Anne1

10 years since diagnosis

Age at interview: 70

Anne has been a very active her whole life. However, in the winter of 2012 at the age of 60, Anne thought she had come down with a flu bug that just wouldn’t go away. She had aching shoulders and hips, was constantly tired, and experienced shortness of breath when walking up steep hills or when trying to control her 60lb dog. Thinking it was caused by a virus, Anne did not think to seek out her GP and just went on with her life. Her symptoms worsened and finally, Anne went to see her doctor. After two rounds of testing, her doctor admitted not knowing what was wrong with Anne and referred her to an internist. In May of 2013, the day before her scheduled appointment with the internist, Anne became overwhelmingly tired at work and had to call her husband to pick her up. While waiting, Anne vomited in the bathroom and described feeling an incredible sense of doom, believing she might be having a heart attack. Anne was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. She was in and out of consciousness during this ordeal, only to discovered later on that CPR had been performed on her while she was in the ICU, and two bare metal stents were inserted into two of her coronary arteries. Anne was also hooked up to a device that forced air at pressure into her lungs to drive out the accumulated fluid. It was at the hospital where she was diagnosed with compensated congestive heart failure. Anne shares with us her journey, including the shock of this happening to someone who was so active and health conscious, her experience of adjusting her medications to be able to get her energy back, and adapting to living with heart failure. Anne passed away in May 2023; our project team acknowledges and is grateful for her legacy and shared experiences in contributing to this project.

 

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