What do I do from here?

[app7]

I'm a 22 yr old Division 1 college football player who a little more than 6 weeks ago now came down with what was deemed "flu like illness" had all the symptoms associated with H1N1; fever, cough, chest pain/tightness, fatigue, ect. I was given tami-flu and with in 36 hours the fever had broke and I was back on the field. In the weeks following the cough never went away, the chest pain persisted and I began to cough up any and every color possible, including on a few occasions blood. They diagnosed me with everything from asthma, to pneumonia and put me on inhalers, steroids and finally after 4 weeks of only getting worse, antibiotics. All were to no real avail, my blood work looked normal, a chest x-ray came up clean, and finally a CT scan showed almost nothing as well.

As my conditioned only worsened the team decided to send me home to the Twin Cities for further testing and doctors more familiar with my medical history. (Which is squeaky clean, I'm 22 I've been on antibiotics maybe twice in my life, I run miles for leisure, and being a division 1 athlete my body is very well conditioned, I'm a freak about what goes in it, no alcohol, no smoking, no drugs ect) Being 22 I'm in that goofy spot between pediatricians and adult doctors and my pediatrician has been the consulting doc on most of this. I immediately visited him he took some blood work, and based on my symptoms wanted me to see both a pulmonary doc and also wanted tests on my heart. He ordered an EKG and a Chest Echo just to see if something had gotten into my heart and thrown things off. The pulmonary doc checked the work and the CT of the doctor I had seen weeks before she agreed with him and saw nothing too abnormal other than my O2 saturation in my blood was a little low 93-94, and did fall when I was subject to cardio (her test was walking through their office), my resting pulse sat in the mid 80's which is higher than my usual mid 50's and my blood pressure was 148/96 which is a far cry from my usual 90/60. She also determined she wanted some heart work done as well.

The EKG revealed a right bundle branch block, and found two leaky valves leading into my heart. Yesterday I saw a cardiologist; doing nothing more than flipping through a few charts from other doctors, reading reports, and looking at the blood pressure 142/84 and 88 bpm that her nurse took; her diagnosis was "stress and anxiety". Part of me wanted to fall off my chair in shock the other part wanted me to go shake her. She acknowledges all the finding of a right bundle branch block and leaky valves but in her belief the two pulmonary docs missed something. She more or less ignored my symptoms of fatigue, chest pain, and shortness of breath which often times come from simple tasks like walking up a flight of stairs or the other night after eating dinner I couldn't get my heart rate to slow down for some reason and it was 148 bpm and my blood pressure had rocketed to 138/124. I guess my question is; is this really stress related? I'm 22 years old I at least in my mind have nothing to be stressed about. The university I attend has completely taken care of me from an Academic stand point so although she insisted thats part of my stress, I don't see it. As frustrating as it is to see my football career end this way, I've come to terms with that. I mean my day consists of relaxation and laying around, part at doctors request and the other part because of sheer lack of energy. (I have been tested for mono so they know thats not it) I guess what do I do and where do I go from here? Was she just that bad or am I crazy?

[grendslori]

While I can feel your frustration, you really need to understand something: RBBB isn't that big of a deal and neither are leaking valves (unless they are classified as severe). LBBB are more significant as far as causing problems because they deal with sending the electrical impulses down to the left ventricle which is the main pumping chamber of the heart. The symptoms you are describing go hand in hand with severe forms of heart disease which you don't have (based on what you have written). The EKG would show a RBBB but would not show any leaky valves so I take it you also had an Echo? You, more than likely, are still suffering from the affects of the virus you had. A lot of what you are going through also could be attributed to anxiety as you seem to be taking your pulse and BP; just doing that can raise both the HR and BP. (Not to mention the monitors are so often wrong!) The more you worry about your heart and what it is doing, the worst the symptoms can become. Also, the more you lay around, the worse it will be trying to get the energy to move around. It's like being bedridden while sick and then trying to be up and moving around or as another example: try taking a nap for a week and then try and get through a day without a nap....it's almost impossible to get through the day without that nap!

[Flycaster305]

The doctor probably sees you as an obviously robust, strong, healthy individual and may be dismissing the medical evidence as a result of your physical presence. My father's advice thundered in my ear when I read your history, "Condemnation prior to investigation leads to ignorance"...  It sounds like your were blown off.  I'd do my best to get another opinion.
That being said, You should let us know about the Right Bundle Branch Block and leaky valves, what were the details?
Keep us informed, interesting situation.