Fiauna Lund: Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). Status 6 Heart Transplant Candidate, Author, Mother, Wife, and Friend

This is a special episode featuring my friends, Aaron and Fiauna Lund.  Oftentimes, when we hear that friends and neighbors are facing challenging trials, many of us are at loss not knowing how to reach out or what we can do to support and love them. I'm grateful they were willing to courageously share their story so that we can rally and offer encouragement and prayers as we Seek and Expect Miracles for Fiauna.

Last November (2021) Fiauna was diagnosed with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). This news was especially difficult to accept because Fiauna has dedicated her life to sharing her talents and time teaching others to be passionate about health and wellness with her heart-healthy, active lifestyle.  

She shared the following post on FB which describes her current status as she patiently awaits a heart transplant: 

"Seek and expect miracles. Truly prophetic advice I heard recently that I’m choosing to embrace right now. What I’ve learned about miracles is that, for the most part, they are a matter of perspective. You can choose to accept them, or choose to look right past them, waiting for something…more?  

 

I posted Tuesday that I was admitted to the hospital where I would likely wait for a heart transplant as soon as a donor became available. That was the plan—a plan I agreed to and felt really comfortable with…until I didn’t. I started to panic. Had I made the right choice? Were we going in the right direction? My gut (or the Spirit) was screaming at me to talk about other options. When the team of doctors and the transplant coordinator, met with us Wednesday morning we discussed those options and arrived at a new plan.  

 

At first I didn’t trust the doctors, the plan, my own ability to make the right choice, but the more I sat in the feeling—the doubt and confusion—the more at ease I became. Does that even make sense?

 

The plan proposed now is to keep me listed for transplant at status 6; discontinue the medication I was taking that, while very effective, was making me very sick; try another medication under medical supervision to make sure it works without intolerable side effects. If all goes well, I can go home Monday or earlier. 

 

The peace I felt when the new plan was proposed was undeniable. 

 

I’ve been wrestling mentally and perhaps spiritually with the concept of heart transplantation. I mean, think about it. They’re going to cut into my chest and remove the most vital of organs, the powerhouse of the body, the first sign of life. Before my parents even knew I existed, the cells of my little embryonic heart were already beating.  For a moment I will be without that beating heart. And from that moment on, in order to live someone else has to die. 

 

That’s heavy. A weight I’ve been trying to carry—and I thought I was carrying successfully until this dry run.

 

This trip to the hospital has let me process things differently. I was given the miracle of CLARITY. The miracle of recognizing spiritual influence, and of PEACE —even if only for a moment.'

 

Fiauna is a wife, mother to four children, and writer. She's written and published two novels: "Indigo" and "In the Twilite" https://www.amazon.com/Fiauna-Lund/e/B006LPTUMW%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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