[ACEsthetics] New Post/Thread Notification: Dentist's Health

Hello,

Tom Hedge has just posted in the Dentist's Health forum of ACE Dental World under the title of From My Heart.

This thread is located at http://www.acedentalforum.com/forum/threads/2155-From-My-Heart

Here is the message that has just been posted:
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From My Heart, by Dr Tom Hedge

(Please read this, it may save your life)

I will be 53 years old next week. Last Sunday I was invincible. I could eat and drink anything, exercise when I felt like it. I looked younger than I am and was reasonably fit without trying very hard. I had just sold my practice in Cincinnati and was ready to start Phase II of my like practicing with my wife Kathy Frazar in our dream practice in Houston. We have an incredibly beautiful office and wonderful patients. Our Tesla electric car that we have waited for four years arrived last month. Our daughter started at TCU in the fall so we would have time for ourselves. We restarted our continuuing education journey with a trip to Las Vegas two weeks ago to learn advanced neuomuscular dentistry. We had the world by the tail...

Until Monday morning. I started the day making a temporary for a patient. Immediately started to feel "bad". Flu like symptoms. Hot and cold. Nauseous. Lethargic. I went into our massage room at the office and layed down. Thank God Kathy and I are a team as she covered all of our patients. At noon I had one of our team members take me home. Off to bed. I layed there for four hours, listless. Didn't even have the desire to get something done on my iPad. Very unlike my type A self. I could feel my pulse racing. I knew something was very wrong. I started to doubt the flu. Kathy came home and took me to the "Doc in a Box". They took my blood pressure and told me to go to the Emercency Room immediately. My BP was near 200/100. The ER doc thought it was so bad that I was transferred to Methodist Hospital by Ambulance. I am thinking, "come on guys, look at me, do I look like I need an ambulance. I am young and healthy."

Kathy asked that Dr Hust, a cardiologist who cared for her Mom admit me. We "checked in"Monday night. I am writing this from my room Thursday morning. They will "check me out"soon. I have had a brain CT, heart scan, heart ultrasound, liver and spleen ultrasound, endoscopic ultrasound, bold culture, and have had blood drawn at least 15 times. I am not complaining. I am in the best heart hospital in the world. Every knows who Dr Debeakey is.

I was totally ready to "check out" after the first heart ultrasound. It showed a regurgitation of my mitral valve. I was thinking, " give me some pills and I will be fine". Not so fast cowboy. They needed to know why I had developed this. Consult with a Hemotologist to rule out blood disorders. Consults with Infectious Disease MD to rule out infection on valves. This is what can happen after a dental visit or if you have an infected tooth or gums, for example. By Tuesday night my head was spinning and reality was setting in. This could be serious. I could die during open heart surgery to replace my mitral valve. I know the odds are slim, but it does happen. My vain self was thinking about how I would look at the pool with a filet scar down the middle of my chest. I had not heard any results by bed time. Fortunately I had asked for a sedative to help me sleep that night. I had sleep one hour the night before. Hospitals are not conducive to sleeping.

Wednesday morning they sedated me and put an ultrasound tube down my throat to ultrasound my heart from right next door at the base of my esophagus. They wanted to see why my mitral valve was not sealing between beats. Was it due to the increased pressure? Was it damaged from infection? Did the fibers that open and close it stretch or cease to function?

After this test, I had an abdominal ultrasound because they found increased hemoglobin and decreased platelets in my blood. Turns out that was OK for now. I didn't need any other problems at this point. Last night, well after nine, Dr Hust came by our room and told us he didn't think I needed valve repair or replacement at this time. I teared up and wanted to hug him. He could manage my condition by medication. I was not going to die! I would live the life I had always dreamed of with my dear Kathy, and see my children and parents for a long time.

Well, I guess I am far from invincible. I am further reminded of this as a nurse just checked my BP and it is 140/103. Still not out of the woods. Dr Hust will fine tune this with meds and I will work on it with diet and exercise.

I wrote this because I implore you as a husband, or wife (really directed at men, as you know you are the bad ones who die first) to do it for your children... Get a complete physical and make sure your teeth and gums are healthy, because it CAN KILL you. I dodged a bullet this time and am choosing to duck out from the gun fight.
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