Heart Murmur :(
 

It turned out that they were doing free medicals for middle school sports teams tonight at the same time and place that we had managed to secure for our swim team tonight (see uttertly totally pissed off thread for more on that once I've calmed down enough to post....) so, after 2.5 hour practice, took 10 yo daughter to get hers done. It's been just over a year since her last physical, so the doctor's office couldn't just send in the form, and her next physical is scheduled in three weeks, so I figured get it done now in case she changes her mind and decides to play basketball which happens between now and then. Seeing as we're there anyway.

They marvelled at her pulse, especially given her recent exercise (in a good way), And then they heard a heart murmur. So she didn't pass and I get to worry all night until i can speak to someone and probably beyond that until I can get her to se someone. I told then she was only 13 months since her last exam and scheduled for her next in a couple of weeks, hoping they'd say that's fine, they can check it then. But no. He said well if you call them, they'll probably be able to move it up because of this. :( That does not sound good.

There's a fair chance they don't know what they're hearing. Good luck with her.

Honey, that sounds careful. Not bad, careful.

Most likely it will be nothing serious. Whatever it is, getting it early is one of the benefits of regular checks. Try not to look for clues in the doctor's manner; they'll treat every murmer seriously, even though most won't turn out to be anything worrying.

*hugs* pointless telling you not to worry yourself sick...but if you feel like venting you know where we are.

Who is "they"? I hope it's nothing and would personally assume it's nothing until I got it checked out for real.

I was coerced into having an u/s with my 2nd pregnancy, had it done on a thursday. On friday my midwife left me a voice message saying that the tech "could not visualize a spinal cord or brain in the fetus" and I would need to see a neonatologist on tuesday. That was a shit weekend.

I also knew a woman thru school who discovered at her pre-op mri that she didn't actually have the brain tumor they planned to remove. Freed up her schedule bigtime...

What a pisser though.

They have to investigate anything that doesn't sound quite right. Try not to worry too much though if you can help it. There's a very good chance that it could be nothing, or at the most, something not too serious. There are so many things it could be, but it's almost certainly not the worst thing you're thinking of.

I hope she's all fine in the end.

I've had a heart murmur since I was born. I'm fine. In fact, I'm healthier than a lot of people my age...I never even think of it anymore. I've never seen it as a big thing. It never effects me adversely, it's just different.

I just read on a website that most murmurs are normal and nothing to worry about. That makes sense, since I've never had heart problems.

So try not to worry too much monster! Just get it checked, but I wouldn't assume the worst.

Thanks all. yeah, I'm not overly worried, but I still have that mom voice that says "what if she is that 0.1% that appears extrememly healthy and suddenly drops dead on the pool deck?"

Mom beats logic every time, even for the non-maternal math nerds like me.

My logical side says it's nothing, it was a free medical after all, he's inexperienced, unsure and needs to be careful... and the back up is that many people have a "murmur" and are fine. her pulse is awesome, she won the 50 free last week and was barely out of breath.... she should be fine...

but still.... :(

My RN friend (and prez of the swim club) just emailed that it's not abnormal for a slight murmur to be heard after exercise so guessing careful as well, bUt still go to the doc befor the next swim practice.... she's careful too...

They have to tell you to have it checked out - they don't wanna be responsible in the EXTREMELY unlikely event that it is something. I'm sure its nothing to worry about. Just take her to the specialist and when he tells you all is fine breathe a big sigh of relief.

I'll say a prayer regardless.

heart MURMUR?
what does the heart say?

is it a murmur like...."kill your brothers" or just something like.."stay tuned for traffic coming up after these words"


sorry.....I hope this is BS like most of the medical alarmist crap tends to be.

Oh monster, I know having to wait around on something like this sucks hairy donkey balls. To add another "they're full of crap" anecdote to the pile, I had one nurse in the hospital assure me that my daughter had a murmer as an infant, and three minutes later another nurse came in and told me no, she didn't at all, the first nurse just didn't know what she was listening for.

