 My name is Kimberly Canell. I'm from Houston, Texas. I was diagnosed with a heart murmur at the age of 12 I live with a heart murmur up until I was about 17 years old and Life was just Drive for me. It was I wasn't able to do much. I wasn't able to play. I wasn't able to run I wasn't able to do the things that normal kids did in 2015 It's when everything turned for the worse because I ended up pregnant with my son and That wasn't the best thing for me to do Because I was already sick and they told me that I couldn't carry a child And I just pretty much walked by faith and I believed that I could get him here And I was able to deliver him August the 20th of the 2015 But the only sad part about it is he passed away a month and three days later And at that time life was extremely hard I was down to pumping 20% of my my heart Trying to survive and also dealing with the loss of my child Now that I'm at Texas Heart Institute I have to say it's a wonderful feeling when I go to my doctor's appointment I have these great nurses and I just feel like a new person at this point The first thing that Dr. Myers told me to do is make sure I take care of my heart So I pretty much go to the cardiac rehab three times a week I've changed my diet to where I eat fruits and vegetables. I eat fish baked chicken and I Exercise even when I'm not at the rehab. I make sure that I walk on a daily basis I drink plenty of water if I want to soda I drink sparkling water just to get the you know The same fees but at the same time I just want to keep it healthy because I want to be healthy and I feel great I've never felt this way in my life and I want to continue to feel like this Well when I look back and I think about the Texas Heart Institute and the doctors I come to realize that they have your best interests in mind like they're the experts They know everything they know what you don't know and it's when they give you medicine It's not to hurt you but it's only to help you and I had to learn that myself and I'm just grateful for the experience The support group has helped me in many ways I feel like when I got to rock bottom if it had not been for the support group I think I probably would have stayed there longer than I was Is dealing with the Texas Heart Institute and the Heart Group is almost like a breath of fresh air It's almost like living again and how they they can educate you on things that you don't know Or if something come about they are able to give you the answer because they already been through it For fun to me now that I've been transplanted It's just the fact that I can walk long periods of time without getting tired. That's fun to me It's exciting to me because I've never been able to do that just like when I go to the mall or to the grocery store I don't have to like sit in the bucket or I don't have to sit on the bench I can walk as long as everyone else is walking and now I pass everyone up. So that's fun to me I'm so grateful for my heart transplant. It have truly changed my life