I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Lauren Janzen (271)

The phaware® interview

Pulmonary hypertension patient and nurse Lauren Janzen on the unique perspective of being both a patient and a RN working on the PH floor she was diagnosed on.

My name is Lauren Janzen, and I am a pulmonary hypertension patient.

I had kind of had on and off symptoms for about a year that I can recall, back in 2008. I’m from Wisconsin, so I was in college at the time. I remember going sledding with a bunch of friends and trying to run up a hill and getting to the top and being super short of breath and a lot of palpitations. It was like, “Oh, that’s kind of strange.” But I guess I don’t typically run up a big, snowy hill in heavy gear. So eh, whatever. Write it off.

So I kind of had on and off shortness of breath. I’m a pretty active person, so anytime I’d work out, it would be hit or miss. I’d have a good day. I’d have a bad day. All right, it happens to everybody. It sounds made up, but I was actually in South Korea visiting my husband who was teaching English there for the year, and I had gone during my…