“Belief & Hope Make it So Much Easier to Endure . . . ” Patient Reflects on Her Long Road to Healing

Written by Lauren Holbrook

I was only four months old when I was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, a condition that causes aneurysms in the body’s bloodstream. The disease attacked my coronary arteries, the blood vessels inside of the heart. My only option for survival was to be listed for a heart transplant. I was nineteen months old when that transplant became a reality.

Obviously I don’t remember much from then.

I had a pretty normal childhood after that, aside from follow-up appointments and taking medications. I loved school, playing on the playground, having princess parties, and hanging out with my two sisters. Life was pretty good.

The first experience in the hospital that I can remember happened when I was six years old. My immune system started to reject, or attack, my heart. I stayed at Primary Children’s for seventeen days and had to miss the first day of first grade. I don’t remember most of it, but I do remember loving the crafts, the nurses, and afternoon bingo games. After going home, let’s just day that I didn’t look like your average six-year-old, so my first grade teacher came for a few weeks to do at-home teaching after the school day.

Since then, I’ve had two more heart transplants, six rounds of cancer, three times treated with surgery and three with chemo, two femoral artery reconstruction surgeries, radiation treatment, and other various procedures all over the country.

Where I am Today

Now, five years after my last round of chemotherapy, you wouldn’t even know that any of this had happened. Just like any other college student, I attend classes, work part-time, hang out with friends, and participate in internships, service projects, and other community activities. I even had the opportunity to be a full-time missionary for my church for 18 months. It’s a little crazy to even think about how much my body endured during my childhood.

How did I get to this point? By looking to the future. During my senior year of high school, I went into experimental surgery to figure out why I was having severe stomach pain. While in the waiting room, my mom registered me for fall housing at a college 1400 miles away. The surgeon asked why on earth she would even hope that I could make it to college at this point. My mom simply replied that she couldn’t afford to think I wouldn’t make it there.

There is real healing in being surrounded by people who believe in your future. Pediatric health problems can be the hardest moments in a child’s and parent’s life. But that belief and hope in a brighter future makes it so much easier to endure everything. I made it to where I am today because of so many people who worked for my future right alongside me, often even harder than I ever did. And that has made all the difference.