Tag: heart surgery
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Can Horses Help With Post Open-Heart Surgery Recovery?
By David Rude There is no doubt that social isolation and loneliness have had a profound effect on personal health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. I imagine that anyone who had open-heart surgery during this time may have truly struggled. It is well known that mood swings and difficult feelings — including depression, fear,…
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Filling in the Missing Pieces of Your Mended Heart
By Todd Matthews With Kathryn Kopp My name is Todd Matthews, and I am a 50-year-old survivor of coarctation of the aorta. I’m not sure how I want to share my own rugged scar. A tattoo? An outline on my t-shirt? Maybe I can start by just sharing my story with you… By the…
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Bill Schramer Is in It for the Long Haul
Bill Schramer was raised in Wheaton, Ilinois, and moved to California in the mid-1980s. He’s an IT professional with 35 years of experience as a Systems Programmer, Systems Analyst and Business Analyst. He was married in 1988, and widowed in 1994. He married again in 2003. After his open-heart surgery in 2005, he started volunteering…
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![Your Dreams Can Happen: Believe It! [Strength and Spirit Series]](https://stage.mendedhearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/marc-olivier-jodoin-TStNU7H4UEE-unsplash-125x125.jpg)
Your Dreams Can Happen: Believe It! [Strength and Spirit Series]
By Yacxara, as part of our Strength and Spirit Series We heart kids — and adults — may be born with certain challenges, but we really aren’t that different than anyone else. We all want to grow up and go to school, go to college, get married and have kids. We don’t always know if…
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The Best Investment I Ever Made
By Robert Mosner My name is Robert Mosner; I was born in June 1955. When I finished college in 1977 my first job was in the BioMedical department at Union Memorial Hospital. After three years, I took a job at Beckman Instruments, continuing to work in the health care field. In 1980, when I left…
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My Miraculous Open Heart Surgery
By David Weinfurtner My battle against heart problems began when I was a child. At the age of five, I had a convulsion and passed out. My doctor in a small town in Central Wisconsin passed on hospitalizing me. He sent me home with my parents, and I was supposed to just rest in bed.…
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Lessons of the Heart
By Jennifer Snead Chavez I suffered a heart attack three years ago. Well, suffered is the word people seem to use most often, but it doesn’t really describe my experience. While it was unpleasant, a tad scary, inconvenient and eye-opening, there was very little suffering on my part. In fact, I think there was…
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Hospital Hacks
By Lindsay Davis I want to preface this article by stating that I find scars to be a beautiful thing that no one should be ashamed of. I wear mine proudly and think of them as warrior markings. When we’ve been through something so difficult, there’s no reason we should be embarrassed by something…
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Financial Considerations During the Hospital Stay
You may be wondering, “Why would I want to think about financial considerations now? I am focused on my child in the hospital. I’ll worry about that later. Financial information will just give me more stress than I already have.” That is a valid point, and you do need to focus on your son…
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Learning to Be Thankful
By Melissa O’Donnell, new mom and new CHD advocate and student “I am going to send you to cardiology. It’s probably nothing, but I need you to go now.” My husband and I had just arrived at our two-week pediatric check up. I whispered, “It’s probably nothing” and rolled my eyes at Ryan. I…