02/08/2020
Today we all wore RED (or some shade of it lol) to raise money and awareness for the American Heart Foundation! ❤️
The American Heart Foundation is an incredible organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and strokes, having invested more than $4.5 billion in research, more than any U.S. nonprofit organization.
Heart disease is something especially a touchy subject for me, having had both my father and grandfather undergo triple and quintuple bypass heart surgeries years ago. There are also other loved ones near and dear to me whom have suffered strokes. I’ve seen firsthand what happens to the individuals and their families and man it’s a struggle every day.
Very few people know this about me but in spring/summer 2019 I was rushed to the hospital because I had severe flu like symptoms coupled with bad chest pain and I could barely breathe. Doctors did several EKG’s on me and they said based on what the results it looked like I was having a heart attack. Naturally I freaked out. Make a long story short, they did an emergency cardiac catheterization procedure where they stick a tube in your artery and shoot dye into your body to identify where the clot is. Thank God it turns out it was not a heart attack, however it was still something scary and dangerous. I had a very rare infection that attacked my heart, called Myocarditis. It’s that rare that they don’t even have much data or research on it to treat it. Myocarditis basically swells the heart and can be fatal. The only way (if your lucky) that it goes away is with rest, and being extremely careful with anything you do. No picking up anything heavy no exercise, no getting upset or nervous either because if god forbid you get tour heart rate up with a swollen heart, you can easily go into heart failure and it’s game over. Something like 20% of people who get it end up passing away. The good news is, it took me about 3 months to recover, but I’m fully recovered with very little damage done to the heart thank God.
Every day is a blessing. If you are reading this right now take a second to realize how insanely lucky you are.
If you have a few extra bucks, please donate at Heart.Org ❤️ @ Manalapan, Florida
