We HEART Gina

Our dear friend is having a heart defibrillator implanted on July 28th. It is a 3 weeks to 2 months recovery, depending on how it goes and how her body accepts it.

Gina was hospitalized in 2020, for pneumonia and at first, they treated her for covid, which saturated her body with fluids, and ended up damaging her heart valves. She has a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which means that her heart walls are too thick to hold enough blood to pump through her body, at a normal heartbeat rhythm, without medication to slow the heartbeat down. She started having fainting, blindness, and dizzy spells about 6mo ago, so the Dr.s had her wear a heart monitor to look at what was happening. She was switched to the maximum dosage of meds, but they also detected a secondary condition called ventricular tachycardia, (one of the chambers of her heart beats differently than the others). The meds at maximum dosage were not working, so she had to schedule surgery asap to have a defibrillator implanted.

Gina won't be able to work during surgery/recovery period ( 3 weeks to 2 months), won't be allowed to drive for 2 weeks, lift more than 5lbs, or lift her left arm above the shoulder, which makes waiting tables impossible until fully healed. The defibrillator is just a safeguard that if she has an episode it will shock her heart back, so she will probably still need more surgery down the road. She's working as hard as possible to cover July bills, but has nothing coming in for August. Rent, utilities, car payment, pets, etc.