Christina Winkelman

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My name is Christina, and I am currently 53 years young. I was born and raised in The Netherlands but live in Tucson, Arizona, USA.

Before I moved to Tucson, AZ, I lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I have always been the adventure type and knew when I was very young that I wanted to live in Canada. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd end up in the southwestern part of the USA.

I married Gordon 23 years ago and we have 2 grown daughters from my previous marriage, and two grandchildren. Gordon and I were both widowed before we married in1977. Gordon adopted my two little girls and helped me raise them.

Gordon was a middle school teacher for 31 years but retired two years ago. I was a stay at home Mom because I wanted to be my kids Mom. I played a very active part in their lives, active in school, PTA, girl scouts etc.

We are semi retired now and own a pool service/maintenance business that keeps us still quite busy.

We both work in the business, although part-time. We both love cats, and have 4 gorgeous Persian cats named, Ralphie, Oliver, Pepper and Scooter. They are spoiled rotten and treated as humans.

My heart problems began this summer when I had gone to a Homeopath for problems I thought were menopausal.

I had become tired, irritable, and things were just so much harder to do the last couple of years, and those hot flashes (or so I thought) were terrible. I could do little without sweating profusely, even indoors.

She gave me some medicine that helped a lot, and that gave me the courage to start working out again.

I had been very active in the gym with weight training & cardiovascular exercises since the early eighties, but because I was not feeling well a lot of the time in the past two years, I often did not go at all.

I cancelled my membership after all those years because I felt I was wasting the family money. Worked out in our garage instead when I felt like it, which wasn't very regularly. I just did not have it in me anymore.

The Homeopath told me that before I would start exercising again to get some blood work done at the lab and to have that heart murmur checked out. Just to be sure)

Over the years several doctors commented on the heart murmur but not one ever told me how important it was to have it checked out. I grudgingly agreed with the Homeopath as I hate going to ordinary doctors.

I have been into alternative medicine for years, and I just dislike doctors when they send you out the door with a pill. But this time I made the necessary appointments and first did an EKG. That came back normal! Then I asked to have an echocardiogram done but had to wait until the 13th of July to go to the Heart Center in Tucson.

I was not worried at all, because what could be wrong with me? Just an innocent heart murmur that had never given me any problems. I had virtually no symptoms (or so I thought), only tiredness and irritability but also had noticed that my left leg and foot was swollen in the evening. That kind of worried me, but I tried to push those thoughts way in the back of my mind, because I knew that came from the heart.

The echocardiogram was done the 13th of July and I got the shock of my life that day. I had congenital heart disease called Aortic Stenosis, and was only months away from heart failure. I was told I was born with a bicuspid valve, that had finally stenosed. I had to have open heart surgery to have my Aorta Valve replaced as it could not be repaired.

I did not know what Aortic Stenosis was, so the doctor showed me. I think I was in shock the whole time he talked to me. Afterwards he asked me to watch a video about the Catheterization that had to be done the following week.

That also looked terrible and I watched it all in a daze.

I honestly believe that this was the worst day of my life, and I just couldn't believe what was happening. I thought this was the end for me.

The following Wednesday I went in for the Catheterization. I was so scared and I cried like a baby, but in the end it was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was quick and virtually painless.

The surgeon, Dr.Gulshan Sethi came to my bed afterwards, and told me that I should have the surgery done soon, and that he would do the surgery. He also told me that I would get a mechanical valve; that I would have to be on a blood thinner the rest of my life and the blood thinner was called Coumadin. I was not given a choice, because he told me that the Homograph's & pig valves usually do not last and that the surgery would have to be redone in about 10 years.

I looked on the Internet for any information I could find to educate myself because I wanted to know everything there was to know.

I found lots and lots of information and at times I had to quit as it made me physically ill. I could not think about anything else, and it totally consumed me day and night. The thought of having my chest ripped open was just terrifying to me.

I went to see the surgeon and asked him lots of questions. He told me he had been doing these surgeries for 30 years. That he was a member of the heart transplantation team in Tucson with the famous Dr. Jack Copeland. Everyone knows Dr. Jack Copeland, so that made me feel a little better. I had already talked to some people who knew Dr.Sethi and was told he was the best.

We set a date for August 7th. That was still two whole weeks away, but he had to go out of town, and didn't want to do the surgery and leave me to someone else; he wanted me to wait until he got back. I was not allowed to exert myself in any way, no more work, just stay at home and take care of yourself he said. I liked Dr. Sethi right away. He was a very nice and kind man. I could tell by his eyes.

