Three months post op = first blog post.

Today marks three whole months since my third open heart surgery, and to commemorate this milestone, I have decided to start a blog. This blog will include my own heart tales and experiences and will also be a collection of heart related articles and news stories from around the web that I find interesting. So perhaps I should start by introducing myself and my condition!

My name is Emily, I'm 23 years old and I was born with transposition of the great arteries, ventricular septal defect, pulmonary stenosis and subaortic stenosis. To put in simpler terms, the main arteries in my heart were wrongly connected, I had a hole in my heart, my pulmonary valve was narrower than it should have been, and there was also a narrowing in the area just underneath my aortic valve. Due to the compromised anatomy of my heart, I have also since acquired mitral valve problems. 

I had my first open heart surgery when I was eight months old at Birmingham Children's Hospital. This was the arterial switch operation to place my transposed arteries in their correct positions and the closure of the hole between my heart's ventricles. When I was eight years old, I had further open heart surgery to put in a little conduit, or tube, between the right ventricle of my heart and my pulmonary artery to help combat the pulmonary stenosis, and also to resection the membrane just below my aortic valve. Three months ago, I had my third open heart surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in which my conduit was replaced, my mitral valve was repaired and a patch was put on my left pulmonary artery to help with the fact it had become stretched.

I am well on the road to recovery by now. I have recently started back at work after nearly three months off and have been getting stuck into my cardiac rehabilitation exercise classes. But this recent surgery has opened my eyes to the world of heart conditions, and being able to connect with others who have shared similar experiences has been truly valuable. Supporting others who are in a similar position to myself is something I am now passionate about, and so I will be attempting to update this blog often in order to share my stories and hopefully reach out to more young adults out there with heart conditions. It is a common misconception that only elderly people suffer with heart problems, but how wrong that is!