When I was barely 30 years old, over half my lifetime ago, a cardiologist diagnosed me with a genetic heart condition and told me, “You will have a shortened life expectancy.”  In the matter of one lunch hour my dreams of living a full and rewarding life vanished. That day he also told me, “The […]

Living with a chronic heart condition I have had to identify what causes my anxiety to worsen. Sometimes it can be a person whom I have been at odds with at work or in a relationship. Often it is waiting for a lab result or doctor’s appointment knowing that my being short of breath and […]

It was 1998 and I was new in town.   By town, I mean a Midwest city on a big river with well over two million residents and two academic medical centers.  Having been diagnosed with a rare heart disorder many years before, finding a good cardiologist in town was one of my first priorities. I […]

When I was young, I was either a healthy, adventuresome kick-ass professional woman walking the halls of Congress or laid up in my bed counting my heartbeats and waiting to die.  There was no in-between. Not only did I make sure the world only saw one side of me; I only saw one side of […]