I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Kathleen Grady (333)

The phaware® interview

Pulmonary Hypertension Patient, Kathleen Grady discusses her road to diagnosis, her optimistic view on her rare disease and how she navigates the impact of #covid19.

My name’s Kathleen Grady, and I live in Cleveland, Ohio, and I have pulmonary hypertension for the last 11 years. My older brother, David Grady, has pulmonary hypertension. He was diagnosed a year before I was, but how I got diagnosed was kind of a fluke.

I had ulcers, and I went in to have them scoped and my oxygen dropped. The doctor sent me to my doctor, because he was very concerned. When I went in, it just happened to be a little medical center. I was living in California at the time. If it had been a regular hospital and I had to make an appointment, I would probably be dead. But he had said, “Oh, can you pop down to see my friend, the cardiologist?” I said sure because I didn’t have to make an appointment, because I was really busy at work, and of course, work was much more important. I went down and he did an echo and called me that afternoon, pretty much…