Your Health vs. Your Career

This week we hear from Samantha Michaud, a CHD warrior, who speaks about how CHD has affected her career opportunities in life. And how your health ultimately has to come before your career. 

I was born a healthy (or so they thought) baby. I spent the first 2 months of my life slowly dying and no one knew what was wrong. It wasn’t until my 2 month check up that my family doctor heard something wrong with my heart. I was immediately sent to the hospital where they did an echocardiogram on my heart & saw something wasn’t right. I was then sent to Toronto Sick Kids via air ambulance. More tests were run. After a few days they decided to do a heart catheterization to confirm their suspicion. I was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy Of Fallot. A few days after that I had full blown open heart surgery.

Overall, I had a rather normal childhood I was able to play hockey, volleyball and even flag football. I didn’t start having issues again until I was an adult. Later on in my adult years I kept complaining of fluttering in my chest. It was shoved off as anxiety. Then I got pregnant at 20 years old. My previous years tests results showed I was able to carry a pregnancy. Yay! When I was 24 weeks pregnant I had a halter monitor done due to the fact I blacked out one day at work and had to leave. It turns out that my blacking out episode was an episode of an arrhythmia called Ventricular Tachycardia. I was happy I finally had answers as to why I didn’t feel well sometimes and why I felt fluttering in my chest. But after one episode where I nearly fainted giving someone a shower, I knew my time had come. I knew I had to leave my job behind. You see, as someone with CHD being around heat makes me feel unwell. But having Ventricular Tachycardia secondary to my Tetralogy of Fallot just made that day all the more worse. My heart rate began to speed up, my heart began beating funny and I started to feel weak and faint. I got out of my clients house for fresh air, and called the office to go home. A week later I quit my job due to my health reasons.    

 

I was devastated that the stress from my job could cause so many issues that I would have to quit. My job requires me to deal with stress. Taking care of the sick, disabled & elderly was my calling in life, but due to the stress it caused me to deal with on the daily, I left my job. It was really hard to deal with as I loved my job and I loved what I did. But for my health I had too.

Leaving my job as a personal support worker has left me feeling helpless. It was a job I thoroughly enjoyed. I felt like I was giving back to healthcare, for what they have done for me. I helped people of all ages and created great therapeutic relationships with everyone I saw & their families. Leaving a job I really enjoyed was not the easiest decision to make. But I do see a bright future ahead of me. I have a beautiful, heart healthy, baby girl, and the opportunities are endless for the both of us.

Hello, my name is Samantha Michaud. I am 22 years old and have a 10 month old daughter. I am a personal support worker. I see a cardiologist once a year for my Tetralogy Of Fallot. I see an electrophysiologist every 3-4 months for my Ventricular Tachycardia.