Joy
Hi Jay. I had a very similar experience to yours. I got strep a lot as a young child, from the years of 5-14 years old. I was constantly in the doctor's office though, and I always got medication. I believe I got the Rheumatic Fever when I was 11 years old, when I first felt the symptoms. I have a 2 year old son, and right after I had him I got sydenham's chorea, one symptom, and I had these round itchy spots all over me. I am now pregnant again, but this time, I didn't get the chorea. I thought that I had pneumomia, and i drove myself to a hospital in Bremerton, Washington, to be checked. I was admitted that night, and was raced to Tacoma, after I fell unconscious, and had to be put on a respirator, because I had so much water in my lungs, and could no longer breathe. I was flown, Via helicopter to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, where I was FINALLY diagnosed with Mitral valve stenosis and pulmonary hypertension caused by rheumatic fever when I was a child. I had a procedure called a valveoplasty done, and after the baby is born, I will have my mitral valve replaced. I am just lucky that my heart failed in the hospital! I am only 23 years old. Funny, I almost left my son without a mommy, and my husband a widow. I hope your rhuematologist decides to listen to you, but it is a cardiologist that I would see now. My Gramma died from a heart attack, caused from Rheumatic fever. She needed a valve replacement, but they didn't know how to do that in 1956. Good luck, and let me know how everything turns out!