MVP
August 21, 2006Okay, so this is what's going on with me.
As a few of you already know, I've recently, over the past couple of months, been suffering from mild anxiety. Moments of heightened body pains, followed by the classic symptoms. What I haven't really mentioned too much are the pains usually associated with this anxiety. Muscle tension, sharp pains in my head and chest, heart palpitations and shortness of breath. Honestly it's been freaking me out a lot more than I've been letting on. And luckily most of the time I'm fine and feel totally normal. But more often than not it triggers rather randomly with no apparent cause for onset, usually at work. And I've had anxiety before, which I know I can deal with quite fine. I'm a pretty rational person. But this has been different. It's been the pains in my chest and the inability to take deep breaths that have been causing most of my discomfort. Discomfort that has become more consistent with and without the anxiety.
So, with that said, today I decided to finally take advantage of my health insurance and went to the doctor. I haven't been to a doctor in probably close to five years; five years in which time my body has been abused more severely than I'd care to think about. Anyway I told the doctor of my anxiety, the pains and discomfort. We talked about my lifestyle, the drinking and smoking. He told me that my lifestyle is killing me...or will be over time, but didn't seem surprised or overly worried about that being a problem right now. So I guess I can rule out emphysema for another couple of years.
After talking to me for 15 minutes about quitting smoking, he finally offered me some options for anti anxiety medication, which I declined. He examined me: blood pressure normal, reflexes normal, slightly irregular heartbeat, eyes fine, ears fine...wait...hmmm, back to the heart...slight heart murmur.
Come to learn, the doc heard an irregularity in my heartbeat which, combined with the symptoms I'm been having, sounds very similar to a heart condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP).
A little bit about MVP (I'm stealing this from a article in some medial journal posted on webmd). Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a heart condition in which the size of the mitral valve -- which separates the top part of the heart (atrium) from the bottom half (ventricle) -- is slightly bigger than normal. The problem occurs when the ventricle contracts and the mitral valve 'prolapses,' or bulges back, into the atrium, causing some leakage of blood backward into the atrium instead of forward into the rest of the body. Unless the leakage is significant it's usually nothing to worry about.
Some people with MVP tell their doctors that they have shortness of breath, chest pain, or heart palpitations. These are not proven symptoms of mitral valve prolapse. Many experts believe that such symptoms may be related to anxiety that people feel after being told they have a heart valve problem or that the symptoms may be caused by another heart condition.
Certain body features are associated with MVP. These include:
Low body weight.
Low blood pressure.
Flat rib cage.
Straight back.
Loose joints.
Long arms, fingers, and toes.
MVP is fairly common, affecting about 2% the population. In 98% the cases, MVP is not life-threatening.
Sounds pretty convincing to me, so.... I'll be going back tomorrow to get an echo-cardiogram to see for sure. Frankly it doesn't sound too bad, and though I am still a little worried of what they might find, I'm a little relieved to know that: 1. I'm not losing my mind, and I don't need to seek psychological treatment. 2. I actually have a plausible solid answer to the way I've been feeling. Now I can rationalize it, which definitely helps with some peace of mind.
So that's about it, more or less. I just needed to talk about it, and thanks for listening.
posted by H. Hopkins @ 10:18 AM
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