My mom’s journey to becoming a heart transplant patient began when she was pregnant with me, 36 years ago. Her doctor mentioned to her that he heard a pronounced heart murmur, to which my mom replied, “You know that I have always had that, it’s nothing!” Of course the doctor thought it sounded like it was definitely more than something, but because she was pregnant, he let it go. After all, it was 1970.
My mom’s dad, my beloved grandpa, had a congenital heart condition, which could suddenly kill him. He lost several brothers and sisters to this condition, he was the one who lived the longest with it. Still, no one said that my mom could possibly have inherited this heart condition.
It was only after I was born, when I was still a toddler that my mom realized that indeed, something was not right with her heart. She had been riding her bike, and I was strapped in on the back of it, in a child seat. When she pulled up to our home, she saw my father and said to him, “I don’t feel so normal,” she then proceeded to place the bike, with me in it, safely on the ground, how I do not know, before she lost consciousness.
It wasn’t until after this episode that my mom’s doctor sent her to the Mayo Clinic, where my grandpa had been treated. It was there that she received the diagnosis that would affect her the rest of her life: IHSS, which is now commonly referred to as Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). Her HCM was also the type that was obstructive; therefore her condition is referred to as, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy with Obstruction. This condition, in an easy-to-describe form, causes the heart muscle wall to thicken so much that it does not allow for blood to flow easily through it. It also can cause the heart to beat too fast or too slowly, which can cause sudden death. If you have recently heard of young athletes dying suddenly because of an unknown heart condition, HCM is often the cause. It can go undetected for years and that can be deadly.
My mom, not one to slow down or accept that she could die suddenly, jumped back into her life. She took her medications that were prescribed and went up the Mayo Clinic regularly to be monitored. In essence, she took what could have been an extremely scary situation for some people and lived her life the fullest. She did, however, limit her physical activity as told, but otherwise she lived her life!
Then, one day she was told that she needed open-heart surgery to remove the obstruction in her heart. I was in fifth grade, and I will never forget that year.
Stay tuned for more of my mom’s journey……