Bri’s Heart Journey

Bri’s Heart Journey Follow along for Bri’s Heart Journey. Bri was diagnosed with a “fatal” congential heart defect at 20. She since then has had multiple open heart surgeries.

First follow up since foot surgery. I have been in some very severe pain, up until 3 am the last few nights with no reli...
03/31/2026

First follow up since foot surgery. I have been in some very severe pain, up until 3 am the last few nights with no relief with pain meds. Thankfully today they unwrapped everything, and replaced all the bandages. I can’t raise my foot, and couldn’t get the foot flat in the boot. Thankfully they put a cast on it, and it has helped a lot with the pain. I go back next week, and we are going to do a series of casts, instead of the boot until it’s time to start walking. Since we can’t get my foot flat the metal from the boot was causing some severe pain and pressure points. The series of casts will slowly get my foot to 90°. The incision so far is looking good, sutures should come out next week. Non-weight bearing has been pretty tough on the sternum and the recent port placement, thankfully they gave me a knee scooter as well.

My port incision is healing!! NO signs of opening. This is a huge blessing, it’s a miracle what happens when the doctors actually listen and use the right sutures!!

I see the heart failure team tomorrow morning!

Bri had foot surgery #5. 12th surgery in the last few years. Heart did really well under general anesthesia. Surgeon sa...
03/23/2026

Bri had foot surgery #5. 12th surgery in the last few years. Heart did really well under general anesthesia.
Surgeon said the foot looked much worse once they got in there.

I was ran over 5 years ago. This is my 5th reconstruction/ fusion surgery. My big toe, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Tarsometatarsal’s are all fuzed, I had my sesamoids removed, and bone removed from my heel, I have also had metal taken out as my body rejected it. My foot got destroyed! I needed this surgery last summer but my heart has been too unstable. With no active infection my heart I got the go ahead from the heart failure team at Mayo to get this done while I’m stable! There is no cartilage in there the pain was really bad, I tried pt, injections and the boot just to try to get by and pass time until I could have surgery my heart problems started after my last foot surgery, which is how we found out about the CHD and heart failure.

11th surgery/ procedure went good. Heart did well under all the meds. Power port is in.
03/19/2026

11th surgery/ procedure went good. Heart did well under all the meds. Power port is in.

Bri is heading back with the anesthesia team for a port placement. Anesthesia is on board for further heart monitoring a...
03/19/2026

Bri is heading back with the anesthesia team for a port placement. Anesthesia is on board for further heart monitoring and to receive some extra meds 💗

03/10/2026

I have lots of new followers and not everyone knows my story. Here is the full version of my story ♥️
Life can change quick, never take it for granted.

Last 3 years:
🤍 2 open heart surgeries
🤍 1 device implant
🤍 4 heart caths
🤍 20 pills a day / 2 shots I give myself a week
🤍 hemorrhage / A-Fib / Vtach / incision rupture / injection / collapsed lungs / pericardial & pleural effusions / left ventricular hypertrophy / heart swelling
🤍 heart failure / CHD / pericardial disease

Im continuing care at Mayo Clinic, Avera Heart Hospital, and the U of MN Advanced heart failure/ transplant team.

- I am getting a port, I see the team at Avera in 3 weeks, U of MN in May, and Mayo in a few months.

03/04/2026

Mayo Clinic Update .
I just got done meeting with Dr. Bird. He looked over my labs and my cardiac MRI from today. My heart failure lab is a normal range and my inflammatory markers don’t show any active infection right now. My electrolytes are borderline, potassium is normal tidsy and kidney function is borderline . On the cardiac MRI they were looking a lot at the pericardium to see if there was any infection or infection/ inflammation going on and they they didn’t see much. Where they thought was some pericardium is epicardial tissue, it had turned white in the mri with contrast which is inflammation/ scarring of my heart from so many infections and surgeries. The ejection fraction on the left side was good, and the right side is reduced. We are keeping everything the same right now. Regarding the arcalyst ( weekly injection med for pericarditis) he said we should wait 2 months to start tapering just because I had the tooth infection, recent hospitalization and influenza. He believes the arcalyst has protected me more than we know from injections going to my heart the last 2 months. He wants to wait until it’s warmer outside and infections and illnesses have calmed down. I will follow up with him when I’m more towards the end of coming off of the med, and we might have to buffer with colchicine or prednisone. He would prefer for me to not have to go back on prednisone, he said we are walking very uncharted waters because they don’t really ever have to put people on our list after having a pericardium removed, or who was as sick as I was with resistant pericarditis. He is happy I’m seeing the heart failure team at the U of MN. I’m on all the right meds for the heart failure. I see the U of MN advanced heart failure team In April, I will go back to Mayo Clinic in a few months to see what my heart is doing when we try to come off this med. Both the doctor and I are a bit nervous because of how sick I have been with this, and there is no research on someone in my spot. I follow up with the Sioux Falls doctor tomorrow from being in the hospital 2 weeks ago. They highly suggest a picc or port because I’m so scarred from all the labs and IV’w so I will be talking to the Sioux Falls team tomorrow.

03/03/2026

We are up at Mayo Clinic for a full day of testing and appointments 🫀🙏🏼

02/20/2026

Just wanted to post an update after being in the hospital last week/ weekend. I had labs Monday, and my potassium came back low, but not dangerously low. We increased my potassium on Monday. My weight was up 6 lbs from Saturday- Monday morning, so we increased the diuretics on Tuesday. Wednesday I started to get a pretty deep cough and running a fever. Today I saw the hf team and the potassium is in a good spot, kidney levels are also at normal range now as well. Hoping to stay healthy until I get up to Mayo in about a week and a half. - Tested positive for influenza.

Update - she’s being discharged. She’s in a very low “normal” lots of follow ups this next week. On continues iv meds th...
02/14/2026

Update - she’s being discharged. She’s in a very low “normal” lots of follow ups this next week. On continues iv meds the last 3 days up until discharge: The goal is to keep her numbers up. Kidneys were struggling as well with the heart rhythm problem and the electrolytes. She was listed as critical when we brought her in, and she’s up moving around and feeling a bit better. Lots of rest the next couple of days. ♥️
One of her favorite cardiac rehab nurses came to visit her and brought valentines necklaces♥️

Little update on my Bri. It’s been a very long night into today. Her QTC is still long at 520, which poses the risk for ...
02/13/2026

Little update on my Bri. It’s been a very long night into today. Her QTC is still long at 520, which poses the risk for Torsades, a fatal heart rhythm. Her potassium is very slowly coming out of the 2’s….5 is normal. Sounds like she will remain in the hospital for at least another day as they will be running more tests this afternoon and just really trying to stabilize her numbers and get the QTC to come down. Please say a prayer if you are willing…she (we) could really use them ❤️

02/13/2026

Getting admitted to the heart hospital.. labs are bad, and heart is not in a normal rhythm.

02/13/2026

Say some prayers… at the heart hospital ER

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