Marcel Belanger seemed healthy enough. The 39-year-old senior investigator in the Prince George forest region ran about six miles every day.

Sure he was a little overweight. And he’d been told 10 years earlier that one of the valves in his heart was defective, but it didn’t appear to be causing any trouble.

Then, early last year, his doctor found Marcel’s blood pressure was rising. The MD prescribed medication to lower the pressure, advised Marcel to lose 20 pounds and sent him to Vancouver for an angiogram at St. Paul’s Hospital.

The doctor and Marcel and his wife, Holly, held on to the possibility that the problem would correct itself. But the news from the Vancouver cardiologist, delivered in July, dashed that hope.

Marcel needed heart surgery—soon—to replace the damaged valve.

Hospital staff set a date in mid-August for the operation, confirmed it four days ahead of time and then, with just two days to go, cancelled it indefinitely.

The tension in the Belanger household, already high, soared further.

However, Marcel used the extra time to do some research on the planned surgery and gather other resource aids—pamphlets, videos, talks with others in chat rooms on the Web and Web sites about the disease and life after surgery.

Meanwhile, family, friends and co-workers provided the couple with much-needed emotional support. Louise Dewick, the forest region’s human resources officer, had seen her husband through heart bypass surgery and was able to answer some of Marcel’s and Holly’s questions. And a local ICU nurse, now retired, came by to explain the surgery.

Finally, at the end of September, surgeons removed the defective part of Marcel’s heart installed a new, artificial valve.

With it, the hospital gave Marcel an "implant identification card" with the valve’s model, serial number and date of implant, "in case of a recall notice," he said, smiling. "There’s even a Web site to look up the number."

Marcel says he felt unprepared for the emotional roller coaster he rode during his four-and-a-half month recovery that followed the surgery.

"You have good days and bad days. Just walking to the mailbox, 400 metres down a flat street, was a success. I went down to the basement one day and couldn’t get back up the stairs."

He’s much better now, though, and back at work. He says he and Holly will be glad to talk with anyone going through heart surgery or any one with a friend or family member in that situation. "We learned a lot from this and both feel we can share valuable information that isn’t out there," Marcel said.

You can email Marcel at:
Marcel.Belanger@gems4.gov.bc.ca
or phone (250) 565-6143.