Thank you for supporting American Heart Association. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.
In 2005 when I was a teenager I suffered a stroke. Drs thought I had a pfo until last November 2024 when they discovered my heart was getting larger. After many tests they found a large ASD that would need to be closed.
This past September I underwent open heart surgery for an ASD closure after a failed attempt to close it through a much less invasive procedure in May.
In April 2025, only weeks before the first procedure, I ran and finished the 129th Boston Marathon! I ran for a stroke recovery organization in honor of the 20th anniversary of my stroke. I was also a featured athlete that year from Bank of America and it was such an honor to be a part of that and to have my story of survival featured for everyone to read about.
I am grateful today that I am still alive. I am gratfeul to my surgeon who was so wonderful. I am beyond grateful to all the nurses who cared for me in the week I spent in the hospital post-op. I was in so much pain and was so helpless, unable to do anything myself, even tasks as simple as brushing my hair. I am grateful for my husband who was the first one there holding a hairbrush, helping me eat, sit up, shower and was like another nurse once I got home. All of my family were so good to me taking shifts to come and "babysit" me while my husband was at work and kept me from going absolutely crazy while I was stuck home for so many weeks.
Now, as I am stepping out of recovery and stepping back into normal life I want to do more. I want to give back, I want to do whatever I can to help others who are in the postion I was in several months ago. So, a little over a year to the date of my open heart surgery, I am running the Chicago Marathon to give back to the communtiy and to raise money for the American Heart Association. Please consider donating to my charity. Even the smallest donation will help give back to something that means so much to me!
