Not long before my wedding day, I was running on a treadmill and thought I was going to die. The doctor was conducting a nucleur stress test and my heart was supposed to reach 150 bpm's. I thought I just had "asthma" as I had been told or was just really out of shape. I was only 35 and the doctors thought there might be something really wrong with my heart. I had no idea anything that serious was really wrong with me. After much persuassion from my endocrinologist, I was seeing a cardiologist as something was just "off." The week before my wedding I had an emergency heart cathertization as it was thought that I might have a blockage or something terribly wrong with my heart. I had no idea what the future would hold. The doctors waited until we got back from our honeymoon to tell me that I had congestitive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension. I've heard of heart failure before and that was scary enough, but I had no idea what "pulmonary hypertension" was (as many people don't.) My mother was terrifed as she had just lost one daughter three months prior to a car accident at the age of 33. So, I spent the next few months in doctors offices and in and out of the hospital. I had every test done known to man to discover if it was Primary Pulmonary Hypertension and what to do about it. It took many months for me to find a good cardiologist and pulmonologist that knew anything about PAH (Pulmonary Aterial Hypertension, the type of PH I have.) Since then, I have been treated by a variety of drugs, including Revatio (similar to Viagra) and I would get puzzling looks from the pharmacist. This summer I am attending a conference about Pulmonary Hypertension in California provided by a grant from the Pulmonary Hypertension Association and hope to learn much more about my disease. I attend a local support group as even though PH (pulmonary hypertension) is a rare disease more and more people are being "correctly" diagnosed with it every year. Including people like me, young women at the "prime" of their life. I thank all of the researchers who are tirelessly searching for a cure for the rare disease that I have.

I went downtown the other day to see a man running on a treadmill for 24 hours straight (pics of that to come) and there were so many things to take pictures of! Underneath a pavilion in the central plaza of Chile there are long picnic tables set up, and old men sit there and play chess. I would say, around 40 or 50 guys were playing at the time I went, which was about 3:30 in the afternoon. Don't these people have jobs?!?

Fui al Santiago Centro el otro dia a ver el hombre que iba a trotar 24 horas sin para en el trotador (mas tarde voy a subir fotos de el), y habian tantas cosas de que podia sacar fotos. Bajo el pavilion en Plaza de Armas donde hay mesas largas los viejos se juntan a jugar ajedrez, probablemente habian cerca de 40-50 personas jugando en el momento que estaba yo (como las 3:30 de la tarde). Esa gente no tiene que trabajar?!?