The ride of my life

My muscles are weightless, and my mind is empty. Outside the window, a pair of older Japanese women chat quietly. I close my eyes and breathe in the steam that floats up from the geothermal water beneath me.… knowing I won’t ever again waste a single heartbeat fills me with hope that while the sun is setting on this chapter, it will rise again brighter than ever in my future. I’m sitting in a natural hot spring in Japan, a centuries-old tradition that is believed to have healing powers. I slide deeper into the onsen in quiet meditation and hope the mineral-rich water is doing what it’s supposed to. I’m the luckiest girl in the world, I think and then stop. Luck didn’t bring me halfway around the world. A series of events, decisions, and my own two legs did. Routine My muscles are tense, and my mind is running a hundred miles a minute. There are no windows in the tiny, sterile office, and I shift my weight nervously, white paper crinkling loudly on the cushioned table beneath me. I’m sitting at a routine doctor’s appointment in my early 20s, and my new physician just heard a glitch in my heartbeat. She tells me it’s “probably nothing,” but hands me a referral to get an echocardiogram just in case. “Do you have any questions?” I open my mouth to ask one of a hundred, but no words come out. After a variety of tests, it’s confirmed I have a congenital heart defect that’s gone undetected for two decades. I monitor it until one day, under a rectang...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Our Patients’ Stories BACH Boston Adult Congenital Heart Program congenital heart disease Dr. Sitaram Emani Heart Center Source Type: news