My name is Christina and I am living with congenital heart disease. So far I have had three heart surgeries, two of them being open heart.

I grew up wanting to be a nurse my whole life, and I was lucky enough to train with—and then work with—the cardiologists that saved my life when I was little. Today, I am a pediatric nurse practitioner in the hospital in which I have spent my whole career. I have worked in critical care, taken care of babies with the same defects as me, been privy to watching open heart surgeries in the OR, and have trained new nurses. My hobby is writing, and I write often, some published, some private.

About two years ago, everything I knew changed.  I learned I was going to need emergency open heart surgery. At work on a Saturday morning, with a heavy patient load, I got the call and was told to immediately stop lifting. That surgery went poorly. I suffered a full code (cardiac arrest) in the ICU, and my first memory post-op is of my nurse giving me chest compressions and my doctor yelling, “Just shock her!” Then there was nothing and I didn’t know that I had survived.

Getting my life back has taken the entire past year. Just before my last surgery, I had regularly begun traveling overseas to Haiti on medical missions. My time in Haiti has changed me completely, for the better, and remains the greatest thing I have done in my life.

Before my surgery I was an athlete, a surfer, and a traveler, and in one year, my life changed to doctors’ appointments filled with conversations that included “advanced heart failure options” and “high risk pregnancy”. The traveling I was doing now was to other states for several other doctors’ opinions.

I am now in complete heart block and am 100% paced. The name “Inspire the Wired” comes from me learning how to live with my pacemaker, my limitations, when to defy them, when to lay down and just listen to my body, and how to keep going.

As a nurse and a patient, I hope that medical professionals of all kinds will come across this page. I am a strong advocate for people with congenital heart defects, to keep pushing the medical field to constantly do better. I hope to be a voice for those trying to be heard. There is a lot still not known about how to take care of us, because for the first time in history, we are living well into adulthood! Yay! (and help!) I hope healthcare providers will read this blog, and know that the care they give us will directly affect our quality of life.

Here’s to hoping you are that difference.