Mommy's Turn for Surgery

I hesitate to use Keira's blog as a platform to discuss my own health concerns, but seeing as they will imminently be affecting Keira, and I'll be calling on you fans for help, it seems as good a place as any to get the word out. 

So, yah, I'll be having open-heart surgery 2 weeks from today. Honestly, Jeff and I keep using pointed obscenities and laughing. It seems preposterous. 

I've always hated running and have never been very good at it, but at the urging of friends, I decided last December to give it a good college try. I agreed to run the Ragnar relay in June with the idea that I could be free of running forever if I didn't enjoy it by then. I ran every other day religiously for months. I was not progressing. At. All. And I was frustrated by my shortness of breath. When I started having frequent dizzy spells in conjunction with running, I decided to check it out with my doctor. My doc sent me to a cardiologist who sent me to a pulmonologist who sent me to a lot of expensive tests and today I met with the cardiothoracic surgeon. 

Apparently I have a condition that I've had since birth that involves a hole between two chambers that isn't supposed to be there and one vein that's draining entirely into the wrong part of the heart. He said there is 2.6 times the amount of blood pumping through my lungs as there's supposed to be and all that extra blood is supposed to be going to the rest if my body. 

Weirdly, my first response to finding out I had a heart condition was a rise in my self-esteem. A good reason for always having been the dancer that sweat the most. A good explanation for eternally needing naps. I've forever pretended that these things don't bother me when they've perpetually made me wonder whether I'm just out of shape and/or lazy. My body's been working hard! 

Being a congenital condition, this surgery is by no means an emergency. However, I will be forbidden to lift anything (read: Keira) for 3 MONTHS post-op. For this reason, Jeff and I agreed that the sooner this gets done, the better. Keira is rapidly gaining weight and she's relatively healthy at this point in time. So here we go. 

I'm excited about the idea of having considerably more stamina and energy in the not too distant future. And, once again, I'm thankful to have all of you rooting for us.