Thank You for Another Incredible Year of Stories and a Little Holiday Message.

Welcome to Imperfect Heart, a place for you to join me, Jeff Holden, in conversations, discussions, and dialogue about our hearts and the impact myocardial bridges have on them. We'll talk with healthcare professionals, those in related fields that support our condition, and others just like us with stories of their myocardial bridge experiences. It's my intention for this content to inform, educate, entertain, and even motivate or inspire you in your personal journey on dealing with a myocardial bridge. Most importantly is to have you leave each episode with hope, knowing you're not alone and that what you're experiencing is real. Well, I hope you notice that's not our typical music bed up front. I want to say thank you. Thank you to all of you who are a part of this imperfect heart community. This past year has been nothing short of amazing. Thank you to the outstanding medical professionals who are doing so much to support us, the myocardial bridge patients. Those of us with, well, imperfect hearts. While we don't get to have every cardiologist, every cardiac surgeon, every primary care physician on the program, we do strive to get those that are really making a difference in the way we're cared for. Those who are pushing for our well-being. They get it. They get us. These are the truly outstanding cardiac surgeons doing what they can to get us unroofed. We've had the top four robotic surgeons performing unroofing surgery in the world join us on the program. This year we had the first ever myocardio bridge meetup with a group of us from various parts of the country, and what a blast that was. It's a wonderful, considerate, and caring group of people that gathered together to share stories and help each other. We had eleven patients join me on the program this year from all different situations, different symptoms, different issues, but the best part of it all is that those who had been on roofed were all better off today than they were prior. And what a gift that is. We had ten different doctors join us on the program this year. I mean, how cool is that? Ten different stories to hear about the hope and positive outlook as we learn more and more about this condition. And each doctor with their own set of stories to help us all better understand what we're living with. We finally had an interventional cardiologist join us as well so can really understand what this provocative test is all about. What is the best practice if we can find a way to have it done for us? We even had our first three part series with a patient and his doctors as we walked through the process from beginning to end. And we got to see the procedure literally from the eye of the camera in the chest as the procedure was performed. We now have two in the OR videos of the unroofing procedure on the YouTube channel. This is what we're supposed to do to help each other figure out next steps, support each other as we go through the daunting process of diagnostics and procedure, to learn, to share, and to find a better situation if one is suffering with the symptoms of a myocardial bridge. I can't thank each and every one of you enough. I'm immensely grateful for the doctors who have taken their extremely valuable time to talk and share with us, and those of you who have taken your time while you're healing or before your surgery to share your stories. Every bit of this information is ever so helpful to all of us. I so appreciate you. It takes courage to tell your story, and you have done just that. If you'd like to be a guest on the program, share your story to help others work through their process, please reach out to me via email or DM me on Facebook. I would love to speak with you. To the many others I've spoken with off the air, you give me such gratitude for my ability to support you. It's been a gift to me. If you have a doctor you'd like me to consider speaking with, please share his or her name and contact information. I'll reach out. The more professionals we can speak with, the more information we can share, and that means more opportunities for other medical professionals to understand and help. I've got so much more I hope to do in the coming year. I'm excited for those of you getting close to your surgery. I'm excited for those of you finally getting a proper diagnosis, and I'm excited to see more doctors accepting our condition as truly symptomatic. I promise to do more of what we do to help those still on their journey to a solution for their situation. Let's celebrate the holidays with all the gratitude, love, and joy that comes with life, with family, and with friends. I wish you a Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a hopeful, optimistic outlook into the new year ahead. And now I have a little something I want to leave you with. 'Twas the night before Christmas, and within our chests art, our imperfect hearts beat with a rhythm to chart. The vessels lay nested their flow to ensure, with myocardial bridges causing blood to detour. The arteries worked in their intricate dance while bypassing obstructions, they seized every chance, and I with my monitor perched by the bed, had visions of perfusion through vessels well fed. When out of my heart came a stutter quite clear, I sprang to my feet to lend it an ear. To the echo machine I quickly did dash to analyze pressures and turbulent splash. The light on the chest with its steady glow lit up the EKG's electrical show. When what to my wondering eyes did appear but a myocardial bridge that the heart held near. With twists and with turns, so subtle and slight, it compressed that poor artery, causing me fright. But the heart is resilient, adapting its way, keeping blood flowing, come whatever may. And now atria, now ventricles, now valves all in sync, on arteries and veins carry blood without shrink. To the apex of life to the capillaries call, now pump away, pump away, pump away all. My imperfect heart, though its flaws were profound, was finally unroofed to full pulse all around. And as I compiled my thoughts Christmas Eve, my heart whispered softly, just believe. Merry Christmas to hearts imperfect but strong, and to bridges we mend where blood flows belong. Merry Christmas. Thank you for listening to Imperfect Heart. It's my hope that this information helps in some way to improve your situation or will help you better understand this condition. More importantly, that it gives you hope through stories that there is help and you most certainly are not alone. If you've been diagnosed with a myocardial bridge, please be sure to join the private Facebook group, Myocardial Bridge Support Group. For more information about our program or to reach me directly, visit the website myimperfectheart.com. If you like what you heard today, please give a positive review, thumbs up, high five, whatever your app likes. And be sure to share with everyone important to you so they understand what it is you're dealing with. Please subscribe as well. Welcome each day with gratitude and positivity. Imperfect Heart is a production of Hear Me Now Studio.