I wanted to try to be a part of something pretty important - AWARENESS!!
It is Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Week this week which coincidentally falls in the middle of HEART Month! I wanted to give a brief glimpse of my heart story to help put a face to CHD. I was born A LONG time ago ~ like 1971 with a hole in my heart Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). At age 23 just a few days after my birthday I underwent emergency open heart surgery to repair the original hole that was in there between the bottom chambers of my heart (VSD) and to rebuild a leaflet of my aortic valve which had become mush due to a ruptured aortic aneurysm. While in there they found a third problem which they quickly repaired an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). Mind you all this was done in 1994 and I am still around to blog about it. Four kids later, many speeches for the American Heart Association about it and I was even able to work for them for sometime which I just LOVED with all my HEART! Since my surgery I try to live life to the fullest as you can see from my blog. I try to try new things and have new experiences all the time. I also encourage women to be brave and get out there and LIVE, give adventure a chance you might just like it! Being that I was a kid with CHD I find children's heart stories touch my heart just as much as women's heart stories.
Today, I take three medications that keep my safe and keep me alive. Due to my repaired heart I now live with Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) but I don't let that stop me from LIVING!
Below is my new favorite picture taken this past weekend on GO RED FOR WOMEN day at our Family Girl's Getaway Weekend that I organized. They all wore RED for me and all the women like me!
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