Health Problems

mkopec · 2026-10-03T23:26:18-0400

Guurn said:
I have the same thing but mine is milder. My figuring it out moment was when I had a cardiac arrest. I quoted that part because looking back it should have been obvious to the many medical professionals whom i had told about symptoms related to it in the past. Even as a teenager I remember mostly blacking out during those sprinting drills coaches ran at the end of practices. When you're a kid you just figure everyone feels the same.

Anyhow, good luck with the surgery. They'll have you on your feet very quickly most likely.

Yeah the doc told me that when you see a kid die in sportsball incidents, its usually this. Never ever had symptoms that I can remember until 3 yrs ago though. Maybe some pain that I attributed to acid reflux? And I played basketball, football, ran long distance....Etc.. I guess I was lucky that the tech doing the stress test noticed this. I remember her calling over the doctor and pointing some shit out on her screen. I thought I had blockages and shit, lol. HCM bros!

moonarchia · 2026-10-03T23:37:03-0400

mkopec said:
Yeah I was in shock at first. The doc is like were sheduling this for Oct 5 while I was in the office, I thought I had more time, lol. I guess I went through the whole 5 steps of grief in the last month. And now im at the acceptance part. IT is what it is. Either way im fucked and this is the only way out.

Good luck with the surgery.

Lurkus Maximus · 2026-10-03T23:38:29-0400

I'll chime in here since I'm currently on week 7 of recovering from pretty much the same procedure. Open heart, triple bypass so not quite exactly the same, but they still cracked me open like a lobster. I don't want to scare you and I'll preface it by saying mine was definitely NOT the typical experience, due to constant mistakes on the hospital's part, but it was hands down the worst thing I've ever gone through. I've got a pretty damn high pain tolerance and I always say that I want to live forever, but if you had handed me a gun in the first 24 hours after the surgery, I would have swallowed a bullet. That was their first screwup-forgetting to give me any sort of painkillers after the surgery so we were chasing the pain, and being Irish I have damn near immunity to painkillers so nothing helped until day 2 they finally said fuck it and loaded me up with fentanyl. Second mistake was they forgot to turn on the pump connected to the three tubes jammed into my chest to pump the bile out of my stomach, so I blew up like a balloon. Then they kicked me out of the ICU way too early since the surgeon wanted another bed so he could do another one and I was the youngest (44) and "healthiest" patient they had. Your guy's name wouldn't happen to be Caldeira by any chance is it? Sounds same as mine, does a couple hundred a year, giant ego, and a real asshole to boot. I'll skip the rest of the gorey details, but the cliff notes version is I coded twice, had to be brought back, bounced back and forth from the ICU 4 different times, and ended up being in there almost two weeks.

Oh but the fun didn't stop there. On my way to my 6 week followup I started sweating like a whore in church, went blind, and started vomiting like the exorcist on steroids. We pulled over and called 911 and when they got there my BP had tanked to 70/30. They took me to a real hospital and turned out the shitty hospital where I had the surgery let me leave with pneumonia, sepsis, and a blood clot that had gotten into my lung so I ended up in there for another 4 days and now I'm on two different major blood thinners for the next 6 months. Again, not trying to scare anyone, but the nurses all used the same line on me - "80 year old ladies get this done all the time, you'll be fine!" Just by coincidence, my 50 year old cousin went in for the same procedure about 5 days after I did, and he had the standard experience. A lot of initial pain, but out in 5 days, pretty close to being recovered now. I will say now that the pneumonia and blood clot are gone, I feel a hell of a lot better than I did, and am starting to get back to normal life. You will definitely feel much stronger and have much more stamina afterward, so overall it was worth it for me, but definitely not something I would ever want to go through again.

Couple quick things they don't tell you about. First, and definitely most important, if you don't have one already buy yourself a bidet or a bidet attachment for your toilet. You can get a decent one off of Amazon for like 30 bucks and they install in ten minutes. Seriously, life saver. Second, it's truly shocking how quickly you lose muscle mass when you're just sitting on your ass in a recliner 23 hours a day. Third, it will definitely take a mental toll on you. I'm a generally upbeat guy but having to rely on someone else for the most basic of tasks and the feeling of complete helplessness and uselessness eats away at you pretty quickly. Lastly, definitely do the walking, the breathing exercises, and the cardiac rehab. They help immensely and just seeing yourself make progress even if it's small helps with the mental aspect.

TL;DR version- It fucking sucks worse than anything that has ever sucked, but overall it's worth it in the long run. Any other questions, feel free to ask.

Good luck, hope everything goes smoothly for you!

mkopec · 2026-10-04T00:23:08-0400

Ugh...Thanks for the shit story, lol. I hope you are better now, bro. Makes me def more confident in mine. :/

But yeah, its always the unexpected thats the scary shit. If everything goes well, it does, but when some shit goes wrong, like in your case, its a different story.

Kajiimagi · 2026-10-04T01:52:54-0400

mkopec said:
So im having open heart surgery this mon 5th Oct.

