Congenital Heart Conditions/Defects
By beeeckie
@beeeckie (802)
United States
June 14, 2008 7:13pm CST
Do you or does anyone you know have a congenital heart problem? I was born with WPW (Wolff-Parkinson-White) Syndrome but didn't find out about it until I was 21. I had been experiencing symptoms of it since I was roughly 9 or 10. The symptoms of WPW include tachycardia, an extremely fast heart rate. I could be sitting still and suddenly have 150 beats per minute. Sometimes it would make me lightheaded and a couple of times knocked me out.
I ended up getting catheter ablation almost five years ago, and it worked. They literally burned out the offending tissue in my heart and I've been virtually free of WPW symptoms ever since. This is an abridged story, but I want to know, does anyone have experiences with congenital heart defects, and how do you manage it?
1 response
@jungletime (221)
• United States
15 Jun 08
My daughter was also born with wpw. She had the symptoms and was put on 2 heart medications at the age of 2 months. She was diagnosed at age 2 (this was when she was calm during an ekg where they got an accurate reading!) She had the ablation at age 10 and has been fine ever since. I never actually "met" anyone else with it. Glad you're doing well!
ps..how long did your ablation take? Hers took 12 hours! I was a nervous reck!!
@beeeckie (802)
• United States
15 Jun 08
I'm glad your daughter is doing well. I sure wish I had found out sooner, she's lucky! Well, technology is also better, and back in 1982 they didn't exactly do all the same tests they do now, or even 10 years ago. My ablation took about 4 hours, though they predicted 3.