The weeks before surgery were pure hell for me. The waiting was absolutely terrible, and the only people that I could talk with was my family and the people on the heart chat.

These people were absolutely wonderful. Total strangers would write me and tell me their story, and told me that I would do just fine. I believed them! I thought, if they can do it, so can I. I prepared for my surgery by trying to think positive. It was very difficult, because I also had thoughts about death, and that this could be my last few weeks on earth, but I pushed those thoughts away as far as possible.

I believe in God and knew in my heart that he wanted me to live. It was just by accident that I had found out about this problem. I listened to that little voice in the back of my head telling me to go this time, because many times I wanted to cancel the whole thing because I did not think that anything could be wrong with me.

Finally the dreaded day came that I had to be at the hospital at 5:30AM. My husband Gordon and my daughter Danielle (29) came with me. Danielle had come especially to take care of me. She got married last year and lives in Oregon now with her husband Steve, but she put her life on hold to come and be with me for three weeks. Little did she know that those three weeks would become six. 

My other daughter Michelle (27) stayed home and wanted to go to work that morning. She's not as strong emotionally and did not want to upset me more than I already was, plus she has two kids (Pieter (8) Anika (6) to take care of, and could not make it that early anyway. Surgery was at 7:30AM and the surgery would take about 4 hours I was told. I received a Sulzer Carbomedics Prosthetic Aorta valve.

All went well with the surgery, and I was dangling my legs outside the bed that same evening. The next day they helped me walk to a chair. The following day I was walking the halls.

Within 5 1/2 days I went home. My Coumadin level was not up to level yet, but with some lovenox injections I would be fine I was told. They showed Danielle how to inject the lovenox. They gave us extra lovenox, but we would have to call for another prescription in a few days. When we knew we were going to run out we called and called but all we got was a voice mail but no one got back to us. They did not get back to us until I had missed 3 injections. The following Thursday (8/17) (I had come home Saturday 8/12) I got out of bed not feeling well at all, actually as the minutes went on I started feeling awful, so we decided not to take any chances and go straight to the hospital. I was admitted right away. They did not tell us what was wrong, but within the hour I was back in the OR for another Catherization but they were unable to finish as there was an obstruction. I did not realize this until later when the medicine had worn off.

Well, the surgeon came to see me, and told me that he had already reserved the OR for the next day and that he had to open me up again to see what was going on. I could tell that he was as upset about this as I was. I tried to stay calm but I was very upset of course. My family could not believe it either that I had to go in a second time and were terribly upset. Two open heart surgeries in 11 days? That was a bit tough to swallow. My husband kept saying," You don't deserve this".

Surgery was set for 8AM the next day (8/18) and it took again 4 hours. I again did okay. My daughter told me later though that I looked like a broken woman when they saw me the second time after surgery.

The second time the surgeon changed valves and implanted a St. Jude's. To be honest, this one is much better for me. I hardly hear this one. The first one was so loud that I hated it. I could hear it in my throat, and I saw the thing ticking in my eyes when I was watching TV. I thought many times how on earth can I get used to this? So something good came out of the second surgery.

I was up and around quickly and was walking the halls and talking to people that still had to have surgery. I felt pretty good, and people were surprised at how good I looked in such a short time.

My surgery was done at Tucson Medical Center and my experience there was excellent. Staff was great and very caring. I got a beautiful private room the second time what I appreciated very much. I went home in 9 days and I have been getting better each day.

I had a couple of setbacks because I did too much, and I had to pay for it dearly by feeling miserable.

My recovery has been good so far and I am 6 weeks post-op from my second surgery. I went to see the cardiologist last week and everything sounded good he said. I can drive again, and that made me feel good!

I started Cardiac Rehab II this week and will be doing that for the next 12 weeks. Afterwards I will also do Cardiac Rehab III.

Today, I am feeling great, and each day I do what I can, but everyday I can do a little more.

My chest is still a bit sore, but not too bad anymore. I can lift my 15 pound cat.

I am walking a mile and a half most days, and I enjoy it very much.

I love life and I look at it differently from before.

I plan to enjoy each moment, because life is precious and you never know what can happen. Your life can be gone in a heart beat. I am so glad that the people in the heart chat told me about this site, and if there is anyone with the same fear and anxiety that I was struggling with, I'd be happy to e-mail with that person.

chriswink@yahoo.com