Heart murmur question for DR. or Nurse?

Question

Hello, over the last 7 years i have had heart skips and flops and have gone through 3 kids with this. I have had a ekg but nothing else done.(ekg was fine) I ask many Drs(3) if i was okay and they all say the same. Yes. I went to the ER today for another issue and they listen to my heart and said i have a heart murmur and ask what type it was.This got me kind of worried and I said i dont know because i never had to really looked at. My question is my Dr told me since i've been this long with it and gone through child birth 3 times im pretty safe and i would have really known at pregnancy, do you think she is right? I am kind of worry about things alot. Thanks very much for looking.

Answer 1

A "heart murmur" is the general name given to an unusual heartbeat sound. Not always, but usually, the heart rhythm is normal, but there's some other little extra noise in there. I am rather curious that you say somebody in ER asked YOU what type it was, because anybody efficient in the use of a stethoscope is normally able to identify the type of sound and match it to the probable cause. Other tests, of course, are then done for confirmation.
Some years ago when a doctor first identified a heart murmur in me, he immediately said "You seem to have a couple of heart valves not functioning exactly right Did you by chance ever have rheumatic fever as a child?" I told him that I had. Nowadays doctors know that childhood rheumatic fever has to be treated with strong antibiotics, because the organism that causes the fever, attacks the heart valves - usually the aortic and/or mitral valves. The patient seems to recover uneventfully, but before they realised the need for antibiotics, some scarring occurred to the attacked valves, which, over a number of years, thickens the valve flaps and prevents them from opening and shutting completely. The backwash of blood into the heart chamber, as the heart rests following a pump, creates that "schloooping" sound that the doctor hears in his stethoscope. That, of course, is just one example of a heart murmur. There are other congenital murmurs which are just the peculiarity of that particular heart, and an example of that would be what's called "floppy valve syndrome" where instead of the valve cusps snapping open and shut in a nice crisp action, that particular valve kind of "flubbers" which creates its own pretty identifiable sound. A doctor will always tell a patient with a confirmed "floppy valve" that it's nothing at all to be concerned about, and my guess would have been that you could have one of those, which would have been why your doctor told you not to worry. BUT you are also mentioning that your heart "skips" (which is also called a murmur). Since you haven't got any history of other heart trouble (you didn't mention any) this, too, may just be a harmless minor "arrhythmia" (or unusual rhythm). However, all things considered, what I would do if I were you, is go see your regular primary care physician, tell him the story of your recent visit to ER with reference to the heart murmur, and then do NOT leave his office until he has had a good sit down visit with you and fully explained what he thinks this could be, and made arrangements for you to have further diagnostic testing and a consultation with a cardiologist. This may sound like taking a sledgehammer to squash a butterfly. On the other hand, I assure you that the last words you ever want to hear out of a doctor's mouth , somewhere down the road is "If only you had had this investigated sooner, we could have dealt with it sooo much easier. By the way, the diagnostic tests to confirm the exact nature of your murmur, are non-invasive, and don't hurt a bit. Good luck.

Answer 2

I had a heart murmur since birth.I was born 3 months premature. I had started having like tight chest pains where it barely feels like I can breathe and I had EKG and scans done,even a heart monitor-nothing. They may have been panic attacks but I have not had any serious problems since I was a baby. I had to take medicine to slow my heart rate down. I had went to ER about 4 times and nothing was found.Wore the heart monitor for a whole week-nothing.Went to ER the last time-doctor told me right off the back that I had one-even though I didn't know I still did-he said he could see it.

Answer 3

I have had a heart murmur since i was 19 years old when i had scarlett fever, i am doing okai, i just cant touch cocaine (HA HA)