@Billyballhard

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not yet discovered the value of life” – Charles Darwin The familiar idea that ‘life is a gift’ is one that I have found myself to add great substance and definition to over the past couple of years. Born October 17 th, 1981, this was the day I would begin to define what this idea would really mean to me. When I was first born I was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, more commonly known as ‘Blue Baby Syndrome’. In order to live a normal life, I had to undergo 2 open heart surgeries before my 6th birthday came around. One would think that as a child I might be unfortunate or at a disadvantage, but regardless of the circumstances that life dealt me I kept pushing forward with insistence to lead that normal life that every young adult gets to live. Throughout my childhood all the way into my high school years life was pretty normal for me with the only real difference being that I had to take medication. Hope and optimism became so deeply rooted within me during this time that later on when I needed these strengths they would be there to help regardless of what might be happening in my life. November of 2008, my life took a drastic turn when I was rushed to the hospital by my roommates at school after they found me gasping for air. Once I arrived at the hospital and blood tests were run, I was diagnosed with Septicemia and Congestive Heart Failure, which led to me being placed on peritoneal dialysis immediately. Once my condition was thought to be under control, I was released back to school. Because of the severity of the Congestive Heart Failure I was retaining water in extreme amounts and only found myself in and out of the hospital for the rest of the school year.I was then discharged and forced to return back home to live with my parents for extra supervision while dealing with my conditions. I faced significant life threatening symptoms from my conditions. I didn’t let it stop me! As high hopes seemed attainable, I was then rushed back to the hospital. On March 24th 2010, I was finally matched with a donor and the surgery would be able to start . I don’t think I have ever been more thankful in my life. After a whopping 17 hours of surgery, and a day of sleeping, I woke up to my family the next day with a new heart and liver and with hopes of a new life.