By: Scott Eitman
In 1988, at the age of 24, I had just taken my first job after graduating from Indiana University. I wasn’t feeling well and made an appointment with a doctor whom I had never seen before. During that appointment, he asked about my murmur. I knew from all the physicals I had for sports, school and summer camps that I did not have one, and I told him so.
Over the next 10 years, I met with an internal medicine doctor quarterly and my cardiologist yearly. By 1988, the murmur was cool enough to cause doctors to call other doctors over to listen to it. When asked if I had shortness of breath, I would say, “I think so, as I really breathe hard after bicycling up big hills.” Needless to say, they always wrote, “he claims to be asymptomatic.”
By 1998, I still felt my heart was doing well, but I was tired. I typically napped every evening and every weekend afternoon for two to three hours. My cardiologist said it was in my head. I knew that it must have been close to the time when I needed surgery, so I made an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic, letting the scheduler point me to a good valve cardiologist. During this appointment, the doctor confirmed that it was time, and he showed me the numbers to prove it.
Eight weeks later, on May 11, 1998, Dr. Cosgove replaced my aortic valve with a homograft valve.
By the fall of 1999, I began working out with the local high school wrestling team and continued for the next five years. I also started riding my bicycle much more. For many years leading up to 2010, I pedaled around 3,000 miles each year.
In 2008, I had an echocardiogram. My cardiologist came into the room afterward and told me that it was time for surgery. I told him that he was wrong and he gave me a six-month stay. During those six months, I bicycled another 3,000 miles. I then had a stress echo test and the cardiologist said I was right.
Fast forward to 2010. This time, the cardiologist was right. So, on July 27, Dr. Petterson performed a redo. He replaced the homograft with an On-X mechanical valve. I now take Coumadin every day. Fortunately, by keeping to a consistent diet, I have not had a problem.
In April of 2017, I started a whole food, plant-based diet. This diet changed my life by eliminating the low stamina issues I’d had for many years. I am now much more active.
During both hospital stays, Mended Hearts volunteers visited me. A number of Mended Hearts members reached out to me via the phone. These interactions increase the chance that a patient will leave with high hopes.
Since becoming a Mended Hearts accredited visitor in 2010, I have visited with many patients who not only needed inspiration but inspired me as well. This organization is so important to me that I became president of the Greater Cleveland chapter in January of 2012.
I only bicycled 1,500 miles in 2011 but hit 3,500 miles in 2017.
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