I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Tina Sudbury (259)

The phaware® interview

Patient Tina Sudbury discusses her pulmonary hypertension diagnosis and how she tackles depression and isolation battling this rare disease.

I’m Tina Sudbury and I’m a pulmonary hypertension patient.

I was chronically diagnosed with bronchitis and asthma. I kept going to an asthma specialist, and he was just like, “Nothing you do is working. You need to go to a pulmonologist.” I got an appointment with a pulmonologist. Within three days, I had a heart catheterization and I was diagnosed that day.

I was scared. He literally came in, “You got pulmonary hypertension,” left the room. I was on the table. Had no idea what I was facing. Everything online was like patients have so much time to live, two and a half years, non-treated. I was scared because I didn’t know how long I had actually had pulmonary hypertension before they had discovered it. So I was terrified.

I had no idea what it was. Nobody had said anything. It was a week between seeing him and getting the diagnosis. Then he…