Bonnie Sawyer - Cardiovascular Disease Survivor

My name is Bonnie Sawyer and I am 70 years old. I am a retired teacher and my husband and I have three sons, and have been blessed with 5 beautiful grandchildren.

I first realized I had a heart problem in 2000. I was teaching at an elementary school in Kent and it was close to the end of the school year. For about three weeks, I had experienced shortness of breath, and my heart was fluttering and skipping beats. I thought it was just because the end of a school year is always busy and I was tired. I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and was put on metropolol, a beta blocker. This controlled my atrial fibrillation for 11 years with only a few episodes.

One night in 2011, I thought I was possibly having a heart attack. I had shortness of breath and I pain between my shoulder blades. I knew that women experience a heart attack differently than men do, so we headed to the hospital.

I was not having a heart attack, but an echocardiogram showed that my aortic heart valve was getting bad. I had a pressure gradient of 25 and was told to have an echocardiogram repeated in one year. The following year the pressure gradient was 50, and my cardiologist told me that I would probably need to have the valve replaced within the next ten years. When I repeated the echo in 2013, the pressure gradient was 65 and I was told that I would have to have the valve replaced within two or three years.

Then in March 2014, my cardiologist said that I would need the surgery very soon and it was scheduled three weeks later. I did not completely understand what pressure gradient was. My oldest son is a cardiologist at NW Hospital in Seattle. He explained to me that it was like taking a garden hose and squeezing it until the water was under so much pressure it would shoot out. Basically, the pressure that my heart was under trying to get the blood out of my poorly working aortic valve and out to my body was about double my blood pressure.

My biggest fear of open heart surgery was that I would not be able to see my grandchildren grow up. I was scared but grateful to have a lot of people praying for me. The day of the surgery, I could feel the power of prayer and I felt very peaceful.

My recovery taught me to appreciate so many things. You don’t realize what you do that you take for granted in life until you can no longer do them. I have always eaten healthy from our huge garden, and exercised a lot. But now, at the age of 70, I am so grateful to once more be able to exercise, work in my flowers, cook from our garden, and play with my grandchildren. I am grateful for a heart that now beats strong and steady, and I never take a day for granted.

God has given me the gift of life with my new heart valve. I must honor that gift with a healthy lifestyle so that I can volunteer and do God’s work, and so that I can enjoy my husband, my children, my 5 beautiful grandchildren and my extended family and friends for as long as I can. That is what Living a Beautiful Life means to me!


Original Published Link Bonnie Sawyer - Cardiovascular Disease Survivor

#AorticHeartValve, #CardiovascularDisease, #Echocardiogram, #OpenHeartSurgery #Heart/Cardiac

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