Kristine's Heart
Donation protected
This is the story about Kristine Blohowiak - A 35 year old nurse who moonlights as a single mother to three children. I met her a couple years ago on a semi blind date. I was nervous, but I remember her walking up my stairs for the first time and thinking "wow, this woman is beautiful." Then she smiled and that's when my heart felt it too. It took me three dates to know I was hers and a year later I got down on one knee and proved it.
Our story has barely begun, but it's been amazing. We've opened each others eyes to new and different things and we talk with excitment about what's next to come.
That's when Kristine started noticing symptoms. Her legs and ankles swelled to double their normal size. She found that she was too tired to get out of bed most days and when she did she often felt a shortness of breath. When she checked her pulse, she saw that it was consistently in the 130 bpm.
Her work suffered. She was forced to take minimal shifts, due to the swelling, then was forced to stop working altogether.
Kristine made an appointment to see the doctor, but not before her finances began to suffer.
We met with a cardiologist who went in to find the problem and came back with bad news. Kristine has a large atrial defect near one of her atrioventricular valves in her heart. She has a large Left-Right Shunt as well as mild regurgitation to the tricupid. After all of that, she also has mild insufficiency to the pulmonic valve.
To put it simply, Kristine was born with a hole in her heart. Although roughly 25% of people have a hole in their heart, Kristines is large and irregular shaped and has caused her heart to work two to three times harder than normal. This puts her at a great risk of right sided heart failure, stroke and pulmonary hypertension.
Unfortunately the cardiologists in this area feel that her case is too severe and have referred her to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where she will undergo a complicated heart surgery. A long recovery is to be expected.
We are asking for financial help as the bills keep coming and Kristine cannot work. We've already started cutting out nonessential things to help pay the rent. The barrage of bad news has put an enormous amount of stress on her and her heart.
Kristine's three kids all have birthdays coming up (11/20 - Jadyn, 12/13 - Zach, 12/16 - Abby) and Christmas is right around the corner. Without assistance we will have a tough time providing for them. Now that we're going to Minnesota, gas money and hotel rooms will be costly.
We want to thank you for reading this and if you donated, thank you so much. If you cannot donate, please share our page. Our story might have just begun, but with your help it will have a happy ending.
Our story has barely begun, but it's been amazing. We've opened each others eyes to new and different things and we talk with excitment about what's next to come.
That's when Kristine started noticing symptoms. Her legs and ankles swelled to double their normal size. She found that she was too tired to get out of bed most days and when she did she often felt a shortness of breath. When she checked her pulse, she saw that it was consistently in the 130 bpm.
Her work suffered. She was forced to take minimal shifts, due to the swelling, then was forced to stop working altogether.
Kristine made an appointment to see the doctor, but not before her finances began to suffer.
We met with a cardiologist who went in to find the problem and came back with bad news. Kristine has a large atrial defect near one of her atrioventricular valves in her heart. She has a large Left-Right Shunt as well as mild regurgitation to the tricupid. After all of that, she also has mild insufficiency to the pulmonic valve.
To put it simply, Kristine was born with a hole in her heart. Although roughly 25% of people have a hole in their heart, Kristines is large and irregular shaped and has caused her heart to work two to three times harder than normal. This puts her at a great risk of right sided heart failure, stroke and pulmonary hypertension.
Unfortunately the cardiologists in this area feel that her case is too severe and have referred her to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where she will undergo a complicated heart surgery. A long recovery is to be expected.
We are asking for financial help as the bills keep coming and Kristine cannot work. We've already started cutting out nonessential things to help pay the rent. The barrage of bad news has put an enormous amount of stress on her and her heart.
Kristine's three kids all have birthdays coming up (11/20 - Jadyn, 12/13 - Zach, 12/16 - Abby) and Christmas is right around the corner. Without assistance we will have a tough time providing for them. Now that we're going to Minnesota, gas money and hotel rooms will be costly.
We want to thank you for reading this and if you donated, thank you so much. If you cannot donate, please share our page. Our story might have just begun, but with your help it will have a happy ending.
Organizer
John Lester
Organizer
Green Bay, WI
