I have apical hypertrothic cardiomyopathy, which started 16 yrs ago when I was 16 as myocarditis. At first they thought it might have been caused by reacurring rheumatic fever(a streep infection), because I always had a sore throat and roving achey joints. Then my sister, went into cardic arrest 37 times, they found that her heart was enlarged, it could have been from cocaine use. The doctors now think that it could be inheirited, however we have 108 first cousins, and we are the only ones with it. She had a dual chamber defibrillator implanted after the caric arrests, was not had a problem since, she smokes, drinks, and is still using. I had a defibrillator implant in Jan of this year, and I have never felt worse in my life, I went into arrest 3 times during the surgery. So now they doctors are redoing all of the tests to see if more damage was done (I've been in heart failure for 5 yrs), if my heart is worse, then it will be transplant time. But please understand that I have had a very active life up until this year, I could run circles around anyone at work, and in time I will be back to normal.
AJ
My daughter was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in March 2001.A TEE showed that she had dilated cardiomyopathy and a ejection factor of 30. She was put on Coreg and Prinivil and total disibility.InMay she had a stress testand after 5 min. they had to stop due to the chest pain.They followed it up 3 days laterwith a cardiac cath. and within 10 min.of this test they rushed her to emergency heart surgery. Double bypass for blocked coronary artery.
My daughter is 21 yrs. old It was as much a shock for me as it was to the cardiologist.She was sent home in 5 days and is recuperating slowly.
It was interesting to read that most of the cardiomyopathy are due to coronary artery disease.However it appears that she may of had it since birth.
How common is this? What's the youngest bypass case that you know of. My daughter appears to be the youngest thus far in our hospital.
Thank You for an interesting web site. China
Hi Ganny:
Visit Jonsplace.org for great support and information on Cardiomyopathy. Good luck!
Hey Ganny, there has been another post in this forum by a firefighter as well. Can't remember too much about it but I remember he's in the same boat as you. Try searching if you're interested.
Dear Dave,
I think you will have a hard time proving that the cardiomyopathy is due to myocarditis. Have you had a heart cath to look at your coronary arteries? If not this would probably be a good idea. The single most common cause of cardiomyopathy in the US is coronary artery disease. If there are no findings of coronary artery disease than percentage-wise the next largest catergory is myocarditis. However, to prove that it was myocarditis in retrospect is difficult. If it had been detected at the time of the infection then viral cultures or a biopsy may have helped establish the diagnosis but at this point there are not any tests that can be done. Your doctor may be willing to say that the cardiomyopathy is most likely due to myocarditis but I don't know if that will be enough for the workers comp. I hope this works out for you.