Becky with the heart thing

Growing up I was always the kid with the heart thing. Gym teachers feared me. Kids thought I was weird. I didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

I was born with a congenital heart defect (CHD)called Ebstein's Anomaly. The long and short of it is one of my heart valves was misplaced and didn't meet up when I was born, resulting in a heart murmur, monitoring and eventually surgery. One in 200,000 people or so is born with this. I've been told it's the third rarest heart defect in the world. Seeing this now I can see why I was known as Becky with the heart thing. But it's only recently I've understood what all the fuss is about.

See, overall I'm a fairly normal person (unless you ask my family - they will laugh rather hysterically and point out that I'm weird in so many ways. Not because of my heart, but just because I'm me).  Unless I'm in imminent need of surgery, you can't tell I have anything wrong with me. I don't look like your classic heart patient. I'm not blue. I'm usually full of energy, unless my daughter has pulled an all nighter like she likes to do on occasion. I guzzle coffee like there's no tomorrow. I'm not over or underweight. If you put me in a line up you wouldn't pick me out as a heart patient, let alone one who has had open heart surgery twice.

I'm hoping that by sharing my experiences and insights I can spread a little awareness that 1) people with CHDs are more often than not regular people and 2) no matter how big and scary life can get at times, things will get better. I may sneak in a few other bits of some of my passions too - knitting, babies, humour, reading and probably whatever is striking my fancy when I'm writing,

Just so we're clear, I may be Becky with the heart thing, but I am not what most people think of as someone with a heart problem.