My Steemit account just got approved this morning. Yay! Since everyone is introducing to the community, I'll give it a shot too!
So who am I?
I am a 24 year old male currently studying computer science at the university. I would say that my life isn't anything special for now, but it also isn't bad!
Let me tell you a bit about my health. When I was born, back in 1993, I was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect. For easier understanding, many people also call it "Hole in the heart."
This is basically a deffect (hole) in the wall (septum) that seperates the two lower or pumping chambers (ventricles) of the heart.
My parents were scared to death. I understand them. I mean hey, imagine that your newborn child already needs a surgery right after he was born. What could possibly go wrong?
Luckily, the surgery succeed and I was okay. I had a normal childhood, playing and running around with my friends, etc.
On a nice, warm, sunny summer day my friends and I were playing on one of their backyard. It was hot outside, sun was shining, it was amazing. We were playing something like dodgeball, throwing ball into each other, kicking it in the air and just having fun. The ball was then passed to me and I caught with my hands. Suddenly, I felt dizzy, bad, my vision got blurry and I lost balance and (luckily) fell on a grass. Let me mention, this was about 14 years from my first surgery (the one I was given at birth). So at that time, I was about 15 years old.
At first, my friends thought that I was kidding. I was lying on the floor, they were laughing, and I still remember those voices and echoes "Come on, get up! You can sleep at night buddy! Don't be a fool and get up.
They didn't knew what was going on. No one did.
One of my friends ran into his house and called his mother. She came to me, lifted me up and carried me to my house (we were just across the street, at my neighbour's backyard). My parents quickly called the ambulance but got a response, something like "Sorry, we are busy and cannot help right now." My heart was running wild. At that time I had about 280 BPM. I was sweating and I felt freezing cold. I was losing consciousness. I was dying.
My parents quickly drove me to the hospital, where I got some kind of medicals directly into my veins. Few minutes later, my heart slowed down.
At that point, no one really knew what was going on with my heart. A cardiology specialist that had my case since my birth, said that I need a surgery. That surgery was very exhausting. They replaced my heart valve. I was in a hospital, laying for about 2 weeks straight. I couldn't get up because I was that dizzy. Then I finally made it and slowly started to live a normal life. School, friends, free-time, etc. You know, the routine of a 15 year old.
Then one day, at school, about a year later, we had a sports class. It was a fall. Leaves were colorful, wind was blowing. We were competing with each other, running 60-meter sprint. It was my turn. I started to run, then on about half the way to the finish line, I started to feel my heart was running wild again. I was thinking "Hey, my heart is probably running wild because I was running. There is probably nothing serious. Right? About half an hour later, my heart still didn't slowed down. I knew something isn't okay. My mom rushed to the hospital again, where I had the same procedure as the first time.
After a week or so, we got a call from our cardiologist, saying that we need to make an appointment. He said that I need another surgery, because the valve they gave me the first time was bad. There was a series of bad valves and I got one of them. I was sad. Going through all of this again?
Second surgery went well, I recovered faster and I felt a lot better that the first time. Everything since then is normal, my valve is working well and I feel good. I can also do a little recreational sports sometimes.
This is it. My story. I felt like I had to share this with you. Thank you for reading!