The story of my very unorthodox 21^st birthday.

21^st birthdays are a mile marker, a day for celebration, and are well known for being one of the most exciting birthdays one celebrates. My twenty-first was all of those things, but probably not in the way you are imagining. The day before (June 8^th) started like any other. I got up, went to work for our morning meeting and was doing some practice pitching before we were to head out. For those of you that don’t know, I am in Denver for the summer working in sales. Who would have thought, right? Yeah, me neither. Anyways, I was giving a practice pitch in front of the team and was in the middle of getting feedback from them when the cold sweats kicked in on full effect. Next thing I know, as I am attempting to listen to feedback, when my hearing goes out, and I get super dizzy. At that point, I knew I was either going to throw up or pass out and I didn’t really want to do either in front of them. So, I politely excused myself from the room, did a swift jog to the bathroom, sat down, and passed out. Luckily it was only for a few seconds, and I was already sitting down so I didn’t hit my head on anything.

Still struggling to hear, unable to hold my head up, suffering form some severe chest tightness and soaked in my own sweat, I figured it was time to call in for some back up. I am blessed enough to be working with my brother for the summer, who rescued me from my pathetic state a few minutes later. He and a coworker aided my helpless body to the car and off to the hospital we went. I’ll spare you the check in details, that was pretty standard, but eventually they carted me off to a room, stuck an IV in me, took some blood to run some labs, did an EKG, and said they would get back to me. About a half an hour later the doctor came in, told me my EKG looked normal, just slow – which is normal for me, ya know runner and all, low heartrate. However, one of the labs that measures levels of troponin came back a little high. For those of you that are like me and aren’t familiar with what troponin is, it is pretty much a group of proteins that can be an indication of heart damage. Normal levels are about 0 – 0.04. My initial levels were 2.4. They told me a cardiologist would be in shortly to discuss it with me, but with elevated levels I would likely have to stay the night in the hospital. Talk about a situation escalating quickly.

Grady asked the doctors when an ideal time would be to go and get some things for the night and they told him that he was good to go, so he hit the road to get me some sweats and an overnight bag. Shortly after he left the nurse took some more blood to run another troponin test. When it came back it had nearly doubled in less than 2 hours. Bad news. The cardiologist came in, told me that he needed me not to get worked up, it was important that I not elevate my heart rate. After doing my best to take some recentering breaths he told me that my troponin levels were extremely high. My options were to wait, and potentially have a heart attack, or have them do a cath (stick a catheter in my artery in my arm that would run up to my heart and shoot some dye to check for dissections in my heart).  He was nice enough to present it as though I had an option when clearly, I didn’t. I had never had a heart attack before, but I figured getting this procedure done surely couldn’t be as uncomfortable as that.

He told me to call my family, and to let the nurse know as soon as I got off the phone so she could start prepping me immediately for the procedure. Deep breath Madeline. Do not elevate the heart rate. Do not elevate the heart rate. Reminder, Grady had been given the green light to grab some things, so I was stomaching this news alone. Now, I am no doctor, but I knew enough to realize that what they were looking for was a very very bad thing. The nurse came in as soon as I hung up the phone with my family. He asked if I had eaten anything that morning because they needed my stomach to be empty to do the procedure. Now, I would like to take a minute to highlight God’s goodness. That morning at work, a coworker had brought in fresh donuts for the entire team. If you know me, you know I love a good donut. However, much to my surprise – and everyone else’s, I said no thanks. God was prepping me then for the day I was about to have, and I believe that with my whole heart.

In the blink of an eye, I had a team of nurses prepping me for the procedure. Soon enough, I was zooming down the hall to the operating room. When I got there, the operating doctor reminded me that they do this every day, and they are very good at their job. The anesthesiologist offered to turn on some music to lighten the mood. Ironically the first song to come on was “Lose Somebody” by Kygo. At that point, I couldn’t help but laugh as the staff scrambled to change the song and apologized profusely.

This is a procedure that you are sedated but definitely cognizant for. Let me tell you, having a catheter stuck up your artery feels exactly like you would expect. Extremely uncomfortable. Unfortunately, my artery kept spasming, so they had to run a catheter up both arms. Lucky me.

As the procedure was coming to a close, they told me that they did not find any dissections in the heart and had officially ruled out any potentially fatal reasons for my heart inflammation. Praise God.

I was then diagnosed with myopericarditis, which pretty much means that the lining of my heart was inflamed and irritated. Why that happened is still a mystery. Their best guess is that I likely contracted a virus recently that affected my heart. They assured me that the recovery would be long, but I was going to be just fine. For the first time that day, I was able to let out a sigh of relief. Later that night the hospital staff got word that my 21^st birthday was the next day. At midnight my entire nursing staff came into my room with a homemade banner strung together with oxygen tubing and IV tape that said “Twenty-Fun.” They brought me every kind of dessert they could find and wished me a very happy birthday. I was released with a treatment plan later in the afternoon on my birthday. Unfortunately, since I just had arteries in both of my wrists cut open, and alcohol is a blood thinner, I was not allowed to celebrate in the way I would have liked.  However, I was allowed one glass of Moscato and was reassured that I would recover and have a long life with a healthy heart.

Wow, that was a lot right. It was a lot to go through, and a lot to recount.

To end this blog, I’d like to highlight 5 ways in which God was truly good.

1. God steered me away from the donut, as previously mentioned.
2. My mom flew out to Colorado when she heard how serious my condition was, however, the flight she booked was leaving very soon so she would need it to get delayed to make it. When she arrived the waiting area was empty, however the flight had been delayed, and she was able to just make it.
3. The nurse that prepped me for my procedure had gone through the same thing when he was my age, and he encouraged me that I would be okay.
4. This episode happened at work, surrounded by people, and not when I was at home, alone.
5. I came out the other side okay. Not with SCAD, not with fear of having a heart attack, not with long term damage. I’m not great, but I’m okay and I will take that for the time being.

My life has never been ordinary. And while I don’t always understand why I have had to go through the things I have. I am encouraged by the hope that one day I can use these experiences to relate to others and maybe help guide them through their own struggles. I never would have imagined at 20 years old a heart attack would be on my radar, but life throws curveballs, right? I’ve been struggling with the blog lately. I’ve felt unmotivated, that I had nothing to share, and my experiences weren’t worth writing about. Today, after having the week I did, I enter with a new perspective. That’s the word all of my blogs keep coming back to, isn’t it? Perspective. Huh, maybe next time I am in need of a good story to tell God will bless me with something a little less stressful. No matter the circumstance, I am confident I can handle it, and it can be used for good.