Why do you sound like you've never heard of a heart murmur Jim?

I don't think it's medical alarmist crap-sometimes it's a sign that a valve is or is going to collapse, and sometimes (mostly) your heart just sounds different than everyone elses. I don't feel like there is anything alarmist about it.

I do think people over-react when they hear about a murmur.

get it checked out. If it's something bad, then you'll know and be able to deal with it.

Chances are it's nothing. I have a heart murmur, and all my kids and grandkids do too. An "innocent" heart murmur. All of us are healthy.

Sounds like she needs an Echo at least, an EKG, and given that she is already an athelete I would not worry much. Now if she was suddenly not performing as she had in the past, was more tired than usual or had symptoms during exercise that would be worse. No need to worry about something that you don't have any information about. Many people have murmurs, they are asymptomatic, they exercise, and it changes nothing in their life. The biggest thing that happens is they fall into a group of people who need antibiotics with dental work or invasive procedures, but that is about it. Please don't worry at this point but I would recommend you see a peds cardiologist to remove all your fears.

Thanks Merc and all. she's "performing better than ever" so I'm, really not terribly worried, but the mom thing says: perhaps you should be, maybe you missed something....", so I guess right now my pain is more guilt for thinking i's probably nothing....

Hebe thinks it was saying "I'm a little hungry, can we get this over with, my body needs to eat"

Those weren't the exact words she used, but you get the gist.... :D

Aw good luck with this Monster.
Always better to know rather than not.

My brother was born with a heart murmer. Then he got whooping cough. My Mum genuinely thought he was going to die from one or the other, but he was absilutely fine and we all forgot about it.

He still has it apparently - I think it must be one of the "innocent" ones. The fact I don't even know much about it shows it can't be a problem.

It's worth investigating further. But don't get upset just yet.

I've been told twice that I had a heart murmur. (The first time was at age 18 for my college entrance physical.) And many other times that I did not have a murmur.

Plus, you'll notice that I'm still here. ;)

The pediatrician found a heart murmur in my daughter a couple years ago at a regular checkup. So we took her to get an ultrasound to have it checked out. That was actually pretty freaking cool for the nerd in me, because you could clearly see the heart pumping in great detail and all the valves opening and closing. The machine can do all sorts of timing tricks that map out the murmur. Sort of like using a timing light in an engine. Anyway at that visit, the pediatric cardiologist told us that it was nothing to worry about and that it might even go away. At a later pediatric checkup, the doctor couldn't hear it anymore.

It was a little nerve racking between the first doctor's visit and the ultrasound, but then everything was cool.

I had heard that heart murmurs could be spread, but that turned out to be a rumor.

a heart rumor is a tough thing to stamp out once it gets going.

There is no murmur, says our ped. she says theres a split beat on S2 which is nothing to worry about, as it cannot be heard when she holds her breath. It's relatively common. (that means the second part of the beat sounds like two beats together in simple terms).

So she's not about to expire on the pool deck and is cleared to climb Everest. Thanks for all your kind thoughts and words, this is exactly what I logically expected but dared not hope to be the outcome, just in case....

Really pleased to hear it. Or not as the case may be.

Awesome news, I knew it all along :)

Glad it's nothing. And glad you got it seen to right away!

AHEM

1. They do quickie medical exams for sports to catch shit like this.

2. Then you go see a specialist

3. You are either glad you had the initial exam, or...

4. There's not a problem.

So there's no problem with *any* of this. It isn't alarmist, its just caution.

Great outcome, Monster. Pat the rugrat on the head fer me.

When I was in my early twenties, one of my closest friend's brother dropped dead playing football. No previous health problems. Heart attack, dead before he hit the ground. He was 21.

Now when I say no previous health problems, I mean that he'd just been to his GP for the usual coughs and colds. Who knows what might have been detected had someone actually listened to his heart.

