Laughter Is The Best Medicine

I was diagnosed with an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) at twelve. Basically, it was a hole in my heart the size of a quarter, that needed open-heart surgery to repair. After a year of cardiology appointments to get my heart up to surgery-worthy levels, we schedule it and are ready to go.

The night before my surgery, I am playing a board game with my sister and best friend. Mom walks into the room and looks at us, cracks up, and quickly leaves. We look down and realize what I was doing: Playing Operation, trying to get the broken heart piece out, and losing miserably.

Thankfully, my surgical team had much more success with my broken heart than I did with the plastic one.