My Story

I was born with a congenital heart defect which at the time was called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  This meant that the walls of the heart were too thick and diseased.  Growing up it rarely affected me until I got older.  When I was 25/26 I started having terrible abdominal problems and got sick very often.  After years of testing they finally figured out that it was my heart that was failing and fluid was building up in my body.  I was put on medication and tried to be as careful with my health as possible.  Dane and I got married we traveled as much as we could, however, symptoms and arrythmias slowly got worse.  I’ve had a pacemaker/ICD implanted and have had two ablations (where they burn the sites thought to cause the arrythmias) however it wasn’t sucessful at stopping them.  After returning from our trip to Costa Rica in Jan of 2011, I realized that my symptoms and condition was getting to the point where I needed to get a full evalution at the U of MN.  After a few tests and full evalutation the doctors suggested that I start Cardio Rehab and go forward with heart transplant listing.  After 100 days of waiting and going in and out of the hosptial and being hooked up to and IV pump at home, I got my call for a new heart on August 3 and my new heart was put in me beating on August 4th at 4:30am.  I spent 8 days in the hospital recovering and by the 4th day I could walk up 4 stairs!!! I have had ups and downs since then with meds and different things but I am on a great path to recovery!!! Everyday I feel stronger.  I am excited for the rest of my life and so thankful for my second chance at life!!

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