Personal Narrative: A Rare Heart Disease
Every week I would drive one hundred miles round trip to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. I would consult with numerous specialized doctors that I had waited months to secure an appointment with. Doctor appointments became my new normal. I was informed that I had a rare genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. This diagnosis would leave me to test my resilience and it would also make me grow up quickly to manage the new responsibilities of balancing health and school.
Pediatric interventional cardiology is a passion and a dream which I hope one day to realize. During my first pediatric residency training, I realized the depth of my interest in cardiology. I found pleasure and interest in all the pediatric cardiology rotations; however, cardiac catheterization, despite the limited sophistication with which it was performed, captivated me. As there were no training opportunities available back home and few interventional procedures can be done due to lack of experience in congenital interventional cardiology. Therefore, I decided to pursue a second pediatric residency training in the USA to allow me the opportunity for further training in pediatric cardiology and eventually congenital cardiac intervention.
I might always have health issues, and I may not ever be able to relax. However, that struggle and that desire to overcome has inspired me not only to get back to the person I was before the surgeries, but to better myself because of it. It’s that drive that inspires me to stay up studying well after the sun has set, to endure the pain during my physical therapy sessions, and most importantly to see that everyone must overcome adversity no matter how much it may affect their life. I see the way my mother put her entire universe on hold to care for me, and how agonizing that must have been to watch her daughter nearly slip away. I see the little girl with the plaid comforter, she was so tough, hoisting a smile onto her face when the rest of her body was in so much pain.
It was under the most delicate of circumstances, when I realized what I was born to do for the rest of my life. It was march 2007, my grandfather was suffering from pneumonia and due to his deteriorating condition he was hospitalized. I had flown in from Toronto to be by his side. Sitting anxiously by his bedside with tears in my eyes wondering if I could do anything to make my grandfather feel better, I watched doctors come and go , updating us on his blood reports, EKGs, chest x-rays, ABGs, and at the same time constantly counseling my concerned family members. As they explained what they were doing to bring my grandfather to the path of recovery, I watched in utter fascination.
I couldn’t move my legs. I couldn’t move my hands. My family took me to the hospital and from there I was admitted as patient. As a little girl I was always very optimistic. Becoming a patient meant no more school and no more homework.
No matter where I am, I always find my way to the books. The worlds draw me in, I’m always attracted to imagining something, something other than my life. I thought that was normal, I never understood why others would tease me for carrying a book instead of a Mobile or a Tamagotchi. “If only they knew the magic inside” I mumble to myself.
While the specialists were trying to figure out what was wrong with me, I was
A year ago I was rolled into the operating room not knowing what the next year would hold. I didn 't know if the procedure would work or if I would feel any different. A year after my heart surgery I can say I am migraine free and getting to live my life again! I lived my whole life with a small hole that I didn 't even know was effecting me the way it was and now I don 't have to worry. Couldn 't be more thankful for the great doctors and nurses at St. Francis who have given me things I didn 't know I was
I had been seriously ill with gastritis intermittently since nineteen fifty-three when I had been offered to resign the papacy. I underwent cellular rejuvenation treatment, the side-effects caused hallucinations and nightmares. I frequently had to miss work, I began to depend highly on my close colleagues, Domenico Tardini, Robert Leiber, and Pascalina Lehnert. On October fifth of nineteen fifty eight, at my summer residence Castel Gandolfo, I suffered extremely painful complications, I still managed to try and continue my duties between intervals of rest. The next morning, doctors came in to pump my stomach, I however, lost consciousness and was given last rites.
Over the course of the last few months my life was changed for the worst yet another time. This time, the whirlwind was caused by my youngest brother, Zane. Being sucked into school life with all the extracurricular activities, I have had to balance demands of his diagnosis with all the academic requirements of achieving at a high level and participating in sports. On October 2, 2016, he was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease called Bechet's Syndrome.
Rheumatic Fever is the complication of untreated strep throat and has long been eradicated ever since World War I. Of course it was my luck, or there lack of, to be diagnosed with such an illness. This would prove to be one of the hardest things for me to triumph on my journey through life.
For as long as I can remember, my daily routine involved watching what I ate, when I ate, and then injecting myself with a syringe full of insulin. It also included pricking my battered fingers to test my blood sugar levels approximately six times a day. Due to the fact that I began these routines before I could even mutter a full logical sentence, I grew up believing that this routine was something that everyone did every day as well. I grew up thinking that my oddly scarred fingers and arms were ordinary and not unusual. But all of this changed when I entered the sixth grade.
An X-ray. Never before had I had one. I slowly walked into the warm X-ray room, afraid of this new experience. “Please stand in front of this.” A nurse guided me to a strange panel on the wall which had a bright projection of a t-shape on its surface.
My passion for healthcare lies with patient care. I enjoy taking care of patients and their family. I have chosen to become a family nurse practitioner because I can combine nursing and medicine to provide a higher level of care to my patients. As a nurse practitioner will be able to make an impact on my patient’s health through, health promotion, disease prevention, managing acute and chronic conditions and improving patient’s health (Wynne,
My struggle with cancer started as a 19 year old freshman attending community college in southern Nevada. My Diagnosis blindsided me, with the force of a 240 pound linebacker. It was safe to say that I was not ready for “it”. My five year struggle or as I like to call it, “battle”, with cancer was no less painful or blindsiding. Every time I thought I was near scoring a touchdown against it, it seemed to hit me even harder, just where and when I wasn’t expecting “it”.
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