As I walked into the Instacare they gave me immediate attention asking me my symptoms. I remember having a hard time speaking because I was so short of breath. The doctor was concerned he would have to send me to the hospital anyway & he didn't want to run tests to prevent us from being double billed. They first listened to my heart & they were immediately concerned by the sound of it. They decided they should do an EKG to see if they could determine what the problem was. After the doctor saw the results of my EKG he didn't hesitate to send me straight to the hospital. In fact, he told me if we didn't go straight there he would call an ambulance. This made me very nervous not knowing what was going on. I spent the rest of the evening in the emergency room. They sent me home with an holter monitor so they could monitor my heart for the next 24-48 hours. I had to write down all of my activities & everything I ate the during the next several hours. I was fortunate enough to get referred by Utah Valley Hospital to one of the best heart cardiologists in the world Dr. Chun Hwang. People travel from all over the world to see him. He doesn't take new patients so I felt very lucky & blessed to have him as my doctor.
I went back to the hospital a few days later so they could remove my holter monitor & evaluate what had been recorded. They said they would pass the results on to Dr. Hwang & he would read them & call me back with a diagnosis. The nurse told me I wouldn't hear anything for about 3-5 business days unless it was something serious. At this point I didn't feel like it was anything serious, things seemed to have calmed down & I wasn't experiencing symptoms like I did the day I went to the emergency room. I didn't expect a call for a few days. The next day after work I decided to stop at Winco on my way home to grab some groceries. A random number was calling me but I ignored it because the number was unfamiliar and I wasn't expecting anyone. They left a voicemail. I specifically remember walking down the cereal aisle as I listened to the voicemail. It was Dr. Hwang. He went on to say he had read the results from the holter monitor & that I had very abnormal condition, I needed to be seen as soon as possible. My heart dropped. I tried to call him back & he had already left the office. I called my Mom panicking unaware of what the diagnosis was. I was frustrated I missed his call & had to wait until the next day to find out what was going on. I called his office the next morning & was only able to speak with a nurse. She scheduled me for an appointment with Dr. Hwang for the next week. I figured it wasn't too serious where they didn't need to see me immediately. The nurse was unable to give me any hints of what was going on so I was left very anxious that next week.
After a long week of waiting I finally got into Dr. Hwang. Anyone who knows him or has been to him knows he is quick & straight to the point. He explained to me I was experiencing Premature Ventricular Contractions or in other words heart PVCs. Basically my heart wasn't pumping properly & it was skipping or double beating causing me to feel like my heart had stopped or flutter in my chest. He explained that it wasn't a life threatening problem unless I started experienced 15% irregular heartbeats daily. I was at about 8% so he wasn't too concerned. He prescribed me a heart medication to help control it. The first two medications he put me on didn't seem to work so he prescribed me another one that would've cost me $300 for a month supply. I wasn't willing to pay that to find out this one wouldn't work either so I had him order me the generic version. I took medication for about a month & it seemed to finally be helping. I had a 3 month follow up appointment & he listened to my heart & said it sounded perfect. I thought this was the end of my problems but really it was just beginning.
Later that evening, the same day of my appointment with Dr. Hwang I felt my heart fluttering again. I tend to have bad luck so of course it didn't start until after my follow up appointment. My next scheduled appointment wasn't for another year. At this point I was so sick of going to doctors I decided I would just suck it up & deal with it. He told me it wasn't life threatening so I wasn't too concerned. Over the next few months I would have good days & I would have bad days. There were a few times I experienced some scary symptoms that felt like I was having a heart attack. Even then, I was stubborn & didn't want to go back to the doctor. I tried to avoid caffeine & eat a healthy diet to prevent any problems I could. I exercised daily which was about the only thing I found to help my heart when it was out of control. Surprisingly getting my heart rate up would regulate the rhythm. I was glad I had something to turn to for a relief. I would sprint or do high intensity cardio when I felt I needed relief. That got me through a lot of tough & scary times.
About six months ago my heart got worse & my symptoms increased. I was battling severe fatigue, constant nausea, shortness of breath that would send me into coughing attacks, lightheadedness, chest pain, body tingling, and a heart that would constantly flutter or literally it would feel like it stopped. These things happened everyday, it became a way of life for me. Although it never became easy.
These past few years have been difficult in many ways, this heart condition has just burdened my load.
I knew I had some other health problems going on as well so I went to see a nurse practitioner who specialized in hormones. I knew I had a imbalance I was just unaware how bad. She diagnosed me with some major problems. She told me she didn't even know how I was functioning. I will get into the details of this in future posts. I had told her I had heart problems. She asked me what type of heart problems I was dealing with. I told her I had really bad heart PVC's. She said, "Oh ya, I have those too." I took that as oh that means she gets it. The next appointment I went to see her, she listened to my heart. I was coughing a lot so I warned her it would sound crazy. Her response after listening was, "what the heck is it doing!?" I responded, "I told you I have heart PVCs." She said, "Well so do I & they sound nothing like that!" She asked when my last appointment with my doctor was. I told her it had almost been a year & I was supposed to see him in about a month. Her response surprised me, she said she was concerned & I should definitely be looked at before that. The next day I called & talked to the nurse at the cardiology office. She advised I move my appointment up with the symptoms I explained. The next week I was back in to see Dr. Hwang. They did another EKG on me & Dr. Hwang was quick to say I needed surgery. That day I scheduled surgery for May 12th.
I started getting really sick & I was constantly tired. Working two jobs, 50+ hours a week as well as serving in the primary presidency took a pretty big toll on me. I was very anxious to get the surgery done. We had some pretty bad luck making this happen. I was working with our insurance company on making sure we were covered for May 12th surgery & we were told three days before we weren't going to be covered. I was so devastated. Dr. Hwang is usually about a month backed up so I knew for sure I would have to wait another month before I could get in. We prayed, fasted, & did everything we could think of to make sure this happened & it didn't. I kept asking myself why? I didn't understand. I was sick, I needed this. Two days before my surgery my Dad had a heart attack. It was Mother's Day weekend & if I was scheduled for surgery that Monday it would've been a nightmare for me & my family. Two of us in the hospital at the same time wouldn't have been easy. We would've been in two different hospitals too so that would've complicated things. I now understand the reason my surgery didn't work out. I felt blessed it didn't work out on May 12th because I wouldn't have been able to be there for my Dad which was what was important to me that weekend.
My surgery got rescheduled for June 23rd. It was the longest month ever. I was so ready to feel better again. Unfortunately there were some misunderstandings with my insurance company & again we had to cancel the surgery three days before. They didn't give me the option to reschedule until we had proof of insurance coverage. I can't explain the feelings I felt that day. I broke down. I didn't think I could survive another month with these symptoms. I was trying to keep up with a busy lifestyle while dealing with some pretty severe health problems. I didn't know how I was going to make it. The day my surgery was supposed to happen we FINALLY got a call from our insurance company saying we were covered. At this point it was too late & I had to reschedule anyway. I called my doctors office immediately after I found out I'd be covered & rescheduled. The soonest they could get me in was July 21st so I took it. It was a long wait but I finally got it done on Monday! I am now recovering & couldn't be more grateful to have a heart that's functioning normally again.
I will post my surgery experience in a separate post soon! Keep checking back to follow my journey.
Thanks for reading! Happy Pioneer Day!!! :)
Dr. Chun Hwang Cardiology Office
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