Mended Hearts Open Forum

Has anyone else experienced pericarditis after their open heart surgery? My surgery was this past April and recently I have been having excruciating pain in my left shoulder, low grade fever, chest pain, dry cough, irregular heartbeat, etc. It got so bad that I landed in the ER a couple of weeks ago. It was literally the worst pain I've ever experienced. Even worse than the pain after my heart surgery. The only thing they did was confirm I wasn't having another heart attack but didn't pursue it beyond that. One of the ER doctors mentioned it may be pericarditis but my primary doctor says no, even though they haven't done anything to rule it out. It finally got better after a couple of days and they released me from the hospital with no explanation of what the problem was. Now here I am a couple of weeks later and am having the exact same symptoms. When I looked it up all the symptoms point towards pericarditis but I can't get my doctor to pursue it. Very frustrated. All they will tell me is what it isn't. They won't tell me what it IS. Any suggestions?

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Brett Temple
Project Manager
Sarasota FL
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------Original Message------

Has anyone else experienced pericarditis after their open heart surgery? My surgery was this past April and recently I have been having excruciating pain in my left shoulder, low grade fever, chest pain, dry cough, irregular heartbeat, etc. It got so bad that I landed in the ER a couple of weeks ago. It was literally the worst pain I've ever experienced. Even worse than the pain after my heart surgery. The only thing they did was confirm I wasn't having another heart attack but didn't pursue it beyond that. One of the ER doctors mentioned it may be pericarditis but my primary doctor says no, even though they haven't done anything to rule it out. It finally got better after a couple of days and they released me from the hospital with no explanation of what the problem was. Now here I am a couple of weeks later and am having the exact same symptoms. When I looked it up all the symptoms point towards pericarditis but I can't get my doctor to pursue it. Very frustrated. All they will tell me is what it isn't. They won't tell me what it IS. Any suggestions?

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Brett Temple
Project Manager
Sarasota FL
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Brett,

Sorry for your continuing problems. I am not a physician but for over 30 years as a lawyer in-house for large corporations, I got, and solved, all the problems that others could not. A couple of points:
(1) not all professionals, be they doctors or lawyers, are the same.
(2) It is very difficult to diagnose a medical problems after it has stopped.
(3) ER is meant to stabilize emergencies but not necessarily to treat ongoing problems .
(4) Try to monitor your self to determine if there was a particular action you took just before the problems hit.

My personal story is while I was talking to my cardiologist as they were taking the electrodes off me after a stress echo test, my heart stopped. I was lucky. I happened to be in the 1 in 44 locations for that clinch that was connected to the only hospital with a trauma center for a 100 miles in any direction. They "discovered" what my cardiologist had failed to do: that, in my words, I was a "walking time bomb" needing a quintuple bypass. Subsequently I, and the clinic, fired the cardiologist, and the technicians who administered the stress test. Besides this group, another treating doctor died from what he was treating me for, and as did the Ph.D. who was treating me for stress, which reminded me to better monitor myself. When I needed lung surgery, I was so aggressive in interviewing him that I thought he might decline my case: but he did a great job. 12 years later the results remain spectacular.

My counsel is to seek a second opinion from a specialist and then use your best judgment to decide your next course of action.

Brent Zepke 
       


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Brent Zepke
Santa Barbara CA
(805) 698-4651
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------Original Message------

Brett,

Sorry for your continuing problems. I am not a physician but for over 30 years as a lawyer in-house for large corporations, I got, and solved, all the problems that others could not. A couple of points:
(1) not all professionals, be they doctors or lawyers, are the same.
(2) It is very difficult to diagnose a medical problems after it has stopped.
(3) ER is meant to stabilize emergencies but not necessarily to treat ongoing problems .
(4) Try to monitor your self to determine if there was a particular action you took just before the problems hit.

My personal story is while I was talking to my cardiologist as they were taking the electrodes off me after a stress echo test, my heart stopped. I was lucky. I happened to be in the 1 in 44 locations for that clinch that was connected to the only hospital with a trauma center for a 100 miles in any direction. They "discovered" what my cardiologist had failed to do: that, in my words, I was a "walking time bomb" needing a quintuple bypass. Subsequently I, and the clinic, fired the cardiologist, and the technicians who administered the stress test. Besides this group, another treating doctor died from what he was treating me for, and as did the Ph.D. who was treating me for stress, which reminded me to better monitor myself. When I needed lung surgery, I was so aggressive in interviewing him that I thought he might decline my case: but he did a great job. 12 years later the results remain spectacular.

My counsel is to seek a second opinion from a specialist and then use your best judgment to decide your next course of action.

Brent Zepke 
       


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Brent Zepke
Santa Barbara CA
(805) 698-4651
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Hi Brett
While I have never had open heart surgery, I have had Pericarditis twice. The first time was I also had Myocarditis. The first time the ER sent me home saying I was having a panic attack...I had no heart issues and I was only 34. My regular dr sent me right to a cardiologist who diagnosed me after doing an echocardiogram. 3 years later I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. 

Last December, I was in the ER again with the same symptoms (mimics a heart attack) I was sent home and followed up with my cardiologist. She sent me for another echocardiogram, and I was again diagnosed with Pericarditis and had to stop my RA meds for a while and take some specific for the inflammation of the pericardium. It took months to clear up.

Did you have an echocardiogram to diagnose the inflammation?

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Renee Napolitano
Oak Ridge NJ
(973) 943-6516
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------Original Message------

Hi Brett
While I have never had open heart surgery, I have had Pericarditis twice. The first time was I also had Myocarditis. The first time the ER sent me home saying I was having a panic attack...I had no heart issues and I was only 34. My regular dr sent me right to a cardiologist who diagnosed me after doing an echocardiogram. 3 years later I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. 

Last December, I was in the ER again with the same symptoms (mimics a heart attack) I was sent home and followed up with my cardiologist. She sent me for another echocardiogram, and I was again diagnosed with Pericarditis and had to stop my RA meds for a while and take some specific for the inflammation of the pericardium. It took months to clear up.

Did you have an echocardiogram to diagnose the inflammation?

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Renee Napolitano
Oak Ridge NJ
(973) 943-6516
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