Alex’s Cardiac Surgery&Recovery Fund

Update for April 4, 2025.

Hey everyone! So I know I had this open last year for my pacemaker revision surgery and we were able to raise $3,000 to help with the cost of that surgery. I have continued to update this page on my medical story to share everything that has been going on. Unfortunately I have to undergo another surgery on April 4, 2025. The Cleveland Clinic called me today, March 6th, and asked for $12,766.58. They stated they need this amount prior to my surgery date and that the actual cost of surgery is $124,406.25. This does not include the hospital stay if I require one (my doctors told me to anticipate staying at least one night). This also doesn’t include the follow up care and pacemaker appointments needed to update the settings on my device. For those who don’t know, I suffer from multiple arrhythmias including medication resistant inappropriate sinus tachycardia and SVT. I have a few other arrhythmias as well but those are the 2 that have been giving me the most issues. My electrophysiology team at the Cleveland Clinic has authorized what’s called a sinus node ablation which normally isn’t done anymore because of the complications and risks associated with it. They can only get authorization for it in very extreme cases which I have been told I am. We have tried numerous medications over the years and unfortunately my IST has been resistant to all of them and I am still having fluctuations close to 200bpm on a regular basis. My EP is going to do this sinus node ablation and informed me he plans to be very aggressive. His goal is to knock out my own heart rate (generated by the SA node). This will make me 100% pacemaker dependent afterwards as I will most likely have too long of pauses and too low of a heart rate after to sustain myself on my own. We tried to avoid this because being pacemaker dependent at 31 years old is not a positive thing and doctors have warned me of the many complications I may suffer from down the road. But at this point we have no other options because of my extensive cardiac history.

I have left open this page to hopefully help put towards the costs of my surgery. Ryan and I are still struggling with the medical bills from my last surgery and the care needed afterwards. We absolutely do not have the $12,766.58 down payment that the Cleveland Clinic is asking for and certainly don’t have whatever is also being charged for the hospital stay and recovery. We would greatly appreciate any help anyone has to offer us. Please share this post so we can try and pay for my surgery and recovery. I never in my entire life thought that this is how my journey into motherhood would look like but here we are. Ryan and I appreciate everyone’s prayers, support, and help as we navigate this next difficult step.

Hi, my name is Alex and it’s with a very heavy heart that I am seeking support for my upcoming heart surgeries. Anyone who knows myself or my husband, Ryan, knows that we are not ones to ask for help. We’ve always made things work no matter what obstacles we have run into, but recently my health has become more than we can handle ourselves.

In March of 2022 I was pulled out of work by my doctors for what they believed was severe complications related to my pregnancy. My heart couldn’t handle the extra blood volume and stress, but we had assumed that things would resolve after delivering our daughter. It was an incredibly stressful journey that led to me being hospitalized numerous times but miraculously we made it to 37 weeks, and I had a c-section to bring our daughter into this world. Within a week I became very ill with an infection from surgery and had a difficult recovery. Thankfully Ryan had taken an entire month off of work (unpaid, unfortunately) to support me and help take care of our newborn. As the weeks went by I noticed myself becoming more and more fatigued and just not feeling right. I had a lot of pressure in my chest and became so dizzy that it was an effort to stand. I had assumed it was related to adjusting postpartum but decided to get checked out by my neurologist. She had me wear an event monitor and it showed I was having intense and erratic dips in my heart rate. I would be functioning at 160bpm at rest then just drop to 30bpm and faint. Things worsened rapidly and before I knew it I was fainting numerous times a week and sometimes several times a day. I was terrified to be at home alone with our new baby and Ryan was under an immense amount of stress at work. He would call to check on me throughout the day and if I didn’t answer he was terrified that I was on the floor passed out somewhere home alone with our baby. It was a very stressful time for the both of us. We would not have made it through without the support of both of our families. I finally saw an electrophysiologist who attached a live monitor for 30 days. Roughly 20 days in he called me and said he saw everything and that I needed a pacemaker ASAP.

January 2023 I had a dual lead pacemaker implanted. I thought this was the solution to all of my problems and was excited to finally feel better. Unfortunately I developed a severe infection and required several courses of antibiotics. Doctors were calling Ryan while he was at work and telling them I would die if I couldn’t be admitted for IV antibiotics. Harper, our daughter, was only 5 months old at the time and I had refused to leave her and we couldn’t afford Ryan to miss anymore days of work. Thankfully they were able to find a way to treat me outpatient but I never got better. The infection progressed to pericarditis. For those who don’t know pericarditis is when the membrane that surrounds your heart becomes swollen and inflamed. It causes intense chest pains, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Every breath hurt and it was/is an effort to do anything. The pericarditis became recurring despite treatment and I’ve dealt with it chronically.

I recently started to decline more and more again. My chest pain and other symptoms have become so severe that I had to seek out 3 more medical opinions in an attempt to find answers. I was told we may have to travel to the Mayo Clinic because doctors couldn’t figure out why I had so much pericardial irritation and discomfort. My cardiologist said there is nothing normal about my hearts rhythm and that in 30 years he has never seen such a complicated case. I’ve been on numerous heart medications without success. In January 2024 I had an echocardiogram done at Cleveland Clinic, and my new electrophysiologist told me that the lead pacing the bottom chamber of my heart dislodged and perforated through my hearts free wall. It has led to a pericardial effusion which is an accumulation of fluid in the space around the heart. My EP is very worried about how I have had pericarditis for a year and is worried I will develop a constrictive form of heart failure if we can’t get this under control. I also have had a variety of new arrhythmias develop over the course of this past year that have yet to resolve under medication and now have thickening of my valves.

my electrophysiologist also suggested we extract and replace my pacemaker leads. This is where it gets tricky and risky. My pacemaker has been in for over a year now which really complicates the procedure because the longer it is in the more difficult it is to safely extract without causing damage to my heart and structures. We don’t know the extent of the perforation either so there is a lot of uncertainty leading into this surgery. Because of the severity and risk of this surgery they will be having a cardiothoracic team in the operating room incase they need to turn this into an open heart surgery or becomes complicated with the extraction. I have 7 appointments on April 2nd leading up to surgery on April 5th in an attempt to prepare everyone the best we can and gather a team. If everything goes smoothly (fingers crossed!!) I should recover in about 4-6 weeks. If the surgery becomes more complicated then the recovery and hospitalization dramatically increases. The endless medical bills have been piling up lately and this surgery is going to be thousands of dollars. My electrophysiologist also believes we will have to do another procedure and ablation in June or July after I am recovered from this surgery on April 5th.

As mentioned previously Ryan’s company does not offer paid time off. If he doesn’t go to work we simply don’t have an income. Period. We have an 18 month old daughter to take care of and it has been incredibly difficult to maintain a one income household in today’s economy. Ryan has to take off work for my surgery and for my recovery, and I am trying to find a way to help ease some of the financial burden that is on his shoulders. We will have zero income while he is off to support our family. My husband is the hardest working man and does anything and everything that he can for everyone around him. He goes above and beyond for our little family and to take care of me and Harper. It has killed me to put him under so much stress but I am hoping this is able to help us. We are seeking help for the costs of my surgeries, recovery, and to allow Ryan the time off to be with his family. There are so many uncertainties with my health but the one thing that has been consistent in our lives is the love we have for each other and our family. Please consider helping us even if it is just sharing this page and praying for us. Every effort to help is greatly appreciated and we are extremely fortunate to have such caring family and friends surrounding us during this extremely difficult time. I will try to keep this page updated the best that I can and as much as my health allows me to. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts ❤️