Heart disease is the number one killer of women today. One in five women live with a heart condition. I have been living with cardiomyopathy (an acquired or hereditary disease of the heart muscle) for fourteen years. My heart journey began with a diagnosis of myocarditis in May 2006, followed by fluid around my heart in May 2007. I feel fortunate to have been diagnosed and treated by some of the best heart doctors in the country.

I Am Fine, Maybe Not

As a mom of three children, working part-time while managing a heart condition, I needed to forge forward. I truly believed I would beat heart disease and lived life as if I didn’t have a heart condition.

Initially, I refused to take my medication after being diagnosed with myocarditis. However, my doctor explained the importance of the prescribed medication, Coreg, likening it to a vitamin for my heart. Understanding this, I accepted taking the medication and have been on Coreg throughout my heart journey.

EF Diagram

Living with cardiomyopathy became my new normal. I had a few more doctor’s appointments each year, usually involving an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), EKG (which records the electrical signal from your heart), and echocardiogram (which provides pictures of the heart’s valves and chambers and helps evaluate the heart’s pumping action). Life seemed normal except for the appointments that didn’t go as planned. I’ve had over 20 MRIs, which often showed scarring on my heart and tested my ejection fraction. A normal ejection fraction is 50-65. My EF would sometimes be in the 30s (low) or in the 50s (normal). To this day, I monitor my condition by my EF, feeling mentally trying to stay upbeat at an EF of 35..

I often ask myself, given that heart disease is the number one killer of women and not breast cancer, why isn't there a routine check for heart disease (like an EKG) similar to mammograms for breast cancer? Be an advocate for yourself, especially if there are heart conditions in your family.