ROGERS PARK — After undergoing two open-heart surgeries and getting a pacemaker, Rogers Park resident Kimberly Green said she's grateful for what she has every day, not just Thanksgiving.
Green survived three near-death experiences as a result of a faulty heart valve and Rheumatic Heart Disease over the past 15 years, but she isn't giving up. On Thanksgiving she and her wife are planning to run in the 39th Annual Turkey Day Run Chicago, known as the Turkey Trot.
"I do feel blessed and thankful often," Green said. "It's not something that necessarily comes up just at Thanksgiving, I often have moments where I feel very thankful for the life that I have and the health that I have."
Green's journey began in her mid-20s as a generally normal, healthy college student.
That all changed one night when Green, who exercised regularly at the time, noticed she was getting bouts of shortness of breath, some chest pain and found it harder to work out.
Thinking she had pneumonia, she said she went to the doctor and tried a few medications, but to no avail.
As her symptoms continued, she called her father, a doctor, in the middle of the night to get his advice: "Go to the E.R.," he said.
Within hours, doctors discovered through a series of tests a microvalve in Green's heart wasn't pumping blood through its chambers, causing her lungs to fill with the un-pumped blood instead.
"In the moment that I was there, my condition was actually congestive heart failure because of the level of damage. My heart was just not functioning well at all," Green said. "They had told me at the time if I hadn't come in there's a chance I might have died in my sleep in a short amount of time."
The next day she was undergoing open-heart surgery to replace the valve with one made of titanium.
Green said as she recovered, the shock and stigma that came with discovering she had a chronic illness left her feeling confused and depressed. She stopped working out and gained weight, only adding to her frustration.
While she struggled for a while, she said she was able to work hard to bring herself out of the darkness and slowly learned how to cope with the new challenges associated with her illness.
But just 10 years later, the odd physical symptoms Green had experienced in her 20s returned.
Kimberly Green said despite some health setbacks, she's more inspired than ever to keep running and lifting weights. [Provided/Kim Green]
One night while staying over at the house of her then-girlfriend (now wife), Phen, Green said Phen urged her to go to the emergency room.
The audible ticking sound that normally emanated from her titanium valve was silent as they readied for bed.
"She finally kind of leaned in and said, 'You know what — I can't hear your valve ticking,'" Green recalled.
The two went to the hospital and found a clot had formed on the new valve, effectively closing it off as her old valve had, and again filling her lungs with blood.
Four days later, she was again on the surgical table.
"I really think that there's a strong chance that she saved my life," she said. "I don't always have the most proactive stance around going to the doctor when I don't feel well because I feel like with the history with my heart ... they're just going to admit me. ... So I do think had she not been insistent I definitely at least would have waited."
After the second surgery, Green said she was much more mentally and emotionally prepared to recover and move forward.
She took a new job as a clinical social worker and met a friend who would later become her inspiration and motivator for running.
Slowly but surely Green trained alongside her friend, working herself up from walking to jogging to running and completed a Fourth of July 10K in Atlanta just five months after her second surgery.
A few months later on Thanksgiving that year, she completed her first half-marathon, and later nearly finished the Atlanta Marathon but collapsed at the 25-mile mark in the sweltering 83-degree heat.
Then, just 2½ years later in 2014, Green and her wife were out to brunch with friends after finishing the St. Patrick's Day 5K in Atlanta when she unexpectedly passed out at the table.
The pair rushed to the hospital where doctors performed more tests, including a 48-hour monitor that showed her heart rate would slow so much at times it would flatline. A pacemaker was put in right away.
Now 43, Green said she feels stronger than ever and is looking forward to the future.
She hopes others out there who experience similar symptoms will seek a doctor's advice, particularly after learning about 1 in 3 people have some sort of heart defect, ranging from minor to serious like hers.
"I am still strong, and I can lift weights, and all of those things just kind of give me encouragement to keep going forward and trying new things," Green said.
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