28 chapter 1
While I am a relatively healthy and active woman, in March 2000 something terrifying happened to me. On my way to a business breakfast, walking at my usual pace, I began to experience difficulty breathing. I felt as if I couldn’t get any air and each breath was a struggle. I felt lightheaded, my hands were ice cold, and my heart raced. I panicked, thinking I might die alone right there on that street corner. I leaned against the building and tried to calm myself down. After what seemed like an eternity, I was able to catch my breath and return home. Eventually I felt back to normal and continued with my day, assuming that perhaps this was an allergic reaction to my dog, or something else relatively inconsequential. Based on the fact that I’d had rheumatic fever at age 9, which left me with a heart murmur, and my tragic family history (my mother, father, and sister all died young of heart-related problems), I decided to call my cardiologist to make certain everything was alright. My cardiologist informed me I was having symptoms of congestive heart failure, that there was significant leakage in my mitral valve, and that I would need to have surgery to repair or replace that valve if I wished to continue a normal lifestyle. I was given the choice of open-heart surgery or (if I did nothing) the possibility of a stroke and irreversible damage to my heart. I was terrified at the prospect of such invasive surgery and could not erase the memory of my entire family dying in a hospital within one day of arrival. In an attempt to avoid surgery, I took several medications for about six months, experiencing those same attacks. I knew in my heart that waiting was a dangerous game to play. I decided to interview the top cardiac surgeons just to be prepared. During a Reiki session with Raven, I told her that I needed open-heart surgery and that after interviewing several top surgeons, I had narrowed it down to two choices: Dr. Wayne Isom and Dr. Mehmet Oz. What
