Before I knew what was happening to me, Brandon was watching it happen in real time.
While I was trying to convince myself with every excuse—telling myself I was out of shape, that I was just sick, that it would pass—he was seeing the changes from the outside.
He was watching me slow down. Watching me struggle to breathe. Watching me become someone who couldn’t do the things I once did so easily.
And I don’t think I fully realized what that felt like for him at the time.
Because while I was living it… he was witnessing it.
There were moments I remember feeling scared, but I know now there were moments he was scared too—maybe even more than he let on.
So I wanted to ask him what his perspective was.
— Brandon’s Perspective —
When I look back on that time, the first thing I remember is how quickly things started to change.
At first, it was small.
You were getting winded more easily. You didn’t have the same energy. You were quicker to say you were tired or didn’t feel up to something. It didn’t seem like a huge deal at the time—just felt like maybe you were out of shape or run down.
But then came the Savage Race.
That was the first moment where I really thought, this might be more than that.
You couldn’t move. You couldn’t even go get water. You were completely winded and just… done. That’s when it started to feel different.
As things went on, watching it progress was confusing at first.
It honestly started as more of an annoyance—not because of you, but because we didn’t know what was actually wrong. It didn’t make sense. But that quickly shifted to concern.
You were pregnant, and your symptoms were getting worse and worse. And you weren’t even that far along yet. It didn’t add up.
At one point, I thought maybe this is just what pregnancy was going to be like. I started mentally preparing myself for a long nine months—thinking about everything that was already on my plate with work, the dogs, the house… and how I might need to take on even more.
But then it kept getting worse.
And we still didn’t have answers.
That’s when the worry really set in.
One of the hardest parts was not fully understanding how bad things actually were.
It was tough to know your limits. When you said you were out of breath, I didn’t always know how severe it really was. I didn’t know what was normal and what wasn’t.
There was a point at the race where I was a little scared—but I was still holding onto the idea that maybe you just weren’t as active, and pregnancy was taking more of a toll.
But the moment the nurse practitioner mentioned a heart murmur, everything changed.
That was when the thought of this just being “out of shape” went away. That’s when I got scared that something was actually wrong.
From there, everything felt like a roller coaster that never came back up for air.
Every appointment we went to, the news kept getting worse.
During that time, I didn’t really process a lot of emotion. It was more like survival mode—fight or flight for Megan and the baby.
There wasn’t time to sit with anything. My focus was on you, on the baby, on listening to the doctors, understanding what they were saying, and figuring out what needed to be done.
Just trying to be there for you.
The moment that made everything feel real was the echocardiogram and sitting with the cardiologist.
Seeing what was actually wrong… that changed everything.
And then being at the Marlton hospital, and hearing that we needed to go to Penn—it hit even harder.
That’s when it became clear this wasn’t something simple. It wasn’t just bed rest or making small changes.
This was serious.
It felt like we were heading down a really dark road.
Looking back now, I wish we had known sooner.
I wish we had caught it before the pregnancy, because it completely turned our lives upside down.
But I don’t think there’s anything I would have done differently.
If there’s one thing I would say to someone else in this position, it’s this:
Advocate for yourself.
Push to see a specialist. This isn’t something simple—it’s complex, and getting the right care matters.
Looking at that time now compared to when we were in it… everything feels much more stable.
Back then, it was just chaos.
Dark chaos.
Breathing Through the Journey 
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