My name is Alex Graham and I am from Rockville, MD. I am passionate about helping The American Heart Association raise funds because I understand how significant heart disease is. For many years, I never thought I would have to worry about heart disease impacting my own life because I was young, relatively healthy, and always tried to exercise and eat right. Heart disease was something older individuals had to deal with, not me. Yet, in late 2019 I discovered that I couldn’t be more wrong. I remember experiencing chest pains that felt very unfamiliar. It wasn’t debilitating pain, so I assumed it wasn’t anything too serious. At that point, I did the exact opposite of what I should have done, which was that I ignored it. I knew I wasn’t having a heart attack because, again, I was young and healthy. People like me didn’t have heart disease. I kept telling myself this over and over again, until I finally broke down and realized that my body was trying to tell me something. I sent my doctor a message and told her what was going on. She asked me to come in right away to get checked out.
After an EKG and a CT scan, I finally received a diagnosis. My doctor said I have something called a thoracic aortic aneurysm. Essentially, this was a bulging in my aorta that was slowly growing. If it grows to be too large, I will need to have surgery to remove it, or else it could rupture. I had a million questions. My first question was: what caused this? I was told that the doctors don’t know for sure. It’s possible I have a congenital issue with my heart. Or it could just be idiopathic. My next question: am I going to die? To my relief, the answer was that I was not likely to die from this. Since my doctors now know about my condition, they can monitor it and proceed with medical intervention if necessary. If I didn’t know about this, it would be significantly more dangerous.
I did have one last question for my doctors: was the chest pain caused by the aneurysm? The answer: not likely. Miraculously, the chest pain went away almost immediately after I was diagnosed. I still have no idea what caused it, but I am so thankful that it happened. My body needed to tell me that something wasn’t right, and it was only once I listened that I took action and possibly prevented something that could have been life threatening.
I was 37 when I received that diagnosis. I never would have imagined that I would have been diagnosed with heart disease at such a young age. I ignored my symptoms. I assumed that I was fine. After I was diagnosed, I realized that there are far too many people who think the exact same way that I did. I want to be able to speak out to people and let them know that this can happen to anyone. Heart disease does not discriminate. The American Heart Association helps to fund research, educate the public about heart disease and stroke and provides lifesaving training. It’s an organization that I want to help promote so that I can help them to save lives.
As part of this year's American Heart Association Leaders of Impact campaign, I'm dedicated to making a lasting impact on the health of our community and hope I can count on your support! The best way to help save lives is by making a donation!
Click the 'Donate to Nominee' button to make a tax-deductible, life-saving gift to my campaign. Fundraising is open from September 17th at 9:00 am until November 4th at 9:00 pm.
