How Has Heart Disease Affected Me

Lee

Heart disease is something that you do not think about until it happens to you. You especially don't think about it happening to children. Children who have done nothing but being born. And there it is. And just as a match set to a pool of gas, the reaction is instantaneously and the lasting effect is evident no matter how you look at it.

How has heart disease affected me? I found out I was pregnant at 40. No issues. Easy pregnancy. All the test and scans were good. But within two hours after my son was born, he was carried away by helicopter to the nearest children's hospital. He was blue. His feet, lips, hands were blue. I only got to touch him for a moment when he was already intubated and in the isolate to fly off to Pittsburgh. One touch of his little hand. That was all.

The next 4 days that I spent in a different town then him, due to C-section, were filled with phone calls from Pittsburgh. "We need your permission to perform this procedure." "We are not sure what the problem is yet." "He has a condition called Tetralogy of Fallot." And I cried. I cried and cried thinking I was going to lose my baby and never even got the change to hold him. On the fourth day, I was released from the hospital. I went home and saw his empty crib in his room all decorated with safari animals, and the lonely rocking chair that I didn't know is it would ever be used to rock him to sleep.

How has heart disease affected me? My son was a bright and beautiful old soul. He had wisdom beyond his years and touched the lives of everyone he met. He was the bravest person that I had ever known. He was always trying to make life easier for those that loved him as though he knew that he would not always be here. My son was so brave and strong. He endured at least 20 heart caths during his life, had stomach issues and surgeries to fix so many things. And when they tell you that a transplant is replacing one disease for another, they are telling you the truth. Everything you think you know about heart disease gets a whole new chapter to study and learn.

Owen received his heart and lungs transplant July 8th, 2014. No longer attached to a hose, it was the first time he could run and play like all the other children. He learned to run and skip and so many other physical things that he was never able to do. And he was so happy. Then, in November 2015, he contracted a fungus while in the hospital. He never left the hospital again. I had to make the hardest decision of my life. I had to let him go.

How has heart disease affected me? It destroyed me.