My Heart on my Sleeve

February has in recent years become my favourite month of the year. Surprisingly so, since the weather is dreary, there's not a lot to do, school is crazy and I'm not particularly fond of Valentines Day. February is a whole month dedicated to heart health here, raising awareness about cardiovascular disease, risk of stroke/cardiac infarction and raising money to develop new techniques to treat these issues.

Majority of you know why this is so important to me, as in June 2011 I underwent open heart surgery through a Thoracotomy to remove and replace part of my descending Aorta which was too narrow. It was a birth defect and the process of actually getting it fixed was incredibly difficult; I had several surgeries prior which ended in a lot of pain and complications. My post here explains things a little more thoroughly.

 So you can expect a lot of heart themed prints, posts and loads of red in the next month. I must say I am very excited to talk about heart health a little bit more. My surgeries really were an eye opening experience and really helped me find my passion in life in regards to fitness for cardiovascular health :)

xJennaD

 

Little Red Dress

Good Morning loves and a happy heart day to you!! Now, I don't actually like Valentine's day but give me a theme and I'm off and running. And as you know it's Heart and Stroke awareness month and this is super important to me. One of the campiagns is "The Heart Truth" which focuses on the fact that heart disease and stroke is the leading killer of women! This is not okay, which is why it's so important to talk to your doctor about heart health (at any age, trust me). One of the visual components of this campaign is the red dress, so what better way to celebrate Heart month and Valentines day than putting on my red dress and supporting heart health research!
Of course I picked a red dress with lace, because I am obsessed with lace. I love the fit and flare of this dress, I decided to keep it simple with black tights, black heels and lots of silver jewellery. This outfit is best accessorized with these heart foil balloon's though, which Mr.Duke is TERRIFIED of. I did my best to get a photo of him with them, but it took a lot of treats and cohersion.

I hope everyone spends the day with the people (or pets) they love!!
Also, a donation of any amount can be made to the Heart and Stroke foundation here and is greatly appreciated!!

Outfit: Dress-Dynamite, Belt-gift, Necklace-Granville Market, Ring-Oak and Fort, Bracelets-The Bay/Simons/Gift, Shoes-Payless

Even MrDuke wears red in support of heart health!!

My Heart Story

Hey There Lovelies! It is officially February and you know what that means?! Heart Month!! It is heart and stroke month which is very dear to my, well, heart. As many of you know I underwent open heart surgery in June 2011 So February is going to be a "heart themed" month, where I wear my heart printed pieces, lots of red, pink and feature some fun DIY's i've been finding over the past little while!! But since some of you are new around here I will explain things a bit more.

  I found out I had a congenital heart defect called a "Coarctation of the Aorta" which means my aorta was too narrow. The doctor's attempted to put a stent in it but the first attempt in May 2010 tore my Iliac artery and they had to replace that. During the second attempt in August 2010 they lost the stent in my abdomen and had to perform an emergency laparotomy to find and remove the stent.


My laparotomy scar augusut 2010, and then august 2012
During this surgery a line that was in my arm in order to monitor my blood pressure caused my brachial artery to collapse. So in January 2011 the doctors took a vein from my leg and replaced my brachial artery in my arm. Which is why I have a "no blood pressure cuff" tattoo above that scar now, because a blood pressure cuff could cause that artery to collapse again.
Scar from brachial artery replacement, and "No BP cuff" tattoo January 2013

Finally on June 22 2011 I had open heart surgery through my back to remove the piece of aorta that was too small and they replaced it with plastic!! It was successful and we had no complications.

My thoracotomy scar December 2012

I am so lucky to be in a place with access to amazing health care, doctors and amazing staff at hospitals where I had surgery and recovered. I had a lot of bad luck, but some good luck too, as things could have ended up much worse than they did. So, campaigning and raising money for the Heart and Stroke foundation is incredibly important to my family and myself. Without the research done, and amazing advancements in technology my life could have turned out much differently than it did. I would really appreciate if those of you who feel inclined to do so would donate to the heart and stroke foundation, I have online donation set up Here
xJennaD

Home sweet home & battle wounds round 4

Hello loves! I am finally home, I got released from the hospital yesterday and am so so happy to be home. It's really quite a lot easier to heal at home thats for sure. I have to sleep in my brothers room because I am not allowed to use stairs and have to be supervised haha, but my parents recently redid his room and bought him a huge comfy bed. Pretty happy about that!

I was supposed to go home on monday but on my way to get an echocardiagram I blacked out, my blood pressure fell ridiculously low and my vision went black and I couldn't hear. It was so scary!! I had never blacked out before, so obviously I thought I was dying. Which is funny now in hindesight. They figure I was just dehydrated because they plopped me back in bed, hooked me up to a ton of IV liquids (magnesium, potassium etc) and I felt much better. Every day I get a little bit stronger and stronger, which is good, the pain will subside less and less. I get to go on walks around the block and everyday they'll get a little longer and more frequent :)
I have I think 3 presurgery outfit posts that I can update with in the next week or so, I have missed everyone! But it will be a little while for new ones, I think. I'm just taking it easy! Thank you for all your wonderful words of encouragment by the way, you are all sooo great.

xJennaD

Pictures of my "battle wounds":

This ones kind of nice because it follows the line of a racerback tank top perfectly! It curves around just to my side before my breast starts. As you can see here my shoulder is quite swollen, which is normal

update

hello my dears, i am still in the hospital (writing this on my blackberry haha) but just wanted to let everyone know that the surgery went really well!! finally! i am so relieved. so i can work on recovering and not have to worry about more surgeries. they ended up removing half of one of my ribs to gain access to my heart, but thats okay, didn't need it anyway? haha. anyways i'm finally eating solid foods and will hopefully be back home monday afternoon. thank you for your wonderful comments, i have such great people in my life helping me through this!

xjennad

Piece of my heart

Hello lovelies, I am off to have my heart surgery bright and early today (be at the hospital by 530am) and I would like to thank you all for your support, it really means a lot. I will be missing you while I am in the hospital and won't be posting/commenting for 5-7 days while I am in recovery there. I'll try to see if bryce will post perhaps to give an update on how everything went. I will miss everyone and look forward to being fixed, healthy and back ready for action!
love, JennaD