Patient stories: Her stomach pain was a warning sign for a heart condition
It can seem like common sense that symptoms of heart disease or heart conditions would include discomfort or pain directly around the area where the heart is located, such as left-side chest pain, severe pain in the left arm, unexplained heartburn and more. The human body is intricately connected from head to toe, and in many cases unexplained symptoms in one part of the body may be a warning sign for problems developing somewhere else entirely.
At forty-four years old, Jenaya Lee was a devoted wife and mother with an active social life. She’d been struggling with ongoing severe stomach pains for weeks on end. Like many busy parents, she kept putting off a trip to the doctor thinking that the issues with her stomach would clear up on their own.
Instead, the pain lingered. Finally, Lee’s intuition was telling her that something wasn’t right, and she called her doctor’s office.
Her primary care physician sent her to the emergency room at Prisma Health Baptist Parkridge Hospital, where the emergency care doctors found she had extremely high blood pressure. After initially focusing on potential stomach-related causes to her pain, physicians began to suspect that the stomach pains could actually be related to a heart problem. Certain markers in her blood tests suggested a potential heart problem, and further testing revealed a serious heart condition affecting her mitral valve.
Lee was treated with mitral valve surgery and was able to receive treatment and then return home to her young family and happy, healthy and busy life. Since recovery, her blood pressure has lowered, and many of her concerning test results have begun to settle down, too.
“I would definitely tell anyone that if you’re not feeling good, seek the medical help that you need,” said Lee. “You know your body, and I can say that for me, I knew something wasn’t right. You have to be your own advocate.”
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