I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Sherlyn Mersiovsky (257)

The phaware® interview

Pulmonary hypertension patient Sherlyn Mersiovsky talks about her long road to diagnosis and how PH support groups helped her cope with her rare disease diagnosis.

My name is Sherlyn Mersiovsky and I’m a pulmonary hypertension patient.

I didn’t find out for several years. I kept running out of breath all the time. I couldn’t walk with my girlfriend anymore. Just going around the block, I could not carry on a conversation anymore. I would be so breathless. Going on a bike ride to the neighborhood hangout was even hard to do.

We just got a new house, a big one, a two-story. I really wanted that. As soon as we moved in, I couldn’t climb the stairs. I had to also change family doctors. I didn’t want to drive clear across Houston where I used to go and got a new family doctor. She decided to run me through every doctor after she started doing blood work. I saw hematology. I went back, I saw a pulmonologist. When I went to the pulmonologist, they put the [pulse oximeter] on my fingers, first time I’d ever…