• May/July 2015: First Heart Attack + Triple bypass Surgery
• November 2017: Kidney Cancer Found!
• Feb. 2018: Bypass grafts failed  (a.k.a. blockages found in 4 areas within the bypass grafts)- 4  stents placed to re-open grafts.
• July 2018: Second Heart Attack-due to one of stents placed in Feb. reoccluding
• November 2018: Peripheral Artery Disease in right femoral artery-graft placed in Femoral Artery by the best vascular surgeon and my original Bypass surgeon-the kindest Doctor to ever treat me. Hey, Dr. G!
• December 2018: Infection of surgical site-IV antibiotics for 6 weeks
• February 2019: 4 more stents placed in bypass grafts (again!) due to blockages
• May 2019: Gynecological Surgery to stop Mennorghia that was worsened on blood thinners.
• July 2019: 3rd Heart Attack (Acute STEMI) due to re-occlusion
• October 2019: Another Stent placed in bypass graft (5th of the year/9th total!)

If you are new to the cardiovascular world, simply put, another blockage is building up in my heart every 2-3 months. If you look at my lipid panel, you would have no indication that this is happening, its basically perfect. We have familial hypercholesterolemia under control (genetic condition which prevents my liver from properly clearing out cholesterol). But there is another genetic condition, that is running rampant, Lipoprotein(a), aka LP(a). Check out the LP(a) website to understand more, its too hard to explain. The normal level is 50, mine is 6 times that amount at 311. Unfortunately, there is currently no medication treatment for it. However, this is where prayers are appreciated:

A trial for a new drug for this condition is starting in early 2020. My cardiologist at Hopkins is one of the primary investigators of the study, so we have enrolled me in phase 2, which is the preliminary phase for selection to be included in phase 3-the actual trial drug. Its a double-blind study, so both my Doctor and I wont know if I am on it, but if I am placed on the trial drug and not the placebo, they are seeing a 90% reduction in the levels of LP(a). We are praying big and begging for prayers that I actually receive the trial drug. This would greatly reduce my risk.

While treating the LP(a) would hopefully help with the chronic blockages, doctors do not believe this is the only cause. But they also don’t know what the other cause is. We’ve sought multiple second, third, even fourth opinions by top doctors at Academic centers/hospitals and they all come back to I don’t know. As one of the fellows put it: my disease is progressing faster than the cardiovascular world.We bringing in other specialties that haven’t been included before, to see if they have any ideas, but that means more testing and more appointments!

This battle has gone on now for 4.5 years and we are consistently fighting another fight, illness, hospitalizations, procedure, etc. We’ve realized recently that we gotten too good at being self reliant that we have worn ourselves out and we have some ways you can support us in the months to come! I will be sharing some ways you can support us in the next week on this blog. 

• Successful continued management of my disease and symptoms
• I would be selected for the LP(a) trial Drug
• Wisdom for my doctors to find the unknown cause of the progression of my disease
• For my mom, the woman behind this warrior always cheering me on

A warrior never fights alone and we are so grateful for the those of who are ready and willing to help. Our army is strong! We claim victory over this in Jesus’ name. Will you claim it with us today and in prayer?