Shock of a Lifetime

Nina

As I counted down the last few days before my second heart surgery, I began to surrender. I knew I needed to be strong for my daughters. I made the decision to to have a heart catheterization that was recommended by my surgeon and cardiologist two weeks prior to my valve replacement surgery.This would rule out any concerns or surprises. As I entered the Cath. Lab, I realized how cold it was in there but once the cocktail of medicine they administered into my IV started to kick in, I began to drifted off to a deep sleep. My Doctor assured me that I would be in and out of the Cath Lab pretty quick and there was nothing to be concerned about. The next thing I remember I was being wheeled out of the lab and back to my room and that’s when I noticed there were a few doctors looking at films that were clipped up. I wasn’t sure if they were my films or some other patients, the only thing that was sure of was overhearing “ I’ve never seen anything like this before”, and off to sleep I went. Not long after, I woke up in my room and my Doctor was there. He seemed serious in his demeanor. He moved closer to me and said, “I have good news and bad news, which one do you want to hear first?” The only response I could formulate at the time was “I guess the good news first”. He began to explain, “Now let me try and explain this in a way that you will understand. On a very simplistic level, you have a very rare congenital heart defect that is called White Bland Garlands disease”. My jaw dropped and he saw the shock in my face. Then he asked a strange question… “Have you ever seen the movie Young Frankenstein?” “Yes , yes I have ,” I answered. My doctor replied in a joking way “Well, you are Abby Normal. “There are very few of you in the world who survive into adulthood due to not having proper oxygen, most babies born with this heart condition do not survive past age two.” I was one of those rare survivors and knew from that day forward I would never take one second on this beautiful earth for granted.

To conclude the mystery of my heart anomaly it was a congenital heart defect that’s better known today as ALCAPA (anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary ). It was an anomaly with reported incidence of 1 in 300,000 live births in the world and accounting for only 0.25% of all congenital heart anomalies. For me and hopefully for anyone reading this that can relate to my story, there is no bad news, I made it! I survived and my parents both got to see me grow up when they were told that there wasn’t much hope of my survival and they never even understood why. They didn’t question the doctors or have google to refer to so they did what parents do… they prayed.