The First Time I Met Someone With Heart Failure

Sometimes you feel like you are the only one going through heart failure, and it seems like there is no one that you can talk to.

You can feel very lonely and isolated.

Feeling alone in the heart failure journey?

It would really help to have someone who has been going through a heart failure journey and knows what we all feel. It is important to create a support system where you have people to vent to.

I remember the days when I couldn’t get out of bed because I was so depressed. Not knowing someone who knew what I was going through was the hardest part because nobody was in my shoes. Especially as a young person.

The first time I met someone else with HF

When I was in undergrad, I met a guy who I didn’t know I would become close to through the years. We were both student athletes.

I was on the track and field team and he was on the basketball team.

We shared a forensic science class together.

Years after we graduated, he got diagnosed with heart failure.

HF diagnosis dispelled assumptions

My first thought was disbelief because he was an athlete, and I didn’t know that athletes could get heart failure.

Better still, I didn’t know that young people could even be diagnosed with a heart condition. His heart had taken a turn for the worst and he was diagnosed with advanced heart failure.

The news was another surprise because I didn’t know that there was such a thing. The doctors told him that he needed an LVAD, which stands for left ventricular assist device.

It assists the heart in pumping blood when the left ventricle can’t pump efficiently.

Navigating my own heart failure diagnosis

It wasn’t until a few years later that I started my heart journey and was diagnosed with advanced heart failure, just like my friend.

The doctors said that I needed an LVAD because my heart wasn’t pumping well enough.

I had been diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy in 2014, and just 4 years later, I was diagnosed with advanced heart failure. I hadn’t spoken to my friend in some years since graduation, so I didn’t know about his journey until I had to get an LVAD.

Not alone: the second person I met with heart failure

The second person I met was a young lady who became my heart sister.

I was in the hospital recovering from LVAD surgery, and the doctors introduced me to a patient ambassador.

She had the LVAD for about 5 years, and she was a success story. She found out she had heart failure after the pregnancy of her son.

Seeing her showed me that it was possible to live a regular life with advanced heart failure.

She was independent, she worked a full-time job, and took care of her son, all while having heart failure. After meeting her, I found a new inspiration.

If she could do all of that while having heart failure, I should be able to adjust to do all the things I wanted to do. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started looking at my life differently.

Using my heart failure experience to pay it forward

I got to return the favor to them when I had a heart transplant in 2020.

Both of my friends had their heart transplants after me, so I was able to be there for them just like they were there for me.

It helps to build a community of people who share the same disease.

Luckily for us, we have this community as well as other groups on social media with people all around the world who share the same diagnosis as we do.