The
Picture of Health
By
Patricia Bowe Broyles (Gamma Omicron-Drake)
On
May 26, 2004, at 7 a.m. the tingling in my toes and
fingers and numbness in my left arm could no longer
be ignored. After stopping at a gas station to get a
cup of coffee, I decided to take a detour from my
normal route to work and checked myself in at the
emergency room at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, Texas.
After a physician’s assistant ran three EKGs, took
my pulse every hour and drew five vials of blood, I
was proclaimed at 47 years of age to be “the picture
of health.”
The P.A. released me at 6:00 p.m. and told me to see a
cardiologist the next morning as a precautionary
measure. I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse
at 30 in 1986 when I was hospitalized with a minor
malady. The cardiologist told me to treat this
condition with antibiotics before every visit to the
dentist and prescribed a baby aspirin every day.
This hardly seemed like tough duty for an Alpha Phi
who had bowled and jump roped for heart and had
helped throw numerous parties and galas for my
chapter’s philanthropy of choice, The Heart Fund. I
was an informed single mother of two with an active
lifestyle and enjoyed a socially demanding career as
a professional fundraiser. I was surrounded by family and
friends who said I made it all look easy. Little did
they know I had begun to fall into bed at 8:30 or 9
p.m. depleted and physically exhausted for most of
the last year. A stressful divorce 10 years earlier
was beginning to rear its ugly head for the fourth
time in a decade, and my stress level began to rise
as day-to-day difficulties mounted.
On May 27 at 9 a.m. I saw a female cardiologist who weighed
me, took my blood pressure and after taking my pulse
also proclaimed I was indeed, upon initial
inspection, “the picture of health.” She decided to
work me into her busy schedule for a routine
echocardiogram and stress test. I cheerily informed
her that I had called in sick for the first time in
three years and that I was hers for the afternoon.
When she returned to the waiting room to discuss the
results of my tests she firmly announced I had a
condition that had progressively worsened over the
last 17 years and that if she were me, she would
immediately see a surgeon to schedule open-heart
surgery. I collapsed into a chair and listened as
she described the regurgitation that had been
occurring in my heart since birth. The by-products
of mitral valve prolapse are an enlarged heart
caused by the heart muscle working twice as hard and
fluid in the lungs and chest cavity. I would have to
seek the advice and counsel of a surgeon to
determine whether or not I would need to have this
damaged valve in my heart repaired or replaced. I
immediately called friends who put on the Cote Du
Coeur, a formal wine event to raise funds for the
American Heart Association, for referrals to the
best heart surgeons in Texas. Luckily, the same two
names were mentioned over and over: Dr. Robert
Hebbler at Baylor and Dr. Dan Meyer at U.T.
Southwestern. I immediately made appointments with
them both. Surely, there had been a mistake and my
fears would be calmed once I was delivered into
their capable hands.
The next morning I met Dr. Hebbler who affirmed the
cardiologist’s diagnosis. No longer brave, the tears
started to flow. A week later I met with Dr. Meyer,
the surgeon who was to become my choice to correct
this unseen problem that had been steadily but
surely robbing me of my vitality. Dr. Meyer inserted
the copy the CD my cardiologist made into his
computer and explained that my heart was pumping at
50 percent efficiency due to a leak in the valve.
This condition if left untreated could result in
congestive heart failure. I had youth and few other
risk factors to worry about; we scheduled surgery
for July 21 at 8 a.m.
Eight days after heart surgery I was on a flight with my
mother en route to Chicago where I was pampered by
my family. Advances in heart surgery made it
possible to be back to work and resume normal
activity in four to six weeks. Dr. Meyer was able to
repair the damage to the mitral valve in a complex
procedure that lasted seven hours. I am grateful to
Dr. Meyer and his staff for their excellent care and
attention during my stay at U.T. Southwestern
Medical Center. I hope my story will inspire others
with this condition to seek testing when the
following symptoms occur: shortness of breath,
dizziness, a general feeling of coldness
(particularly in the extremities), and in my case,
numbness and tingling in the fingers and toes.
If you have been diagnosed with a heart murmur or
mitral valve prolapse:
1.
Find
a cardiologist with whom you can discuss this
condition.
2.
Make
an appointment to establish a baseline through an
electrocardiogram and stress test.
3.
Remember to take prescribed antibiotics before every
visit to a dentist if this is the course of action
determined by your doctor.
Editor’s Note: Patti Broyles is
director of development at
the Dallas Museum of Natural History. She is a
former chapter advisor, alumnae chapter president and
recipient of the Michaelanean Award. She is
pictured above with her two teenage legacies, Taylor
and Delaney.
Please Note: Information provided in this article is
not intended to take the place of a physician's
advice. Please consult your health care provider
with questions and for proper evaluation, diagnosis
and treatment.
