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A Third Chance on Life: Heart Failure after Surviving Cancer
When Stephanie Zimmerman was 8-years-old, she battled Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. Being so impacted by her experience, she became a pediatric oncology nurse practitioner with a special interest in the late effects of therapy. While doctors told her she may have some heart damage from the radiation and chemotherapy, Stephanie, now 38, continued to live a normal and productive life.
Knowing there were risks to having a child, she and her husband, John, welcomed their son Abel into the world five years ago. Thankfully, mom and Abel were doing just fine.
But as the years went by, Stephanie began experiencing increasing fatigue. Upon evaluation by her doctor in Atlanta, Georgia, she recommended a mitral and aortic valve repair, and she successfully received treatment at Cleveland Clinic in December 2007.
After returning to Atlanta, it became clear Stephanie's condition was much bigger than the valve repair, and she found herself back at the doctor with intolerable fatigue, shortness of breath and fluid retention.
Never Give Up
In August of 1999, if someone would have told me that I would one day run a marathon, I would have said they were out of their mind. In July of 1997, I was diagnosed with proctitis and shortly thereafter, ulcerative colitis. Prior to the formal diagnosis, I had suffered for several years with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but did not recognize the illness.
By July of 1999, the disease had progressed so rapidly that attempts to control it with intravenous fluids and intensive medical therapy were unsuccessful. Upon transfer to Cleveland Clinic, I was told I had the symptoms of toxic megacolon, I was possibly on death’s doorstep, and a total colectomy was required for me to survive. It was then that I first met the wonderful surgeon who would give me a "new lease on life."
Feza Remzi, M.D., performed a total colectomy and ileostomy on Saturday, Aug. 14, 1999. The surgery went very well, but my recovery was very slow. After a blood transfusion, vomiting bile and dealing with an NG tube, edema, an abscess, shingles, abnormal liver functions and a very long hospital stay, I was grateful for the day I went home, knowing I had made it through the first of three surgeries. The second and third surgeries went well and I was on the road to recovery, attempting to live a normal life again.