It all started about 3 yrs ago when I was going to work in the morning I almost passed out. Saw black but then I returned. Went to work and felt some weird shit in my chest. Like palpitations or some shit. Anyway that weekend after having chest pain I went to ER, thought I had a heart attack. But nope, they said I was good. Bit of high blood pressure but thats it. They ordered a stress test so that monday I went in and got it done and this is when they discovered I had Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy. Its basically a genital defect where a part of my heart, inside on the septum grows thick. Mine was about 21mm at the time.

View attachment 642692

The cardio doc told me its basically a 1-500 people get this shit, but most never have symptoms. They live out their lives normal. But I guess I was the unlucky one. Anyway he gave me some meds and shit was fine for a few years after although the pain would start sooner when doing shit like walking or anything strenuous. Then this spring he ordered a ultrasound and told me the bad news a few days later. I would have to have surgery because the heart can no longer pump enough blood, its like a 60% obstruction or some shit. He told me that I could wait a year or so for the surgery, it was no rush, but sadly I started to feel like shit a few months ago, more pain, more discomfort in the chest, that palpitation thing. Its hard to describe but you can feel it and its fucked feeling. So I called the doc and he recommended a surgeon and off we went...

So at the meeting with surgeon, the dude explains what the procedure is, they basically hook me up to a heart and lung machine, cut me open about 6-8 inches, crack my chest open, go in through one of the major arteries and cut away the thick shit. All this time I thought this was on the outside of my heart, not inside, lol. Man for the last month my head has been spinning with shit.

But the good news is this dude is a superstar. He does like 200, yes 200 fucking open heart surgeries per year. He told me he does 12-15 of these specific HCM surgeries per year (rather rare). So I guess im in good hands. Still its hard to trust your life to someone else like this but I have to. I cant go on feeling like this any longer. They also did a cath test to see if I had any blockages so they can take care of all the shit at the same time and I did. I guess it wasnt bad yet but they are going to do a bypass too, lol. So if I come out of this Im going to be a new man.

Hospital stay is like 4-6 days depending on circumstances and recovery. The nurses I met with told me it sounds worse than what it really is. Most of the shit to deal with after is the chest being cut and split open. 6-12 weeks to heal up. They now screw in a titanium plate to both sides for stability rather than the wires they used before. And in the mean time I cant lift anything, pull anything, cant lift my hands above my shoulders, none of that good shit. Its going to be tough.

As for the prognosis, I guess its great. Life becomes normal again, no more pain, no more lightheadedness, no more chances of passing out, although that never happened to me. And I will feel no more fatigue like I have been. And this is basically a fix for the rest of my life. There might be a slight chance I get stuck with a pacemaker, he told me its like 5% chance. But I guess this is no big deal.

So wish me luck fellas.

Wife had a replacement mitral valve when she was 24, she's 53 now. She said the recovery was hard but it was also in the 90's and they used the wire like you stated. Best of luck man. Do what they tell you. If you smoke fucking stop already. if not , ignore that. Anyhow best of luck. To me it's best to get it out of the way quickly rather than dwell on it. Please check in and let us know how you are doing amigo.

TheBeagle · 2026-10-04T06:00:01-0400

mkopec said:
So im having open heart surgery this mon 5th Oct.

It all started about 3 yrs ago when I was going to work in the morning I almost passed out. Saw black but then I returned. Went to work and felt some weird shit in my chest. Like palpitations or some shit. Anyway that weekend after having chest pain I went to ER, thought I had a heart attack. But nope, they said I was good. Bit of high blood pressure but thats it. They ordered a stress test so that monday I went in and got it done and this is when they discovered I had Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy. Its basically a genital defect where a part of my heart, inside on the septum grows thick. Mine was about 21mm at the time.

View attachment 642692

The cardio doc told me its basically a 1-500 people get this shit, but most never have symptoms. They live out their lives normal. But I guess I was the unlucky one. Anyway he gave me some meds and shit was fine for a few years after although the pain would start sooner when doing shit like walking or anything strenuous. Then this spring he ordered a ultrasound and told me the bad news a few days later. I would have to have surgery because the heart can no longer pump enough blood, its like a 60% obstruction or some shit. He told me that I could wait a year or so for the surgery, it was no rush, but sadly I started to feel like shit a few months ago, more pain, more discomfort in the chest, that palpitation thing. Its hard to describe but you can feel it and its fucked feeling. So I called the doc and he recommended a surgeon and off we went...

So at the meeting with surgeon, the dude explains what the procedure is, they basically hook me up to a heart and lung machine, cut me open about 6-8 inches, crack my chest open, go in through one of the major arteries and cut away the thick shit. All this time I thought this was on the outside of my heart, not inside, lol. Man for the last month my head has been spinning with shit.

