Hello everyone,
I am a 22-year-old male and i was perfectly healthy before this started. It two years ago with a flu-like illness followed by mild shortness of breath and peripheral pains that are still with me now. However, blood work has always been normal (especially concerning infection and inflammation), so when i went to the ER when i had that flu, they suspected myocarditis but then eliminated it (says so on the report) because of the normal blood work and maybe the normal chest x-ray too. They did however tell me to get an echo because the ECG wasn't normal. During the following two years i had : normal crp and esr multiple times, 4 normal or "borderline normal" echos, same for ECG's that mostly went back to normal, and a stress test that showed fast heart rate but nothing else serious. But anyway, no doctor took me seriously and all said i was just fine, until the last cardiologist i saw had me do an MRI.
The MRI showed scars typical of myocarditis. The LV function is "borderline normal" with an EF of 59% (was 76% just 4 months earlier on a echo !). I have to wait a month before i get to see the cardiologist so a few answers before that would really help me relax.
What do these scars mean ? Are they normal and do they mean the disease is behind me ? In which case why do i still have the symptoms ? Is it possible that the inflammation and damage is ongoing, or would the MRI have found active inflammation too ? Or do the scars mean I am now in the "chronic phase" ? In which case, what is the prognosis ? Are they what's making me short of breath so quickly and can they get better or worse ?
Thanks for reading and for any thoughts/experiences on this :)