heart murmur.... quick question??

[MRSRICHRS2K]

i was a smoker up until 3weeks ago and was having little chest pains, which i stressed about and think i had a panic attack...
it was vile i thought i was going to die, i felt sick dizzy sweaty etc...i instantly stoped smoking the morning after!

so few days later i still didnt feel right with lil pains in my chest n it felt heavy so mum insisted i went to see the gp...
i had a ecg which was fine but wen she listened to my heart beat she said i had a murmur (i wasnt born with one?)

i have a appointment come through for a echocardigram on the 18th oct.. just wondered if anyone else just got one? and do they affect you in any way

thanks

 

[Lousie598]

My heart murmur was discovered when I was 14 ( I am 27 now). I think it is normal for them to suddenly just start or simply that noone has noticed it before. Certainly no one had mentioned my heart was being noisy before I was 14 and I had undergone yearly health checks!
My heart murmur has not affected me much at all. The biggest impact is when I go to the dentist as he will not touch me unless I have had antibiotics beforehand. This is because the mouth is so full of bacteria, him routing around oftern causes me to bleed and as the murmur causes a swirling effect of the blood in the heart around the leaky valve, that is a very high risk place for any bacteria in the blood to cause an infection to the heart.
Apart from that I have to admit I don't 'trust' my heart. I get worried stupid when I am exercising feeling for the slightest pain in my heart area! Nothing has ever happened when I exercise but I just find it hard to trust it properly. ( I know that sounds a bit mad!)
Also I am not allowed to donate blood - really don't know why they don't let you if you have a heart murmur - my blood is still flowing!
I occasionally ask the doctor to have a listen to see if it is still there but that is all really. No one seems to be bothered at all by it so neither am I! I think if I ever manage to get pregnant then I would look into it more but nope it really hasn't effected me. However I also know a woman in her early 60's who was suddenly diagnosed with a murmur and needed surgery on the valve as it was leaking to badly. She has been fine ever since. Hope yours is as benign as mine is.

Congrats and good luck on giving up the smoking. My husband has now been off the cigarettes since February 2009 and he does not miss them at all. He could not have done it however without using one of those nicotine inhalators. The start is the worst bit!

My story if you are interested:
When I was 14 I had terrible circulation and mum was worried about my blackening hands and feet when I got cold so she dragged me to the doctors and he thought he could hear something wrong with my heart. So I found myself at the childrens hospital having ultrasound scans of my heart done - that was incredible watching your heart on the screen! (did feel a bit queasy after a while though!) and I had an ECG done (which for some reason I don't remember so well) The doctors very confidently said I had not just a heart murmur but a hole in the heart and would need surgery open heart surgery asap. It was not pleasant to be told at 14 that you could never have a baby as my heart was just about keeping myself up not a baby as well! So I had to undergo an internal ultrasound scan under general anesthetic and I woke to the news that I only had a heart murmur and basically to stop wasting the hospitals time. And that was that. I have a leaky value which lets the blood swirl slightly. Talk about going from shell shocked to ecstatic in a few hours! It was never mentioned again. When I was 19 and about to go on the pill I brought the subject up with my doctor incase it was relevant to the pill and again she wasn't bothered by it and to just keep myself in shape - oh well I am now 4 stone over weight and the murmur is still not causing me problems just the stupid fear I have that I will hurt it during exercise!