It's Survivor Series Saturday Featuring Josh Harding!

We're honored to introduce the newest story in our Saturday Survivor Series featuring Josh Harding. Thank you so much for sharing your story to the Aortic Hope community.

My Survivor Story

My heart journey really began in 2019, although at the time I had no idea where it would eventually lead.

In August that year, I received a kidney transplant. The transplant itself was successful and I returned home, but I didn't feel quite right. I was constantly fatigued and felt as though I was running on empty.

In October, I became unwell and was admitted to hospital. While I was there, the doctors discovered that I was in atrial fibrillation. A cardiologist came to see me and explained that my heart was out of rhythm. I was also told that I had an enlarged aorta.

That was really the beginning of my heart journey.

About a week later, I had a cardioversion to restore my heart rhythm. The difference afterwards was remarkable. I remember saying that it felt as though somebody had changed my batteries.

Further investigations also established that I had been born with a bicuspid aortic valve and that I had an ascending aortic aneurysm.

From then on, regular monitoring became part of my life. Each year I would have scans and appointments to check my valve and measure the aneurysm. My valve initially remained relatively stable with mild regurgitation, but over time the aneurysm continued to grow.

Eventually, everything changed.

On 13 December 2023, I was told that I needed surgery. My ascending aortic aneurysm had reached 5.1 cm, my aortic valve needed replacing and I also needed a triple coronary artery bypass.

My operation was scheduled for 16 May 2024.

The surgery itself was successful. I had my aortic valve replaced, my ascending aorta replaced and a triple bypass during the same operation.

The early recovery wasn't straightforward and I experienced some significant setbacks. Those first few months were extremely tough, both physically and mentally. I had lost a lot of strength and confidence, and recovery became much more about taking each day as it came rather than trying to look too far ahead.

Regular walking helped enormously. At first the distances were small, but gradually they became longer. Rest was equally important, and I slowly began rebuilding my strength.

It probably took around nine months before I really started to feel like myself again.

By around twelve months after surgery, I was back in the gym and beginning to regain a reasonable level of fitness.

I'm now more than two years beyond my surgery. Looking back, it has been quite a journey from that unexpected discovery in 2019, through years of monitoring, to eventually having major heart surgery.

Today, I'm simply very grateful to be here and to have come through it.

Take Care

Josh

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