A
alicia
Well today I went to Duke and had a right heart catherization via my neck and level 3 bicycle test. Duke and only 3 other hospitals perform this test. The cardiologist doing test told me prior to test that he would have some prelimnary results, but the rest would be back after bloodwork comes back next week. They inserted a swanz neck catheter and it was painful! He said my veins were so small. This took about 30 minutes. I then (wit all tubes in place and all monitors,etc hooked up) had to get on exercise bike and peddle away. I did very well, I went up to level 4 and rode for about 20 minutes but boy was I tired and breathing hard. I had a clip on my nose and a tube in my throat. They took BP every 2 minutes and it went up as high as 200/100..They did a pulmonary breathing test which results were excellent. After all tests were complete he said theres something definately wrong because my pressures in the heart were very high and its not just detereation of the heart muscle as they suspected. Well now he wants to wait until bloodwork comes back and he confers with another cardiologist as to what the exact problem is. Im afraid I will have to have the valve replaced since he did say the problem may be within the valve but he wont commit to anything now. What do you guys think? Please help, Im desperate and stressed to the max! Feedback, please....