Brooke's Road to Recovery

As all of you may or may not know my sister Brooke had a heart transplant on December 15. Here is a little back story of what lead her to this point.  After our other sister Kayla had a transplant in 2010 we all were tested to see if any of us had any heart conditions that may lead to problems later on. My results turned out fine but Brooke’s showed a reduced squeezing function in her heart. After the results she had yearly appointments at Overland Park which then turned into appointments every six months. While having appointments at Overland Park they noticed a big drop with the ejection fraction in her heart and she was refereed to St Luke’s where she began testing through them.  In October of 2016 she was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy and her levels had dropped enough that they put her on medicine at this time her ejection fraction was only at 26%. The doctors were hoping medicine would help prolong the possibility of having to receive any surgeries including the last resort option of having a transplant. Unfortunately within just a few months her heart was not showing much progress and her ejection fraction had only improved 2%. In January of 2017 with her ejection fraction being at 28% they made the decision to put in a defibrillator/pacemaker. In August of this year while at work she was having shortness of breath, she called the nurse at St. Luke’s and they told her to get to the hospital as soon as possible. When she arrived at St. Luke’s she was admitted, while in the hospital they ran more testing to find out that her ejection fraction was now down to 15%. After finding this out they made the decision to put in a picc line and also did her transplant evaluation and put her on the list as a 1B. She was admitted again on December 12th and was moved to the 1A list. On December 14th she received a call that they had accepted a heart for her and on December 15th she had her life changing surgery. Her recovery was going great and we were expecting her to be discharged on December 22nd, just in time for Christmas! The day before she was supposed to come home they did a biopsy and they found signs of rejection and she had to stay a few more days than expected. Due to all of her office visits, hospital stays, surgeries, and travel expenses we have set up this account. Any amount is greatly appreciated to help her with upcoming expenses. The money that is raised will go towards insurance premiums, medications, and living expenses until she is able to return to work. Her medical expenses will be far beyond this but we will continue as a family to fund raise in other ways to help her with all of the expenses she may have. Any amount is greatly appreciated by Brooke as well as our family.