Its been a long day :(

Some background: I am 22 and had heart surgery for a rare condition at 1 week old. Never had any complications but always worried about it.
I started getting some sharp pains in my chest last night and didnt really worry about it. So carried on went to work today and around noon just started having bad chest pains and getting very dizzy so I went home early. Thank God one of our workers was just in the store shopping and agreed to work so I could go on home ASAP!
So I ended up going to moms work and at first they thought it was just a pulled muscle or something like that but they were worried because of my medical history so they wanted to do a CT Scan just to be safe. So off to the hospital I go... And just for the record I hate IVs and I hate the Contrast meds even more!
After 30 minutes waiting for them to read the scan and finally getting the IV needle out of my arm we went back to moms office and they told us I have a benign thymoma. (I hate medical jargon it always sounds so scary...)
Apparently there is some lymph node that cannot drain because of complications from my first surgery and now its pressing against the nerves in my chest. So basically I am stuck with this chest pain for a while. I have to talk to a cardiovascular specialist tomorrow and find out what the options are for this. I'm hoping that there is something easy, but from what it seems more cardiovascular surgery may be the only option which is not going to be fun!

You poor love - it must been scary especially the waiting.

Sending you hugs and love from over here in Aussie land.

I hope that it turns out that it can be easily fixed with minor surgery not major.

Good luck.

I'm so sorry. I will be praying for you. I hope you feel better soon.

my added prayers are with you.
I'm going through alot of medical crap right now.So, I know any extra vibes/well wishes/prayers help.

While I'm not real familiar with your diagnosis, I am familiar with surgery, as I've worked in the O.R. for over 25 years. Our cardiovascular surgeons do VATS for many chest surgeries (Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery.) They often do lung biopsies and resections through a scope. You might want to inquire if any of the cardiovascular surgeons near you are trained in VATS. The surgery is much easier to recover from, much less painful (because of the small incisions) and the results are comparable to open surgery.

You might want to do a Google search on "VATS" or "Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery".

Here's a couple of links I found.

http://www.cts.usc.edu/videoassisted...icsurgery.html

http://www.health.harvard.edu/diagno...ic-surgery.htm

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...c63c06c309bfe9


Good luck....please keep us posted!

thank you guys. I do live near a very good heart hospital and have the name of the best cardiothroacic surgeon there. My first surgery is what will complicate things.
Unfortunately because of that there isnt another case they can look at which could complicate things.
I am hoping that maybe they can do a shunt or something like that that will not be as invasive. I am terrified of them having to break my chest open again... my sternum is actually pieces of my bottom rib because it didnt for correctly and its just finally healed all the way within the past few years and if they have to open it again.... ugh!

Also if need be I can go to Vanderbilt which is only 5 hours away.

I'm just rather scared! Most 22 year olds worry about which club to go to, or what finals they have, not heart surgery!!!

Oh Jordan, this is a bit complicate...
I hope have you good news with your appointment with the doctor...

Don´t give up.... ......

So sorry to hear about this. Hope all goes well for you and you won't need any more surgery.

I really don't know what to say.... you must be so scared and emotional I hope they are able to fix this with the least invasive method possible

I'm sorry, that is a very rough day I hope they can treat it as non-invasively as possible. I had open heart surgery last year, and I know the feeling of wondering why a young, otherwise healthy person should be getting such a surgery.

If you're on Facebook, there's an open heart surgery group which has people who have had heart surgery as adults, and also people like you who had surgery as babies, and have had some complications later in life. It's nice to have others who understand what you're going through.

Good luck talking with the surgeon

Oh I'm so sorry! Hope everything goes well for you !

This video is guaranteed to make you laugh! cats have gone crazy here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUNmL...eature=related

although the cat on the fan just looks plain scary!

oh no! I hope everything turns out ok and you don't need more surgery!

Oh hon, that is a long, draining day indeed. . All I can do is send and prayers that everything turns out ok and you don't have to have another another long, invasive surgery. I don't know much about medicine but it actually sounds like something that would be relatively simple to treat (I hope!). At least they caught it now before it did any further damage. Keep us up to date on how it's going, and you are in my thoughts.

Good Health

thanks so much loves.

Well news spread like crazy and most of my family and friends and coworkers know now so the phone has been ringing off the hook with people checking in on me. But the only bad thing is, my mom is freaking out about me driving to see my boyfriend this weekend (its an hour and a half drive and one with lots of places to stop if I start feeling bad or anything) Im sure I will still go, just may make it a 3 hour trip lol.

I am on medical leave from one job so thats nice. But I have an interview on Tuesday morning to try to get state help for the cost of the surgery and then I meet with a Cardiothoracic surgeon on Thursday to find out whats going on and what options we have. On a funny note, we have decided Cardiothoracic surgeon sounds a lot like a dinosaur...

Now just to find out when and what kind of surgery I will need and also how long it will take to recover and everything.

I just know I'm getting very nervous about it!

for the first day since my ct scan I actually dont feel miserable. yay! I can still feel it in my chest but it feels more like an uncomfortable pressure than actually hurting. I hope Thursday gives me some answers and we can find out what needs to be done and when it can be done.

But for now I am trying to just keep a happy face on and joke around about it. It seems to be helping. Although my friends and I have decided I would make a good case for Dr House! Maybe I should go contact the writers!

I'm glad you're feeling ok! Hope you get some answers soon

Originally Posted by capt_jordi

I'm just rather scared! Most 22 year olds worry about which club to go to, or what finals they have, not heart surgery!!!

Click to expand...

Indeed!
I'm glad you're feeling better now at least. Good luck with it all, and know that we will all be sending our and thinking of you.