I have a hole in my heart in the most literal sense

 Hello everyone! In this Action Project, I’m going to talk about a disease! We’ve been talking about diseases for a while in my Disease class, going over the two main types of diseases: communicable and non-communicable. Communicable diseases are things like the flu and other viruses that spread around throughout the year. Non-communicable diseases are diseases that happen through things like environments, birth, or any other factors. We went over examples of these diseases and we were then tasked to interview someone about a disease we had an interest in. We then talked to them and researched that disease on our own, eventually making this post! This is my disease, so I hope you enjoy it.

The disease I chose to focus on was Atrial Septal Defect. This disease affects the heart, which affects the rest of the body. At birth, there’s a hole in the wall of the heart known as the septum, which separates the two atria, the left atrium and right atrium. The left atrium receives oxygenated blood while the right receives deoxygenated blood. As you might be able to guess, the fact that the septum has a hole in it can really mess up the heart’s ability to pump blood effectively. The factors that lead to it have not been found, though it has been linked to other respiratory diseases like asthma. The risk factors of an Atrial Septal Disease are also unknown as well, as it might not even be seen until adulthood.

The way an Atrial Septal Defect is detected is through various methods. One is through screens done during pregnancy, and the hole in the heart can be detected there. Once a baby is born, symptoms like poor appetite, fatigue, respiratory infections, shortness of breath, or a few other symptoms can hint towards an Atrial Septal Defect. Though, as stated before, ASD can go under the radar until adulthood, where symptoms can range from skipped heartbeats to swelling in the abdomen, feet, or legs. Treatments for an ASD vary, but it’s usually down in childhood if detected then. Treatments can include plugging the hole up with some sort of synthetic material or a patch made out of lining from the heart, which are the quickest treatments. More extreme cases may need open heart surgery, though this is reserved for those with other heart complications or those whose ASD is in an usual and potienally dangerous spot. After treatment, however, most of them go on to live happy, healthy, and active lives, free from the troubles of ASD. 

    

Attempt at drawing what an ASD looks like, AR

For this Action Project, we had to interview a person who had experience/lived with the disease we were studying. My subject who inspired me to look into ASD has been living with an ASD for most of their life, so I went to someone who, while wasn’t a professional, knew the subject very well and knew them very well. 

The interview with my interviewee was pretty eye opening. As someone who has had Atrial Septal Defect since childhood, my subject never really knew too much about it. So interviewing someone who at least knew how it was for someone with an ASD to live was something I was excited to learn more about.

        The first question I asked was when they discovered the ASD in my subject’s heart. The interviewee said they found it when they were born. One sign the interviewee said that led them to finding the ASD was that the subject wasn’t eating as a regular baby should, making them concerned. When the doctors found it, however, they weren’t too concerned about it. They said it wouldn’t affect the subject too much, but to make sure, they wanted to have a check up every year or so to make sure the hole doesn’t get bigger. I asked the interviewee if she was scared when she found out. She said she wasn’t, but when they had to go to the hospital for check-ups, the subject often was kicking and screaming.

        "They were crying whenever we had to go to the hospital.. It often took multiple people to hold them down…” 

        From this project, I found that having an ASD is pretty rare. But I also learnt that it often doesn't affect people as much as you might think it would. People with an ASD can still live natural and healthy lives, it’s just that their limits might be a bit lower than others.

Works Cited

CDC. “Congenital Heart Defects - Facts about Atrial Septal Defects.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22 Jan. 2019, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/heartdefects/atrialseptaldefect.html.

Cleveland Clinic. “Atrial Septal Defect (ASD): Symptoms, Causes, Tests and Treatments.” Cleveland Clinic, 17 July 2019, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/11622-atrial-septal-defect-asd.

Yale Medicine. “Atrial Septal Defect (ASD).” Yale Medicine, 23 Jan. 2022, www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/atrial-septal-defect-asd. Accessed 23 Jan. 2022.