Growing Up with a Heart Warrior Brother

Daniel Sadjak shares with Anna what it was like to grow up in a family with heart-healthy siblings and one sibling born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). He talks about his earliest memories, what it was like going to school with his brother and how his relationship with his brother has changed over time. Now that both brothers are adult-aged, the brothers have a more mature relationship. Tune in to hear how parenthood has affected Daniel's perspective on his parents and how they raised him and his siblings.

Thanks to our newest HUG Patron, Ayrton Beatty and long-standing Patrons: Laura Redfern, Pam Davis, Michael Liben, Nancy Jensen, Alicia Lynch, Deena Barber, Carlee McGuire, Carter & Faye Mayberry, and Frank Jaworski. We appreciate you!

Transcript

spk_1:   0:00
Theo

spk_2:   0:04
Theo. 11th season of heart to heart with Anna, our theme this season, this hard warrior siblings and we have a great show for you today Show is growing up with the heart warrior brother, and our guest is Daniel Isaac Shot Doc Dan has known his brother Tai, born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome for his whole life and having recently become a dad himself, might have a new and different perspective on being the sibling of ah, heart Warrior. He says he never really thought about his brother having hyper plastic left heart syndrome. His family knew about it before Ty was born until he and his wife went in for their 20 week ultrasound. Doctor said they wanted them to come back a 24 weeks to get a good look at the heart, says his brother, had a chili chest. So I guess Dan and his wife have tied to thank for getting another look at their babies. So welcome to hard to her with an Indian.

spk_0:   0:56
Thank you. Happy to be here

spk_2:   0:58
and before the show we were talking a little bit about your family. I have known your mom forever, or at least known of her because we have been on similar groups. That list serves, and so I'm so happy to finally get to meet you.

spk_0:   1:12
She's been active in a lot of stuff, so it's kind of cool to hear someone else that she's been able to talk with about all of this stuff going on.

spk_2:   1:18
Yeah, she's amazing. So I care. And I hope you're listening to the program. The theater thing that I thought was really neat was that you don't have just one brother, Ty. You have some other siblings. So why don't you tell us briefly about your other siblings?

spk_0:   1:34
I have an older sister, Emily, who currently works in Chicago. And then Tyler is my younger brother. And my youngest brother is Sam, who is currently enrolled at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

spk_2:   1:44
Awesome. And everyone in the family is heart healthy, except tie has hohs. Right. That's correct. Okay. It must have been shocking to you when your wife first became pregnant to think Oh, my gosh. We need to look at this a little bit more closely.

spk_0:   2:02
Well, actually, didn't really even cross my mind until we were further along in the process. and a few of them. And they said they'd want to take a second look at the heart because Tyler has h l h s. And so that was a little scary to think something could be going on there. Thankfully, we went back and had the second ultrasound of 24 weeks and everything was okay, which is good. And she's a very healthy my old baby.

spk_3:   2:26
Thankful for that?

spk_2:   2:28
That sounds fabulous. Well, what do you remember about Ty when he was a baby?

spk_0:   2:33
I don't remember too much when he was a little baby. I remember my gramma of my mom's mom in Minnesota came and watched My sister and I. I think he had his first surgery on my birthday. And so my mom was like that only did you get a brother for your birthday? But he had his first surgery that helped save his life on my birthday.

spk_2:   2:52
Oh, my gosh. Wow. He had it the very day he was born.

spk_0:   2:56
No other day I was born, So he was born September 18 of 93. And then I was born September 23rd of 1990. So five days after he was born he had his first surgery.

spk_2:   3:07
Wow. You and your brother are very similar to my son and his brother, cause Alex came three days before Joey's birthday and he came. Two weeks are like and I say that he did that because he wanted to be outside of me to enjoy the cake and ice cream. Ulterior motive there. I'm sure

spk_0:   3:28
you can. Ice cream's a great motive.

