Wow, I haven't updated my blog in a while! Well, today marks 11 years since my diagnosis with heart failure and cardiomyopathy. Just 11 years ago today I found myself in ccu at Middletown Hospital being told I needed a heart transplant to survive. That was IF I made it thru the weekend which doctors were not hopeful. What a journey this has been. God is so faithful. It is so good to go back and see where I was on June 21st 2001 and to look back over the years and see how God was making provision for me in his timing. I had met my husband just 8 months prior to my diagnosis. God knew I would need him and he sure provided a special person to go thru this journey with me. I'll never forget the day Steve looked at me in that hospital and told me with tears in his eyes that he would give me his heart if the doctos would permit it to save my life. Now, that is love! I learned so much about him during this time and truly saw a man that could stick with someone thru anything. So, we got married one year later on my one year heart anniversary so today also marks my 10 year wedding anniversary to the love of my life and my best friend. We chose to celebrate life by remembering it and by making this also the day to remember our wedding day. Talk about 2 different emotions! I can remember when I was in the hospital being told I probably would not survive and I really had no fear. God gave me an incredible strength that truly was a miracle in itself. Because I had no fear and always believed God was going to heal me, my family was more at ease. Peace seemed so strange to my doctors and nurses! My world should have been falling apart but God gave me sweet peace. The song that kept going thru my head at the time was "There is Joy in the Lord." It's been an incredible journey with ups and downs along the way. I've been worked up for transplant now twice and each time God chose a different way for me. There is so much power in prayer. Never take that for granted. Pray, pray, pray. Even when you don't see results....PRAY! 11 years after my initial diagnosis I am at my strongest. My heart is normal size and my EF is now 48%, which is just 2% below normal. I do not get tired. I work out...HARD and I feel great. There is no explantion to this other than God performed a miracle for me. I will never take that for granted. So, today I celebrate. I celebrate all I've been thru and what it has taught me and because this experience brought me closer to God than I would be if I had not had the experience. This experience changed my life for the better and I would not trade it for the world. Can I say it's all been fun....No, I have had my struggles but God has been with me the entire time. He has blessed me with a wonderful family and allowed me to marry my very best friend and love of my life. Today I celebrate all that he has done. He has done great things for me. Now, it is time for me to do great things for him.
