Almost 40 years ago I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.....in December 2009 at the age of 24 I under went my first open heart surgery....that is when I was implanted with a machine called the LVAD....my family and I had no clue what was going on...no talk about the LVAD was discussed until I came out of the OR with one.....when I came out from surgery I was in a medical induce coma for almost 3 weeks.....16 years ago on Jan 5th, I woke up from that coma and am alive today because that machine gave me a second chance at life...there are times in my life I don't show that I'm grateful to still be alive but I am.....not only has it been 16 years since I woke up from a horrible life experience (that I wouldnt even wish on my worse enemy), this coming Feb 20th, 2025 will be 12 years LVAD free without transplant......in my almost 12 years of being free I have battle other life experience but if non of those didn't happen I wouldn't have met my wonderful boyfriend who has been there for me for the last 11.5 years, I wouldn't have faced my biggest fear of my scars if it wasn't for one of my friends showing me modeling...having photographers telling me my scars are who I am made me feel more proud of them, I’ve been doing photo shoots since 2015. My favorite saying to people is "Tomorrow is never promised, so go live your life to the fullest"