Possible heart valve failure while cruising

Clint Gymrat

New member

I’ve ran gear for several years with no issues. I ended up getting tired of the ups and downs that are involved with a pct so about a year ago I decided to just stay on test in between cycles. I run 150mgs per week and 99% of the time my E2 levels stay in range where I don’t need an AI. The past 2 weeks my chest has been hurting with tight pressure. 6 days ago I ended up in the ER. They ran an EKG and a CT scan and said everything looked fine and suspected my pain to be gastritis. 3 days after leaving the ER and being on a concoction of meds for gastritis my chest was still killing me. So I went to my GP doctor and she ran another EKG on me and seen where one of my valves seemed to not be working well enough. She took some blood and I’m still waiting to hear the results from the blood work. She also is scheduling me a stress Test. My concern is that if I do have a valve failing then should I stop cruising the test at 150 a week or should I just carry on? I’m nervous about telling my doctor about my test usage because they’ve already found Xanax and pot in my urine and I don’t want my insurance company to drop me because of me being considered high risk. I know it’s best to tell the doctor everything but like I said what if my insurance drops me and then I’m up shit creek with a possible heart valve failing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I can afford to get my own blood work done online if I do stop taking the test but I’m nervous about how my body is going to react and if me taking arimidex will somehow interfere with other medicines that I’m on or will possibly be on in the future. I expect someone to drag my ass for placing myself on a permanent test cruise for the past year but we’ve all done ignorant shit and hindsight is always 20/20. If it wasn’t for the possible heart condition then I wouldn’t worry about stopping the cruise. I’ve done it several times and my test always came back to normal levels. Just nervous now to add extra stress on my body with everything that’s already going on. 

 

Clint Gymrat

New member

Yeah I’m going to skip my injection today and try to get back info my doctor next week and see what she thinks. I hate To tell her the truth but you’re right, it’s not worth dyingif over. Thanks buddy! If my insurance drops me then oh well. My policy states that they have to give me a 30 day notice before dropping me so if they do so then maybe i can get everything taken care of before those 30 days are up. Thanks again bud. 

 

SemperFi

Well-known member

Clint I am sorry you are having health issues and I understand your concern. Let's be real here buddy you are asking a bunch of gear heads to offer you medical advice when you are possibly experiencing a major health issue. Does that really make the best sense to you? 

i don't want to sound insensitive but you need to recheck your thinking process and make your current possible health issue a top prioriity.... time for you to give your body what it needs NOT what you want to give it. Not being completely honest with your health professional is a bad idea. What does it matter if your health insurance provider drops you if you are dead?

I will have you in my prayers and thoughts. Let's hope it is only a wake up scare. ;)

 

SEMPER FI

 

SemperFi

Well-known member

+3 for sharing your story Clint. I know you came for encouragement and support more than anything so please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. Never hesitate to PM any member if you want the concern to remain more private. We take care of our own and we will have your back during this rough patch.

 

SEMPER FI

 

Bkschibear01

New member

I'm not an expert but isn't there Dr patient confidentially? I wouldn't think she would be able to say something you don't want her to say. But once again I'm no expert on this. 

Hope everything turns out good for you.

 

Clint Gymrat

New member

Thanks man. And yes there’s doctor/patient confidentiality but your doctor still has to put this type of information on your medical records and your insurer is privy to all of your medical records. I once had a friend who got an abcess from some gear. He had to stay in the hospital for nearly a week. Shortly after his insurer dropped him due to him being high risk because of gear abuse. I went once because of an abcess and told them I had gotten a flu shot at Walmart and blamed that on the abcess. In this case though I really don’t have any other option other than to tell her the truth. Too much at stake. Thanks again for the well wishes. I’m not scared of death and not scared of the operation if I end up having a confirmed valve failure but I am worried how it will change my lifestyle afterwards. I have 2 young boys and 1 of them has Down syndromE. I just want to make sure I’m going to be alive and able to take care of him for many years to come as he isn’t able to do much of anything for himself. 

 

BobbyO190

Moderator

Amazing attitude on the whole brother.  I can't honestly answer your question so let me simply say what I THINK I would do in your situation.

FYI: I also lack the ability to tell the doctors about usage for insurance reasons, mine are mostly life insurance policies but I have the same issues.

So personally here would be my process for what it's worth (again, its easy to say what you think you would do but we never know until we are actually staring down the barrel of the gun so to speak. So truth, I don't know shit).

A) Research, can the Test negatively effect your treatment? Can it make the valve worse?

B) I would tell the Doctor "I am on TRT and taking 150mg of Test by injection but I do buy it "online" because of cost. So please take that into account while figuring my treatment."   My logic would be that insurance is fine with TRT and this would look a lot less like 'gear'.

C) I would accept that everything is probably about to change. Diet, exercise, AAS usage, all of it. Surgery may get you back quicker but it's scary as hell. I would want medical advice on how to best keep my hormones balance BUT mostly a longer and healthy life. [Lets be clear, I like looking better but I take AAS to FEEL great and to have energy and a clear brain. For me the looks are a bonus not worth life or health]

IF I WAS UNWILLING OR TRULY UNABE TO DO B -  Then I would personally keep doing trt as I would believe high T would help me more than super low T.   BUT that may be the dumbest decision in history as I don't know much in this area. (See A again).

LASTLY: Heart health can be managed and largely healed without surgery. Bypass is the only surgery worth a shit anyway (stints do very little to extend life!).  Research a heart healthy lifestyle and diet and exercise program. Make the your number one goal for the year and I can't wait to hear how awesome you are doing in nine months!

