My Congenital Heart | Heart Defects and Heart Failure, Chronic Illness, Mental Health, EDS

In this episode of My Congenital Heart, we talk about the weight of stress, the reality of living with congestive heart failure along with post op reconstructive surgery, and how to keep pushing forward when life feels overwhelming. Chronic illness can test you mentally, physically, and emotionally—but it can also reveal a strength you didn’t know you had.

We’ll explore ways to cope with daily challenges, manage stress in difficult moments, and find perseverance when the road feels heavy. If you’ve been feeling exhausted, discouraged, or stretched thin, this episode is a reminder that even in hard seasons, you are stronger than you think.

Sometimes the greatest victories come from simply refusing to quit.

What happens when multiple concussions start affecting your memory—and then you’re told you need surgery? In this episode, we’re talking about fear, recovery, and the moment you realize you can’t do it alone.

This episode quietly explores the moments of realization that catch up to us—when we finally see beyond our own world and feel the weight of what we’ve missed. It touches on the subtle arrival of aging, the sting of loneliness, and the complicated mix of guilt and shame that comes with deeper awareness.

At its core, it’s also a reflection on the body keeping score—navigating chronic illness, past injuries, and the ongoing reality of living with heart conditions.

When life piles heavy on heavy on heavy, it can feel overwhelming—like there’s no space left to breathe. And for many of us, life feels like that more often than we’d like to admit.

In this episode, I talk about those moments of feeling low, stretched thin, and emotionally overloaded. But I also explore something that sometimes shifts everything: perspective.

Once in a while, if you can step outside of your own experience and see things through someone else’s eyes—even briefly—it can change the way you carry what you’re going through. Not to minimize your pain, but to help you understand it differently, soften it, or feel less alone in it.

This is a conversation about heaviness, humanity, and the small mindset shifts that can help us keep going when life feels like too much.

In this episode, I share my experience of being diagnosed with heart failure after years of being dismissed and overlooked by doctors. Living with a chronic illness can be incredibly challenging, especially when the healthcare system doesn’t always listen or respond the way it should.

I talk about what that journey was like for me—moving through uncertainty, frustration, and finally receiving a diagnosis that changed everything. I also share some grounding techniques and coping tools that have helped me manage the emotional and physical weight of chronic illness.

If you’re living with a chronic illness or disability, you may find pieces of your own experience in this story. This episode is about validation, survival, and finding small ways to stay grounded when things feel overwhelming.

What do you do when something is clearly wrong, but the answers just aren’t coming?

In this episode, I share my experience of seeking medical help, being hospitalized for three weeks, and ultimately receiving a diagnosis of congestive heart failure (CHF). I talk about how my symptoms escalated, what those days in the hospital were really like, and the moment I finally had a name for what my body had been going through.

I also open up about why my relationship with the hospital is complicated—how that time changed me, why it’s still difficult to return, and the emotional weight that comes with being on the other side of critical care.

If you’re living with CHF, a congenital heart defect (CHD), or supporting someone through a heart condition diagnosis, this episode is a raw and honest look at what that moment of diagnosis can feel like—and what comes after.

This is my story of confusion, fear, answers that came late, and learning to live with a life-changing diagnosis.

What happens when you wake up and realize you don’t really know who you are—only who you’ve been for everyone else?

In this deeply reflective episode, I talk about what it means to lose yourself in the expectations, needs, and narratives of others, especially while navigating life with chronic illness. Living with a congenital heart defect, congestive heart failure, and undergoing open heart surgery has forced me to confront not only my physical limits, but the emotional patterns I carried for years.

We often compare pain, measure struggles, and forget that everyone is carrying something heavy—everyone has a full plate, even if it looks different from our own. Illness has a way of magnifying life’s stages, teaching hard truths about control, identity, and worth.

This episode explores:

• The reality of not knowing yourself
• Living life for others and the cost of it
• Why you can’t control others—only yourself
• Learning self-worth through pain, growth, and healing
• Understanding that every life holds unseen struggles

My life has been one story after another—medical, emotional, personal—and through it all, I’m learning that I am worthy, I am loved, and so are you.

If you’re navigating chronic illness, identity, or simply trying to find your way back to yourself, this episode is a reminder: you don’t have to carry everything alone.

Welcome to My Congenital Heart Podcast! It's a wild rollercoaster of congenital heart defects leading to heart failure at 32, chronic illness, mental health mayhem, and a whole bunch of life’s curveballs—like homelessness and domestic violence and dad's dying.

Yeah, it’s been a lot.

But here’s the thing: I’m still standing.

And I’m here to tell you that even when life is like, “Nah, you’re not gonna make it,” we show up, we laugh, we cry, and we keep going -- because that's what warriors do.

Join me for stories of survival, strength, and how not to lose your mind—even when you feel like it.