Category: Mended Little Hearts Blog
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I Am a Heart Mom
By Katelyn Stocker I’ve really been wrestling with my identity as a heart mom. I don’t want it, and I don’t want it to define me, but it does. The day we found out about Mae’s heart, my life changed. My title changed. I didn’t feel ready, but I never will. I felt totally…
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What Is Hearts Unite the Globe or HUG?
ByAnna Jaworski You may have seen a logo that is a globe with a circle of hearts hugging it. Thats the logo for Hearts Unite the Globe: A Nonprofit Organization for the Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Community. This organization was started 20 years ago by a group of heart parents and grandparents. The purpose…
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The Great Sibling Debate
By Lauren Garda **This article may or may not contain personal risk and the data stated in the article does not represent the CHD population as a whole. This article is one moms journey of the question of whether to have another child. It should not be considered medical advice or solid data claims.…
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You Look Fine From the Outside
By Crystal McCullough You look fine from the outside Breathing, opening and closing your eyes Even giving away sly grins What you can’t see is the twisted anatomy inside The change of oxygen in your blood How it affects your brain But you look fine from the outside Until your scar peeks through A once…
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Dear Heart Parents, Let Yourself Be Angry
By Michelle Bowers Four years later, and Im still angry. After all these years, I am still mad. Most parents take their babies home friends and family visit; its a joyous occasion. Thats not how I remember May 21, 2014. I woke up that morning with a healthy baby; I went to bed…
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Moments That Matter
ByJodi Smith Lemacks, Esq.,National Program Director of MendedLittleHearts Mended Little Hearts (MLH) has been supporting families with children who have congenital heart defects/disease (CHD) since 2004, which coincidentally, is the year Facebook was started in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two MLH groups, one in Hollywood, Florida and one in Fresno, California, began to bring CHD families…
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Q&A with Dallas Heart Mom and Fundraiser Dawn Strauss
By Whitney Reed Whitney became a heart mom in 2015, when her daughter was born with Pulmonary Atresia with VSD. Her daughter has had three open-heart surgeries one was planned and two were emergencies. Reed lives in Carrollton, Texas, a large suburb outside of Dallas, and is a member of Mended Little Hearts…
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A Heart Moms Big Question: Will I Ever See Her as a Child First and a Heart Baby Second?
By Angela Eilers Angela lives in Southern California and is a member of the local Mended Little Hearts chapter. Im a heart mom. Eight and a half years ago, I couldnt begin to tell you what that meant. Now, 8.5 years after my daughter was born and diagnosed, I can tell you being a…
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Preparing an Older Child for Heart Surgery or Cath: From the Experts
Getting through a childs heart surgery or cardiac catheterization (cath) is hard enough when the child is little and doesnt really understand what is happening, but preparing an older child or young adult for a major heart procedure can be difficult for parents and for the older child. Luckily, there are expertsthe patients themselves…
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We’re Partnering With The Mighty to Help People with Congenital Heart Disease!
We’re thrilled to announce a new partnership that will bring our resources in front ofThe Mighty‘s wide-reaching readership. We will now have agrowing home pageon The Mighty and appear on many stories on the site. The Mighty is a story-based health community focused on improving the lives of people facing disease, disorder, mental illness…