Rewind back to my last semester at BYU. I took on a LOT, maybe too much, for my senior year. I was in 4 shows and number 3 had only just closed. I was nearing the end of my college life and had a few days left of classes to go and some exams. I woke up one wednesday morning feeling tired which I was used to at this point. The feeling was the same feeling you get when your eyelids just want to close- you feel dizzy. By lunch time i am usually quite alert but the dizzyness hadn't gone at all. By the evening I felt drunk (or what i imagine it to feel like). It was really quite funny. I even started surring some of my words! My friends and I had a good laugh and i went to bed early so i could get a full 10 hours sleep. Next day it wasn't any better. Someone suggested it come be allergies so I took some claritin and no difference and again I was finding some words a little difficult to say. Friday rolled around and I had my ballet final. Thankfully my teacher knew about my dizzyness so wasn't terribly harsh when grading my pirouettes which I can only imagine were beyond terrible. She advised me to go to the doctor and request an MRI.
So that Friday night i had a wedding reception to attend but thought I'd stop by the doctors just before to check that everything was ok. He couldn't find anything wrong with me but advised us to go to the ER to get an MRI. So we did. We waited and waited and after a few hours the doctor came back with the results.
"It appears that you have had a stroke."
I'm sorry what?
He explained that they wanted to admit me right away so they could find out why on earth a 22 year old would have a stroke. So for the next two days I got no sleep and had ultrasounds, blood drawn, scans and all sorts done to try to find what caused this stroke.
They found a hole in my heart in one of the scans which has been known to cause strokes occasionally (if you're very unlucky). They assured me that they don't think it will happen again because I am otherwise very healthy and that the hole in my heart should be fine as it is. Apparently 20-30% of people have this hole because when we're born we are born with a hole and a flap and then the flap seals itself when we're still a baby. But for 20-30% of us, that doesn't happen. And so we go through life, some never knowing that they have this and never having any problems, others (like me) find out they have a hole after showing symptoms.
This is an animation of how a blood clot from the right side of the heart slipped through the hole before it got sent around the body where it gets de-clotted.
Pretty scary really.
So anyway, I recovered fine, had follow up appointments with my cardiologist and neurologist who were both very happy to see that I was doing well and assured me that I was very lucky. The months between April and August I had frequent dizzy spells which was expected for a while after having a stroke.
In September I went to see my doctor for a check up and she wanted to know the whole story but wondered why they weren't going to close the hole in my heart. I said i would ask again and so I did and ended up getting a second opinion from another cardiologist who said he would like to close it. They do not advise it for everyone but i'm young so they say the benefits far outweigh the risks.
And so I went into surgery yesterday for the coolest surgery ever! Once they got inside my heart they found that the hole was considerably larger than they expected. I have been living with a 10mm hole in my heart! And so with the surgery below they patched it up and I am all better and ready to forget the whole thing ever happened :)
I am so so so lucky, it could have been a lot worse. But at the same time I have to be grateful for the stroke because there would have been no way to know about the hole in my heart otherwise.
I am grateful for the incredible surgeons and technology that we have today and excited to put this behind me and look forward to the future! thanks for caring!
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