I went in for my yearly OBGYN appointment in October 2018 and my doctor became concerned about my murmur. I knew I had it for some time but my primary never seemed worried about it, so I didn’t think anything of it. She scheduled an echo for me and from there, I found out I had a bicuspid aortic valve and moderate stenosis. I will admit, I was extremely tired all the time, dizzy, etc, but my original cardiologist told me the symptoms weren’t related. I wasn’t feeling good about that, so I decided to find another cardiologist. The new doctor addressed my concerns and didn’t seem to overly concerned either. However, he did say he would schedule another echo for the following year and to come to him if I had any other issues in the meantime. Thinking I had about 15 years before my surgery (per both cardiologists comments), I began to chalk up my symptoms to motherhood and life stress. Especially since my doctors told me not to worry. My next echo, less than a year later, they found my stenosis was severe and that I needed surgery right away. If it wasn’t for my OBGYN, I would have continued to have doctors tell me that I was just tired because of motherhood and stress, and eventually I would have died. Super grateful for her. She saved my life.