I'm all for preventative medicine and health checks. I've been asked back for potential abnormal cells after a smear test. Turns out the original test was "contaminated" (evil nurse was rough with the speculum and made me bleed). But cervical cancer is a killer - big in the news in the UK at the moment because a reality tv star has it and is in chemo.

I know you were trying to soothe Monster, LJ. But some things do bear checking.

I thought lj's comments were fine, don't worry. I too hoped it was alarmist BS.

Most of those kids have a thing called IHSS, idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis, now know as Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). There can be other sudden causes such as a sudden abnormal arrhythmia due to an unknown conduction defect in the way the heart beats such as WPW syndrome. Rarely would any of this be caught by a simple external exam or detection of a murmur.

Fair enough - I don't know enough about it. I've no doubt this was explained to his parents at the time - I had no reason to know.

BTW I didn't think LJ's comments were offensive in any way, just thought they were a little... blase. In that really minor indicators can and do save lives. I'd say false alarm rather than alarmist and careful rather then bullshit. Happy that YMMV and happy that it was completely unnecessary.

Agreed.

since we're analyzing my quip.....

All I was doing was trying to be a calming voice. I was not trying to say that she should ignore it. I assumed that as a good parent, monstah would, of course, follow up with further inspections and detections.

I DO, however think that the profession of 'Doctor' is like any other.

it's too late...you've got me started, and I have a couple minutes...

I have met some stupid fucking doctors. just like i have met geniuses that fix my furnace. You have to consider the source.... when a 25-27 year old doctor tells you that she has seen kids die from the mumps...you are talking to a liar that thinks she's smarter than you because of her degree. When a still green physician that is trained to identify heart murmurs from specific aural cues heard with a stethoscope even has an inkling that she or he heard one.....they are going to advise you to have it looked into.

The demi god status that doctors expect and often receive makes me want to strike them. and when I say 'strike them' I mean to physically punch them in the stomach. And then again, some have gotten over themselves, and are actually very nice and helpful sorts that do plenty of good work for humanity.

/rant

you could always kick them in the cunt - just sayin

Cunt Punt!!!

I hears the LJ. you're probably all tired of me telling all y'all how smart i am, but I was at uni fer a while and i met the doctors of the future. 80% nitwits. At least. but this is my problem: I am an intelligent, logical, rational person, very grounded.... unless it's my baby and then y'all can die if there's a 0.000001% chance that your death will save my baby from whatever horrors are out there....

Biology makes us irrational. Good thing, too. Or none of us would have made it out of diapers.

Word. It still surprises me sometimes how utterly nuckingfuts I can get when my babies are involved.

So, I visited my new doc today... He tells me I have a heart murmur. :right:
I will try to get it checked out sometime in December.

Hm. gotta agree with Dana, Jinx and the LJ here. Esp. the part about docs being nitwits. My recent cancer treatment gives me the ok to say with 90% accuracy that most docs ARE nitwits. It's just like the LJ man says.

good luck monster and Pie. My best vibes.

Oh Pie - sorry to hear that.
May it work out as well for you as it did for Hebe. Keep us updated.

I was diagnosed with a heart murmur at age two, that got steadily worse over the years until I had to have open heart surgery at age nine. I had a subaortic stenosis that had to be cleared out. If anyone wants basic details on the TWO methods they used to clear out the stenosis, you're more than welcome to ask.

Bottom line, I will always have a residual murmur and will never be able to run further than a quarter mile. No enlisting in the armed forces, no strenuous sports, so on and so forth. So yes, heart murmurs can be quite serious. However, as we've all noticed already, thanks to Hebe, they're OFTEN nothing at all. :)

:doit: ?

:eek:




:lol:

That just means bottom only.

No Sheldon, that's not what I meant.:headshake

lol Sex is fully, two-thumbs-up approved... because I don't get into bedroom olympics. I'm too easy to bring for that...