<div>I was born with a heart murmur and later on developed an elevated heart rate. I have suffered with symptoms of fainting since I was a young child with my first episode happening on the playground in first grade. Due to my heart condition, I have seen numerous cardiologists and followed up for EKG’s and echocardiograms to track the condition of my heart. All of which returned as normal, but I still had this elevated heart rate. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers were always so concerned about my heart rate, but no one could find the cause for it. So instead of looking further, it was dismissed. I went 30 years without receiving any medication or further testing for this issue, but yet I was symptomatic through it all. I always knew there was something wrong so I never stopped looking for answers. 

</div>

<div><br />

</div>

<div>On July 9th, I had an echocardiogram performed to see how my heart was functioning. I received the results on September 12th which shook me to my core. That echo confirmed that I was in heart failure. My cardiologist adjusted the beta blocker that I was already on to hopefully slow my heart rate and recommended me to an Electrophysiologist. The adjustment of my medication started to negatively affect me almost immediately. After a week of slowly declining, I decided to take myself to the ER and I am so thankful that I did.

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<div>I was admitted into the hospital on Saturday, September 20th and spent the night in the ER hooked up to heart monitors and fluids. They transported me up to my room the next morning and my lovely nurse came in to introduce herself and give me my first round of medication, as well as a shot of Lovenox. I felt fine at the time but things quickly escalated. A rush came over me and within a few seconds I was unconscious. I didn’t have any time to call for help and I was completely alone. I woke up surrounded by doctors who told me that I had a seizure, and I later found out that my heart stopped for 28 seconds. 

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<div><br />

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<div>I was in the hospital for 4 days and I was put through a variety of different tests including another echocardiogram, electroencephalogram, cardiac MRI, and what seemed like endless blood tests. My echocardiogram confirmed my EF to be between 20-25%, which is bad news. However, the cardiac MRI found that my heart is structurally strong, but functionally weak, which is good news. This means that my heart has minimal muscle damage, but it is so tired from pumping this fast for this long. They started me on a new medication designed to slow the heart rate down so that the heart can efficiently pump more blood through the body. My doctors hope that over time this will allow my heart to grow stronger and function at a higher EF one day. So far, the medication has taken my resting heart rate from 130 bpm, to around 95. Overall, my body is showing positive signs of improvement but only time will tell if this is what I will need, but I am beyond grateful that this is the solution that seems to be working for right now. 

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<div>Due to my episode in the hospital and the uncertainty of my condition, I am legally not able to drive for about 3-6 months. This new rule has put a major financial strain on me considering my second income requires me to drive. So I’m out of work with that form of income - I have drained my PTO balance and almost all of my hospital stay was unpaid - I can only imagine what this hospital bill is going to look like and I’m already struggling to make ends meet even before any of this happened. 

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<div>Life hasn’t been kind to any of us lately, and I feel selfish for even asking for help in this way, but my fight is far from over and I am determined to make sure I am able to take care of myself and my child’s needs. I want to be on this earth for as long as possible and I won’t allow financial strain to get in the way of that. 

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<div>So if you can give, please know that it means the absolute world to me. And if you can’t give, please know I understand. Sharing this with those around you is enough for me. 

</div>

<div><br />

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<div>Thank you for reading and I hope to be able to share more good news as my journey continues. 

</div>

Anonymous

Amanda Branham

Tracy Bower

Neil Devericks

Kelsey Bower

Tiffani Beaver

Brittany Soohey-Wolfe

susan bidinger

Haley Bates

Halle Glunt

Amber Kumher

Melanie Boros

Help Mercades Fight Heart Failure

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

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Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

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fund country is US and user language is English

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Streaming widgets beta user

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Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

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Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

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fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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fallback mode accounts

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Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

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braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

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ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

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UC Tipping v20250107

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GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

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Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

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Localized Currency

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Survicate

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challenge-fundraisers

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CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

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