I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Stacie Friend (245)

The phaware® interview

Pulmonary hypertension patient and lung transplant recipient, Stacie Friend discusses her road to diagnosis and recovery.

I’m Stacie Friend and I was a PH patient and now a lung transplant patient.

I got sick in 2009 and I was severely overweight and I finally was diagnosed in 2013. By that time, I was so sick that I was on six liters of oxygen and couldn’t walk across the floor and was in right heart failure already. I was put on Adcirca and had some relief. As I was put on Adcirca, I went in the hospital for water retention and lost 40 pounds in like four days. I decided to start losing weight at the same time. So, I kept it up. I lost 160 pounds now.

They added OPSUMIT and then they added Remodulin IV. I had good results as far as shortness of breath and that type of thing. I went off the oxygen. I did rehab. I did really well, but my heart never responded to any of the medications.

So, about a year and a half ago, my same doctor who also runs the transplant clinic in Cleveland…