Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Month

November is Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness month.  I was going to throw out a statistic about how many people have this nasty disease but really...even if there is only 1 out of a million we deserve a cure.  There's also a number out there of how long we (people with PH) have to live, I was told 2-4 years maybe and I'm working on year number 10.  The statistics don't mean much to me... Because those statistics didn't write my story....God did!!!  God knew I would have PH, God knows how many days I have left.  Does it worry me that I may leave this earth way too soon because of a lung disease?  Abso-freakin-lutely...but I made a vow when I was diagnosed to not let this disease control who I am and to not Google Pulmonary Hypertension.  Some may see it as I'm naive but I'm not!  I'm choosing to live my life to the fullest and not to let statistics control my fear.

But, with that being said I want people to be aware of this life threatening, life altering disease.  When I was diagnosed not many doctors knew what Pulmonary Hypertension was.  I would say I had PH and they would automatically assume I had high blood pressure.  I went to the ER multiple times and sat there for hours wondering if I was going to make it out alive because they wouldn't believe me on how serious of an issue I was having.  Today more doctors are aware of this disease.  A lot of people don't understand how serious this condition is because we don't look sick but our heart races with little exertion, we get short of breath easily, and if it's bad enough we have passing out spells.  

It took me four years and moving 700+ miles away for someone to properly diagnose me.  It shouldn't have taken that long, it shouldn't have taken me almost losing my life for them to figure it out.  So, if I can share my story and save one person's life..that would be great!!!  

Medicine has come pretty far since I was diagnosed, but there is still no cure.  I'm hoping a praying for a cure but until then I am going to be thankful for the medicine that saves my life everyday.