I would be happy to share with everyone. I started out with what my doctor and i thought was my asthma and we kept trying different medicines that weren't working so she sent me to see a pulmonologist on the 23rd of december of 2005 and i mentioned to him that i had had a heart mumur when i was little so he decided to do and EKG on me he came back in and told me I was not going home that i had had a major heart attack and I was going to the hospital thats when the cardiologist first saw me and on christmas eve of 2005 they did an emergency angiogram on me but i knew on tbe 23rd of december that i needed tne transplant because they did an x-ray and an MRI and a CT scan and they all should that I should not have survived the heart attack as i had the rarest form of congestive heart failure or cardiomyopathy there is i had cardimyopathy with ridgity and there was no coming back from that. I was 40 years old when diagnosed with CHF and it was determined that a cold caused it and mind you it was the very fist real cold i had ever had not caused by allergies they determined that i had caught the cold when i did a 13 mile walk with my daughter and her gym class and when we thought it went away after a couple days it had actually moved into my heart and waited to attack my heart so even though I don't need to wear a mask anymore I still do ad I take public transportation ( the city bus) and so take all precautions and my doctors agree with me that it is safer for me to wear one

For me it was a long journey as my doctors and I were not sure that i would ever get a heart and as i couldn't go on the transplant list until both my kids were taken care of i had to wait until my daughter was old enough to move into an adult family home where they would take care of her. I wasn't worried about whether I would get a heart my concerns were about my son and daugjter and my mom and who would take care of them when I was gone if I didn't get the transplant or even when I did get it just staying alive for them was my main concern while waiting for transplant

@glinda, Thank you for sharing your story. I feel like I need to say more, however, the only word that comes to my mind is, "Inspiring!"

Did you know that we have a discussion that was started a few months ago, in October, that is titled, "Transplant Stories that Inspire: What's Yours?" I invite you to click on this link and read what others have already shared. Please, consider adding your own.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/patient-stories/
Rosemary