Taylor

I was born with a rare disease, pulmonary hypertension. The type is called pulmonary veno occlusive disease, which is the most rare of any. I didn’t know I had this disease until, slowly I got to where I couldn’t run or be active without loosing all my breath. I grew up an athlete and in high school, I had to give it all up and didn’t know why. One day, I was swimming and could no longer gain my breath back and was in an induced coma and was not likely to survive. I did survive that and doctor’s thought everything would be fine after. I still had trouble and after a echo-cardiogram, my heart doubled in size and my only chance was a transplant. The disease was a lung disease that closed off any way for blood to pump, causing my heart to work harder. I had less than a month of survival and my doctor said it could take a year before I got lungs. I waited 8 days on the list and received the call. I decided to give everything I had and place it in God’s hands. I was terrified, I didn’t know what to expect. My transplant was successful and was up walking in 2 days. I was released from the hospital in 3 weeks and lived in the Houston area for a year, so that way I could obtain any treatment I needed. The recovery was not easy, it was very painful but now being a runner and playing volleyball, I couldn’t imagine my life being stuck in a wheel chair, on oxygen or not be living to see my beautiful nephew born. This past year I was diagnosed with chronic rejection but with a quick treatment and adjusting my medications, I am now in better standings than I was before rejection.