Photo

I'm a 30 year-old young woman who by the grace of God survived 29 years of having an undiagnosed cardiac birth defect. When I was born, my heart had a virus and was also enlarged. After many hospital stays, a lot of medical attention, and prayers, I overcame my sickness and grew up to be a tall, healthy young girl. While I was young, I ran track, excelled academically, and loved life.

During my teenage years, my symptoms of my illness start to slowly appear. Very gradually, I began having heart palpitations, shallow breathing, weight problems, and horrible anxiety problems. I never told my parents because I thought these symptoms were side effects from my epilepsy medication which I've taken since I was 8 years old. Plus, I've always felt this way my entire life.

In March 2002, I woke up with heart palpitations so severe that my heart was stopping . I immediately called my mother and told her that I thought I was having a heart attack. At this point in my life, I thought the reasoning for the constant exhaustion and breathlessness was because of my anxiety I thought was working too hard. I went to a cardiologist and I went through a month of intensive cardiac testing. Then...

On April 16, 2002, I had open heart surgery to correct a coarctation of my aorta and to close my patent ductus tube. They also found that the left artery coming out of my aorta was missing. My family, doctors, and I were in such shock and disbelief that my heart was so defected and I lived this long without having a massive stroke or death.

My surgery lasted around 8-9 hours and my surgeon operated through my upper left portion of my back to repair my heart. Besides the actual surgery, I also survived a bad case of pneumonia and 3-4 months of intensive physical therapy. The recovery has been long, and emotionally difficult for me and my family. However, we thank God everyday for giving me an phenomenal surgeon and lots of inner strength, courage, and a new chance at life.

My surgery was exactly 1 year and 3 months ago. I feel and look like a completely different woman. I've gained almost 30 pounds, I exercise on a regular basis, I can take deep, powerful breaths (which is my favorite thing to do), and sleep normal hours. I'm know to be "pretty mellow" rather than a fingernail-biting jumble of nerves, and EVERYONE tells me how amazed they are to see me with such rosy, glowing skin. Plus... my neurologist told me that it was okay for me to go off of my epilepsy medication! I believe I had the childhood seizures because I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my brain because of my heart defect. I still have aches and pains but I know I'm still healing and it will someday subside. I also have a completely different perception of life...I'm more spiritual and thankful for life, I treasure, respect, and love my family EVEN more than before, and I don't take things so seriously. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

God Bless,