HCM-ers: Introduce yourself or just say hi

Hi, I'm Tonia. I was originally told that I had left ventricle hypertrophy caused by HBP, but was recently told that I have HCM. I'm sick over it.

I was diagnosed with broken heart syndrome. My ejection/fraction was at 26. I have been wearing the life vest for 3 months - has anyone here wore the vest

Hello All, My name is Denis live near Boston and was evaluated at Tufts Medical Center with HCM. Since I am 78 YO am not being treated. I take 75 mg a day Metaprolol ER Succinate (Toprol XL) for non-sustained ventricular tacycardia. Having no problems and living a full life. How ? . Flying my Cessna 182 once a week all over New England. The Toprol XL is like a miracle medicine to me and keeps the tacycardia in check. Got the HCM from my Mother who dropped dead at age 73 , she had an enlarged heart. . I guess every day is a bonus .

Hi, my name is Tim. I had the surgery in January of 2013. I was sent a DVD prior to surgery and told to have all of the family that might come to see me watch it. It addressed how patients look following this surgery. I can tell you that it was very accurate. When I came to ICU there were lots of tubes and wires and I was very grey. My brother had not watched the DVD and thought that I had passed away.
For about a month after surgery my right shoulder was very painful. I attributed this to my arms being held back above my head during surgery. This pain went away after the first week of cardiac rehab. I never felt any pain around my sternum.
Regardless of the shoulder pain and the way things looked in the ICU, I received excellent and my life is so much better today. As a matter of fact, I am certain that I would not be here today without the excellent care I received at Mayo.

Hi my name is Linda. I am having a septal myectomy beginning of October with Dr. Schaff. I received my paperwork and saw the picture of patient coming out of the surgery room. It is quite scary. I read some things regarding back pain long after the surgery. I guess I feel I want to connect with some people that had this surgery.

Hi. Three years ago I had Resection of sub aortic membrane,Left ventricular septal myectomy
Aortic valve replacement w mechanical prosthesis performed at Mayo. I have a yearly checkup at the Mayo valve clinic. Now that I am aware I have HCM should I be seen at the HCM clinic by one of their drs instead? I have questions I don’t feel the valve clinic can answer.

My physician is a cardiologist. Not sure if he is a HCM specialist. The Losartan was prescribed for hypertension, which had been determined as the likely cause of my cardiomyopathy. The metoprolol alone had not sufficiently controlled my blood pressure. Two years after taking Losartan, my blood pressure began to rise again. A person on this blog suggested adding supplements in lieu of increasing my Losartan dosage. The one which has helped a great deal is Hawthorn Berry. In my case, it has been of enormous help.

I did have an echocardiogram- they found sigmoid septum with lvoto

Dr Schaff did my surgery the end of June and everything went great.

My husband had an SM last October at Rochester, 6 months prior to surgery he was on max ( toxic) amounts of meds and they had stopped fully managing his symptoms the side effects were increasing. Apart from all this he was in good physical shape, no diabetes etc. soooo the surgery was amazing he recovered quickly and was back to “normal” still has cardiomyopathy but no obstruction. He/we were beyond impressed with everything about our experience at Mayo.