But the good news is this dude is a superstar. He does like 200, yes 200 fucking open heart surgeries per year. He told me he does 12-15 of these specific HCM surgeries per year (rather rare). So I guess im in good hands. Still its hard to trust your life to someone else like this but I have to. I cant go on feeling like this any longer. They also did a cath test to see if I had any blockages so they can take care of all the shit at the same time and I did. I guess it wasnt bad yet but they are going to do a bypass too, lol. So if I come out of this Im going to be a new man.

Hospital stay is like 4-6 days depending on circumstances and recovery. The nurses I met with told me it sounds worse than what it really is. Most of the shit to deal with after is the chest being cut and split open. 6-12 weeks to heal up. They now screw in a titanium plate to both sides for stability rather than the wires they used before. And in the mean time I cant lift anything, pull anything, cant lift my hands above my shoulders, none of that good shit. Its going to be tough.

As for the prognosis, I guess its great. Life becomes normal again, no more pain, no more lightheadedness, no more chances of passing out, although that never happened to me. And I will feel no more fatigue like I have been. And this is basically a fix for the rest of my life. There might be a slight chance I get stuck with a pacemaker, he told me its like 5% chance. But I guess this is no big deal.

So wish me luck fellas.

Praying for you brother.

Guurn · 2026-10-04T14:55:33-0400

Lurkus Maximus said:
I'll chime in here since I'm currently on week 7 of recovering from pretty much the same procedure. Open heart, triple bypass so not quite exactly the same, but they still cracked me open like a lobster. I don't want to scare you and I'll preface it by saying mine was definitely NOT the typical experience, due to constant mistakes on the hospital's part, but it was hands down the worst thing I've ever gone through. I've got a pretty damn high pain tolerance and I always say that I want to live forever, but if you had handed me a gun in the first 24 hours after the surgery, I would have swallowed a bullet. That was their first screwup-forgetting to give me any sort of painkillers after the surgery so we were chasing the pain, and being Irish I have damn near immunity to painkillers so nothing helped until day 2 they finally said fuck it and loaded me up with fentanyl. Second mistake was they forgot to turn on the pump connected to the three tubes jammed into my chest to pump the bile out of my stomach, so I blew up like a balloon. Then they kicked me out of the ICU way too early since the surgeon wanted another bed so he could do another one and I was the youngest (44) and "healthiest" patient they had. Your guy's name wouldn't happen to be Caldeira by any chance is it? Sounds same as mine, does a couple hundred a year, giant ego, and a real asshole to boot. I'll skip the rest of the gorey details, but the cliff notes version is I coded twice, had to be brought back, bounced back and forth from the ICU 4 different times, and ended up being in there almost two weeks.

Oh but the fun didn't stop there. On my way to my 6 week followup I started sweating like a whore in church, went blind, and started vomiting like the exorcist on steroids. We pulled over and called 911 and when they got there my BP had tanked to 70/30. They took me to a real hospital and turned out the shitty hospital where I had the surgery let me leave with pneumonia, sepsis, and a blood clot that had gotten into my lung so I ended up in there for another 4 days and now I'm on two different major blood thinners for the next 6 months. Again, not trying to scare anyone, but the nurses all used the same line on me - "80 year old ladies get this done all the time, you'll be fine!" Just by coincidence, my 50 year old cousin went in for the same procedure about 5 days after I did, and he had the standard experience. A lot of initial pain, but out in 5 days, pretty close to being recovered now. I will say now that the pneumonia and blood clot are gone, I feel a hell of a lot better than I did, and am starting to get back to normal life. You will definitely feel much stronger and have much more stamina afterward, so overall it was worth it for me, but definitely not something I would ever want to go through again.

Couple quick things they don't tell you about. First, and definitely most important, if you don't have one already buy yourself a bidet or a bidet attachment for your toilet. You can get a decent one off of Amazon for like 30 bucks and they install in ten minutes. Seriously, life saver. Second, it's truly shocking how quickly you lose muscle mass when you're just sitting on your ass in a recliner 23 hours a day. Third, it will definitely take a mental toll on you. I'm a generally upbeat guy but having to rely on someone else for the most basic of tasks and the feeling of complete helplessness and uselessness eats away at you pretty quickly. Lastly, definitely do the walking, the breathing exercises, and the cardiac rehab. They help immensely and just seeing yourself make progress even if it's small helps with the mental aspect.

TL;DR version- It fucking sucks worse than anything that has ever sucked, but overall it's worth it in the long run. Any other questions, feel free to ask.

Good luck, hope everything goes smoothly for you!

Pretty valuable story.

After my surgery they decided to remove the staples one day. I wasn't on any pain medication, it hurt like fuck. After the 3td staple being yanked I finally said, holy crap that hurts... do you have any topical painkiller or something? The nurses comment, "really? That hurts". I'm pretty mild mannered but I was fucking pissed and I made that clear. Anyhow the take away is say something if you have questions. Don't feel bad, don't wait, and be clear.

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Health Problems

mkopec

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord

Lurkus Maximus

Trakanon Raider

mkopec

Kajiimagi

TheBeagle

JunkiesNetwork Donor

Guurn