Sat Jul 04 2009
By DARLENE PRINCE
Theresa Stahl's recovery from a serious blood-pressure disease has been nothing short of remarkable.
In about four years, the Defiance resident has progressed from barely being able to walk and even breathe to becoming an active advocate on information about her disease, pulmonary hypertension (PH).
"I feel more energetic, and I am much more active," Stahl said.
PH is a genetic disease that causes lesions to form in the arteries of the lungs and gradually shuts the arteries off. With the arteries shut off, the heart has to pump harder, the right ventricle of the heart begins to enlarge and cause stress to the heart. Thus, the blood pressure is raised in the arteries of the lungs.
PH can cause symptoms such as breathlessness, chest pains, dizziness, fainting, chronic fatigue, depression, dry cough, swollen ankles and legs and severe problems with organs.
Stahl said PH is often misdiagnosed because many of its symptoms are similar to those of other diseases, such as asthma or heart disease. She said when she first began having symptoms of the disease in 2001, she was gasping for air while she was talking. For two years, while she was being mistakenly treated for asthma, her health grew progressively worse.
Her local cardiologist spotted the first evidence of PH in an electrocardiogram and sent her to the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the diagnosis of PH was confirmed in October 2003.
She now takes the medicine, Remodulin, which keeps her arteries open and blood flowing to her lungs.
Stahl wears a medical pump with tubing inserted through a port into the soft tissue of her abdomen. Remodulin is pumped continuously into her system by means of the computerized pump.
"I call myself 'the bionic woman,'" she said with a happy laugh.
"My goal now is to promote awareness of PH," she said. "This disease is misdiagnosed so often. It can be diagnosed as congestive heart failure or chronic bronchitis."
She recently met with Defiance Mayor Bob Armstrong who declared the Month of November as Pulmonary Hypertension Month in Defiance.
"I am an Internet mentor for a new PH patient through the PEER network on a secure website," she said. She has also been speaking to a resident in McClure who has PH.
"I contacted the K of C and will give an informative talk to them and I am also speaking at a meeting of the Defiance Lions Club on Jan. 10," she said. "I also gave a talk last week at the (Defiance) senior center. I am doing volunteer work, too.
"For me, it has been almost like a rebirth into a good life," she added.
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