As most of you know, Keith lost 50 pounds about 18 months ago and along the way developed a love for exercise. Core conditioning and strength training are his favorite activities, with aerobics a distant third. One of our favorite activities has been to attend a boot camp one day a week. The boot camp is outside, high energy, and has us typically doing lots of running and jumping, with at least a couple of sprints thrown in.
When we first started attending the boot camp just about everything hurt - our legs, feet, etc., and of course we were both really out of breath. While Keith's legs and feet quickly adapted to the activity, he's had a really hard time getting his breath and recovering quickly from any exertion...., even though we've now been doing the camp since the beginning of the year. He explains it to me that he just "ran out of gas."
A treadmill stress test and an EKG turned up nothing - the upshot being the suggestion that Keith might want to work more on aerobic conditioning. Keith then went to a pulmonary guy who told him that he has NO pulmonary issues, but that there was clearly something wrong. The pulmonary reports were sent back to Keith's cardiologist (Franklin at Baylor), who had him come in last week for a nuclear stress test. The nuclear stress test indicated blockage.
Today Keith had a cardiac catheter done at Baylor. The cardiologist (Stoler) does about 1,200 stents a year. According to Stoler, Keith has about 80% blockage in a diagonal branch and then a couple of spots in an even smaller branch. However, the big issue is the pressure in his heart...., to the point that Stoler left the stent alone (said it was the equivalent of cosmetic surgery at this point).
About 10 years ago, Keith was diagnosed as having a subvalvular web. Apparently this is a condition he was born with, and it's unusual - so much in fact that when the cardiologist saw it he had to have the rest of his group come in to see it "live" since it's something they had all previously only seen in books. We assumed the subvalvular web was just "there" so haven't been too worried about it. (During this time period, Keith has been taking blood pressure medication. He was also on a beta blocker until recently, when his weight loss allowed him to discontinue it.)
However, Stoler believes the subvalvular web is really messing with the blood pressure levels in Keith's heart. The example he gave me is the blood pressure is 120 mmHg on one side and it's rising to 200 mmHg to cross over to the other side of the heart. Stoler says we need to get this fixed, and recommended that we start with Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic in trying to find someone who has experience with this condition. (According to him, if we can find someone who does this surgery 12 times a year it would be great.)
As Keith lays in his hospital bed recovering from the catheter, I've sent emails to Cleveland Clinic and Mayo asking if they have specialists in this area, and now I'm writing to you...., to keep you up to date but to also ask for any assistance you can offer in helping us find the specialist we need. Do Denise or Little Scotty (sorry for the "little" that I'm afraid that's the problem sometimes of being family) know of someone, or have access to others who might? Or, can Loy data-mine someone for us from Blue Cross billing records who might be helpful? We are open to any and all suggestions.
Keith is on bed rest here at Baylor until 3:05pm, so I expect we'll get out of here by 5pm or so. I plan to pick up Chicken Pho at Vietnam (our favorite comfort bowl of soup) and then we'll be going home for an easy weekend.
We both appreciate all of your care and concern, and feel confident that this is a problem we can get solved.
When we first started attending the boot camp just about everything hurt - our legs, feet, etc., and of course we were both really out of breath. While Keith's legs and feet quickly adapted to the activity, he's had a really hard time getting his breath and recovering quickly from any exertion...., even though we've now been doing the camp since the beginning of the year. He explains it to me that he just "ran out of gas."
A treadmill stress test and an EKG turned up nothing - the upshot being the suggestion that Keith might want to work more on aerobic conditioning. Keith then went to a pulmonary guy who told him that he has NO pulmonary issues, but that there was clearly something wrong. The pulmonary reports were sent back to Keith's cardiologist (Franklin at Baylor), who had him come in last week for a nuclear stress test. The nuclear stress test indicated blockage.
Today Keith had a cardiac catheter done at Baylor. The cardiologist (Stoler) does about 1,200 stents a year. According to Stoler, Keith has about 80% blockage in a diagonal branch and then a couple of spots in an even smaller branch. However, the big issue is the pressure in his heart...., to the point that Stoler left the stent alone (said it was the equivalent of cosmetic surgery at this point).
About 10 years ago, Keith was diagnosed as having a subvalvular web. Apparently this is a condition he was born with, and it's unusual - so much in fact that when the cardiologist saw it he had to have the rest of his group come in to see it "live" since it's something they had all previously only seen in books. We assumed the subvalvular web was just "there" so haven't been too worried about it. (During this time period, Keith has been taking blood pressure medication. He was also on a beta blocker until recently, when his weight loss allowed him to discontinue it.)
However, Stoler believes the subvalvular web is really messing with the blood pressure levels in Keith's heart. The example he gave me is the blood pressure is 120 mmHg on one side and it's rising to 200 mmHg to cross over to the other side of the heart. Stoler says we need to get this fixed, and recommended that we start with Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic in trying to find someone who has experience with this condition. (According to him, if we can find someone who does this surgery 12 times a year it would be great.)
As Keith lays in his hospital bed recovering from the catheter, I've sent emails to Cleveland Clinic and Mayo asking if they have specialists in this area, and now I'm writing to you...., to keep you up to date but to also ask for any assistance you can offer in helping us find the specialist we need. Do Denise or Little Scotty (sorry for the "little" that I'm afraid that's the problem sometimes of being family) know of someone, or have access to others who might? Or, can Loy data-mine someone for us from Blue Cross billing records who might be helpful? We are open to any and all suggestions.
Keith is on bed rest here at Baylor until 3:05pm, so I expect we'll get out of here by 5pm or so. I plan to pick up Chicken Pho at Vietnam (our favorite comfort bowl of soup) and then we'll be going home for an easy weekend.
We both appreciate all of your care and concern, and feel confident that this is a problem we can get solved.
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