Who are we?

I a member of a Tetralogy of Fallot Yahoo Group and one of the members posted this with permission to re-use it. Thought you all would enjoy it.

Start counting... we're roughly 8 out of every 1,000 people (or 1 out of
every 125, if you want a number you can get your head around.) We represent
both genders and we are all ages. A million of us are adults, and about
800,000 of us are children.

We've made it through surgeries, hospital stays, infections, Endocarditis
(infection of the heart), pacemakers, and heaven know what else. We've given
gallons of blood, one vial at a time. We've fought back against tremendous
odds. We've been so sick that we've scared the world's best doctors
witless... and then amazed them even more when we've fought back.

We've celebrated our victories and we've mourned our losses. We know that
most of those who came before us died, including 14 of the first 70 to have
the Blalock-Taussig Shunt. We know that most of us shouldn't even be here
and so we live every moment as if it is our last - because it could be.

We're Cardiac Kids and Heart Warriors. We have an amazing inner strength,
but we are terribly fragile at the same time. We refer to our parents as
Heart Dad and Heart Mom, and we use those titles as Badges of Honor. Why?
Because they DESERVE them! They were the first ones to discover that a heart
defect doesn't just break one heart, it breaks three.

We work, we play, we pay our taxes and we live our lives. We're in your
community, in your church, in your school, in your office, and quite
possibly in your home. We move a little slower, do some things a little
differently, but we usually get along without causing a fuss.

We are people living with Congenital Heart Defects."

Steve Catoe
42 year old male with Tricuspid Atresia
South Carolina