I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Melanie Brown (334)

The phaware® interview

Pulmonary Hypertension Patient, Melanie Brown discusses her complicated road to a proper PH diagnosis, counseling to cope with not being able to get pregnant and the power of giving back to the community by participating in PH trials & studies.

My name is Melanie Brown and I live in Portland, Oregon, where I was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension.

That was the spring of 2006. I believe I was 23. I was basically just starting out in life and trying to figure out the world and one day I was walking up some stairs and I got shortness of breath and my heart started to race. I felt dizzy and I had to sit down. I knew at that point something was not right. I ended up going into the emergency room, because I passed out shortly after that and that’s where my whole journey started.

With that situation, I was seen by a cardiologist in the emergency room. I was out of town, and so he told me that at that point I needed to go to my local cardiologist and have them start running some more tests. I remember…