what that meant as he was almost at a loss for words over my major improvement ) . I go next week back to a pulmonary specialist for my breathing and maybe more answers forth coming. The scheduled pacemaker for me looks like it would have been a big mistake right now even though all the initial symptoms pointed to it. With my LBBB still there I am sure I will be a candidate once again in the future but for now I am happy it didn't happen. I hope this story helps someone else at least to be absolutely sure of what the doctors want to do to you is the right thing. I feel very lucky.
Louie70