Brilliant job realizing a problem and researching before the problem quickly. Your going to be great and your going to have an amazing year. May God Bless you in your time of worry and may you look back on it some day as an amazing time of growth.  Keep us updated.  

 

Dolf

Moderator

How about asking your doctor to talk off the record. Tell him/her you want to be completely honest with them, but the discussion would have to be off the record.

 

Clint Gymrat

New member

Thanks for your inpu, brother. I have researched TRT and heart valve problems for literally hours on the Internet but its a hard subject to find info on. I’ve seen where studies were done with administering patients test while being treated for heart disease and in recent studies it seems to actually help but I can’t find anything on heart valve failure and test. I think I’m just going to tell my doctor that I was traveling back and forth to the closest city to me and was going to a TRT clinic. 99% of those clinics don’t accept insurance And are cash only clinics. I’m going to tell the doc that it became too expensive and I was told about a source online for the test and stopped going to the clinic and bought it online and that I want her help coming off of the test. If the insurance doesn’t like the sound of what I’ve done then theyll just have to do what they need to do. I’ve contemplated on just continuing the test but in all honesty I’ve gotten to where I’m at because of the abuse of gear. At this point in my life I’ve discovered that it just isn’t worth fucking with. Sad that it took this to come to the realization but it is what it is. The doc even told me that the only way my valve is failing is from genetics or drug abuse. It’s not genetic in my family and I only smoke pot so everything points to years of going on and off of Dbol, Anavar, etc... I’ve got over $1,000 worth of gear right now and I’m literally just ready to toss it in the trash. My preacher was the one who initially got me started on gear but that’s another long story. Lmao! Anyways, I’m gonna tell my doc what I stated above. She will know it’s a bullshit story but at least my medical chart won’t say “admitted to years of steroid abuse.” And honestly I think she will want to prescribe me test and have me stay on it because she’s not going to want my body to be going through everything it goes through when coming off test while my body is already struggling so much with the possible valve failure. I mean I haven’t even been out of bed in over a weeK. I can’t see her saying “Hey let’s fuck you up some more and play around with your hormones while we are treating your heart condition.” I’ll let you all know how everything goes and what the final diagnosis is. Just know tho that literally 2 1/2 weeks ago I was spending an hour and a half a day in the gym with no problems. Now I can’t walk to the shitter without feeling out of breath and feeling faint. Get that blood work done regularly but just know that that doesn’t necessarily mean that your ticker is working properly. We are all using something that they really have no clue on how it affects your body long term. Look at studies from 2014 and then look at studies from last year. Each one has different results. Play safe my friends. Thanks again for the kind words, the advice and the blessing. God bless bro!   *Edit... the doc said that at my age (late 30’s) that heart valve failure is due to drugs or genetics. It’s fairly common in elderly though. 

 

Clint Gymrat

New member

Well, after almost 2 months of tests and worrying it turns out that my doctor is a fucking quack. Not only do I not have a heart valve failing but I also don’t have the other 30 things wrong with me that she claimed. I ended up getting a stress test done and they didn’t find anything wrong with any valves. Of course my doctor didn’t tell me that when she got the results. Instead she told me that the heart valve was fine but that I had tachycardia. So, after another month of worrying about that and trying my best to eat right, cardio, breathing techniques etc... I finally gave myself an anxiety attack and ended up in the ER. As I sat in the bed at the ER with a heart rate of 176 I was talking to the ER doctor and telling him what my doctor had diagnosed me with. He stopped dead in his tracks and said “what?” I said “my doc told me initially that she seen a leaky valve through an EKG and then I took a stress test and there was no leaky valve but that I had tachycardi.” He stormed out of the room and came back minutes later with a copy of my stress test. His exact words were “You’re doc is a quacK. Stay the fuck away from her. Not only does an EKG not show a leaky valve but it says right here on your stress test results that you had normal results with no signs of arrythmias. You’re heart is in perfect shape.” He handed me the results and I felt my blood pressure shoot through the roof. I’m grateful that my health is perfect but at the same time this quack ass doctor has literally cost me thousands of dollars and hours of stress. Ive lost 23 pounds and haven’t lifted in a month. Just cardio. Tomorrow I start lifting again. The only good that came from the quack was she did discover that I am allergic to a certain beta blocker, which I didn’t even need, and that I have a pretty moderate reaction to BB at concentrations above 15%. So, now I’m currently looking for some test with a lower B.B. percentage in it. Other than that and losing several thousand dollars life is pretty great. Hey, at least there’s no surgery or anymore beta blockers in my near future. Btw... this “doctor“ had only seen me 4 times before she diagnosed me with all of this crazy shit. I still don’t even know why she hooked me up to an EKG to begin with. From now on I will only go to doctors in rural villages in Mexico. lol. 

 

ESmetalhead

New member

I was wondering what was going on with you. Thats nutz! Its certainly a shitty way to have renewed appreciation for your good health.  We should always seek out second opinions including but not limited to Mexican witch doctors.  Glad you got a handle on things.  

 

BobbyO190

Moderator

I just had this thread pop as new so sorry for the late reply but....GREAT NEWS.  Sorry for the fear and hassle but I am so glad you are better and to learn cruising still isn't linked to heart failure.   Keep up the good work brother and I am so glad your past the darkness and back into the fun of life. Hope you have a great weekend.

 

Alpha Omega

Member

Heart issues run in my family. I had heart palpitations to the extreme. This set off alarms for me and was a wake-up call. I SWEAR by CoQ10 and potassium with regular intake of RAW non processed garlic. Give those a "shot" and see if it helps after a month or 2. Cant hurt right?

 
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