Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Remember that name.  It can lead to a broken heart.

HEART BREAK from the loss of someone you love — a lover, a child, a friend — it aches more on holidays. Memories flood in and loneliness can take over. Heartbreak from loss can break the soul.

And then there are other kinds of broken hearts - - hearts that with a simple twist of fate, your genetics, can stop “working”.  In his moving and informative piece in Sports Illustrated, “Following the Trail of Broken Hearts”, David Epstein writes about the tragic loss of some sports figures ( famous and not so) from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  (Learn more about this disease the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy association)

Epstein also writes about what this has meant to some players. One who wasn’t allowed to play college basketball after a diagnostic test showed a “bad heart” and he believes he lost his  shot at the NBA.  Another who was traded to another team when his heart behaved “badly” rather than go through the testing and damage to his career.

Do you know what it’s like to lose a career that you’ve invested your soul in?  That has the potential to earn you huge money?  That can give you glory?  Or maybe just something you did and liked doing.  All because your body doesn’t work the way it should.   It’s a loss, that’s what it is.  You just can’t let it break your soul,  can you?

Are you trying to figure out what you can do - now that you can’t do what you once could because of chronic illness?  I’ve made this easier for you with my booklets, Career Thrive when you live with chronic illness.  They offer the strategies, concrete ideas and motivating stories you need to kickstart your heart and your thoughts.
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