Cardiac Catharsis
Cardiac Catharsis When I was six weeks old, I was diagnosed with aortic stenosis. The largest valve in my heart was too narrow, restricting blood flow to the rest of my body. In another century, a different place, without access to capital, I would die quietly before the age of two. Thankfully, doctors intervened and saved my life. A tiny balloon was inserted into the valve and inflated, giving me breathing room for the next two decades. The valve was still damaged, but I lived a normal childhood. I mastered the monkey bars, ran cross country in high school, and traveled abroad in college. Still, with each pump of my heart, blood leaked backwards into my body. My heart was increasingly overworked, straining and swelling against a ribcage that had stopped growing in my adult body. At twenty-seven the regurgitation was torrential, and my heart was as big as a bull’s. It was time for a new valve. Living on borrowed time, I was unprepared...