*Dianne (right) celebrating the holidays.*

Dianne Galbraith was so exhausted she couldn’t decorate her Christmas tree. “For me, that was huge,” says the grandmother of 11 in Langley, BC. One of her daughters came over with her kids and decorated the tree while Dianne watched from the couch.

Dianne, then age 53, had just learned the cause of her crushing fatigue: her heart’s mitral valve was leaking and urgently needed to be replaced.

She shared her story with Heart Valve Voice Canada.

Before your diagnosis, what did you know about heart valve disease?

Absolutely nothing. My dad had a heart attack and a quadruple bypass; I knew about that. He developed heart failure. I learned about that. Mom had atrial fibrillation, so I learned about that. But I never heard anything about heart valve problems.

What symptoms were you experiencing?

I had been to doctors since my 20s, saying there’s something wrong with my heart. I could feel the beats racing and skipping sometimes while I was doing nothing. Also, I got tired easily. When I went out dancing, I could dance just one dance then I had to sit down and rest.

They would listen to my heart sometimes, and two or three times I wore a Holter monitor to track my heart rhythm. But I didn’t get any answers.

In 2011, my dad broke his leg and went into hospital. So, I was taking my mom to the hospital every day. And I was so tired — just exhausted.

The night my dad passed away, I started coughing — I couldn’t stop. I was treated for bronchitis but it still didn’t stop. My GP checked out everything to do with my lungs. Nothing showed up.

Finally, my doctor sent me to a cardiologist.

How did you learn you had valve disease?

At my cardiology appointment, they put me on a treadmill. After about a minute and half, they made me stop, even though I could have done more. They did more tests.

At my next appointment, the doctor told my husband, Doug, and me that I had a leaking mitral valve, and needed surgery. He figured that when I was a child, I must have had rheumatic fever.

Did you recall having rheumatic fever?

It was never diagnosed. But I remembered being really sick for some time when I was about 10. Before that, I used to love running — I would run beside my friends while they were on their bikes. After, I couldn’t run without gasping for air.

What happened after your mitral valve diagnosis?

That was December, 2011. When I saw my family doctor. He told me that without a valve replacement, I would not live through April. I started to understand how serious this was.

When we met the surgeon, he explained that I could get either a prosthetic valve from pig tissue, or a mechanical valve. He recommended the mechanical valve, partly because it would last a lifetime. I trusted his recommendation.

Part of me worried that I wasn’t going to survive the surgery. So, Doug and I bought a cemetery plot and arranged a few things. And I made sure that I got to hug and kiss my kids and grandkids before I went to the hospital.

That was hard. I was trying to keep a positive attitude, and I didn’t want to worry them any more than I already had.

*Dianne enjoying a board game with her grandchildren.*

How did the surgery go?

The operation was successful, but my recovery was difficult. I ended up staying in hospital for about 35 days because I was having a reaction to one of the medications.

Finally, things got better. It was so good to be home. I took a lot of naps and took care of myself. I started walking, a little bit at first, then gradually increasing. Doug and I went walking every day.

That helped me a lot. I’m an outdoor person. It was so nice to be out, seeing the trees and the river and the flowers.

I also changed my diet to help manage heart failure, reducing salt and cutting back on fluids.

With your mechanical valve, you need to take a blood thinner. How is that going?

I’m on warfarin, which causes some challenges.

For example, I like salad, but I either have to eat it every day or not at all. Changing my intake of leafy greens causes fluctuations in my INR (international normalized ratio, a measure of how long it takes blood to clot). Some people can manage this fine, but it’s an issue for me.

My daughters got me a home testing kit for INR. So instead of going to the lab every week or two, I can test at home. That helps a lot.

What do you wish more people knew about heart valve disease?

If you think there might be something wrong, then keep asking for answers; insist… don’t give up.

I wish I had known sooner. It would have given me so much more quality time.

“I wish I had known sooner.”