World Heart Day Isn’t Just Another Awareness Day for Me | It’s Personal!

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 World Heart Day Isn’t Just Another Awareness Day for Me | It’s Personal!
“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women, with nearly 45% of women aged 20+ affected,” according to the American Heart Association.

I am one of those statistics. Only about 22% of us survive this surgery.
As a survivor of open-heart surgery to repair a descending aortic aneurysm, taking care of my heart keeps me in constant recovery.

For me, recovery and heart health are practices I engage in daily. When taking care of my heart, “whole-person healing” is involved. This means treating the heart and the human.

Although the main portion of my physical recovery was done during my hospital stay, and was measured in vitals, test results, and fitness levels, my emotional recovery is an integral part of maintaining my heart health.

My daily recovery goes far beyond physical milestones. It’s not only about getting clearance from a doctor or hitting target numbers. It’s about learning to trust my body again.

It’s about facing new limitations that support my heart health, taking medications and knowing when, how, and why I take them, and getting up every morning refreshed, celebrating the day with gratitude, and redefining what having a “healthy heart" really feels like for me.

 This World Heart Day, I’m reminded: heart health is as much about emotional resilience as it is about medical progress.

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