spk_2:   3:30
So So, Yeah, when I had my son Joey on, it was the same thing When I asked him what he remembered, he had very few memories. But he did have some memories because just like you, he was the oldest brother in the family. So did you feel that you had to help take care of your brother when he had his doctor's appointments? Since he was younger than you, I didn't

spk_0:   3:51
really get the sense of that. I needed to take care of him at all. I mean, as we grew up a little bit, it was kind of the whole Nobody picks on my brother but me. So

spk_3:   4:00
I watch out

spk_0:   4:01
for him and make sure nobody else picked on him. But I definitely did a good amount of picking on him. But he's my brother brother. They love got to do that kind of stuff. Exactly. Yeah, that's really it. I didn't feel like I needed that. Help him with this or that. One other thing that I want to mention during this is I think my parents did a great job of not making myself or my sister feel neglected because Tyler needed all of that extra attention with the surgeries and other things going on. That's

spk_2:   4:28
good. That's good to know, because I can guarantee you, as the parent of a child with a heart defect and a heart healthy child, that was one of the things that are worried about was how was Joey going to feel about all of this attention that I had to give to Alex? And he said the same thing that you did. He didn't feel neglected. And you know what? That is music to our years. I'm sure Karen will download this episode and keep it.

spk_0:   4:53
Well, I haven't looking back, you know, having our daughter now and sitting there thinking Okay, you had two kids, and then you had Tyler, who had the heart surgery needed all this and I'm sitting there going. I'm having trouble with one. I don't know how you did it with three total.

spk_2:   5:06
All right, All right. I don't know how she did either. I only had to. It was hard for me with just two. It sounds like she did an excellent job of raising you, in a sense, to me, like you were for Ty, what myself was for his brother. We used to call Joey the normal Isar because just like you were saying, nobody could pick on my brother but me. That's exactly how it was with Joey. And you guys were raised in the same generation. I mean, Joey was born in 91 Ellis was a 94. So you're just a year older than Joey is. And I don't know about you, but both my boys were Power Rangers. Were you into power Rangers when you were a kid?

spk_0:   5:43
I don't know if we'll call. Ever really watching power Rangers. Um,

spk_2:   5:47
my gosh. Joey was the Blue Power Ranger, and Alex was the red one, and oh, yeah, they did all kinds of karate chops and that kind of thing

spk_0:   5:55
we did that kind of stuff. I don't know if I had anything to do with power interest.

spk_2:   5:58
Okay, so you felt fine playing with Ty, like you did anybody else like your other siblings or your friends?

spk_0:   6:08
Oh, yeah. He was just one of us. I didn't think of them any differently. Although there were a few times where, you know, brotherly love had hit him a few times. And there was one time where I hit him in his sternum, and it's like cement. And

spk_2:   6:22
for you didn't you? Didn't

spk_3:   6:25
seem to notice, but I kind of like by

spk_0:   6:27
the backhand swing at him. And I hit my hand and it hurt. That thing is cement.

spk_3:   6:32
So other

spk_0:   6:33
than that, No, not really. So

spk_2:   6:35
I guess you didn't worry too much about his scarf and did you?

spk_0:   6:39
No, not at all. And I think I don't remember if it was a T shirt or a phrase or something. But you keep saying it to this day. You know, chicks dig scars,

spk_2:   6:46
huh? Okay, So I have to know my son has come up with some really creative stories about his scar. Does tie ever make up any stories about a star?

spk_0:   6:56
I don't know that he has. If he has, I haven't heard him.

spk_2:   7:01
Okay, we lived in Florida for two years, and when we move back to Texas, my older son Joey was on the swim team. And so, of course, Alex had to try out for swim team to, and somebody looked at his scar and addressing members said, Hey, man, what happened to you? And he said, Oh, you know, I used to live in Florida. I got attacked by a shark.

spk_3:   7:22
That's that's good. I have

spk_2:   7:24
heard some really creative stories, everything, years that people tell about their scars. It's too funny. You should ask tied. You might be holding something back from you might

spk_0:   7:33
come up with some pretty creative things. I don't know.

spk_2:   7:35
Yeah, just just never know. You have an older sister and enter shoe and then you have younger siblings to Yes. Did you worry about your younger sibling Other than time might also have a heart problem.

spk_0:   7:49
I think I was around eight when he was born. So again, it wasn't really something that crossed my mind. Especially cause with Tyler just was normal. That's who he was. He had the medicine. He had to take for blood thinners, and but there really wasn't anything different about him. From the outside. He did have a slightly paralyzed or paralyze vocal cords, so he was very quiet. But other than that, you really couldn't tell there was anything different about him.

spk_2:   8:13
That's great. That's good to hear. Tell me what your favorite memory is of you and Ty when you were little boys.

spk_0:   8:20
Oh boy, my favorite memory when you were little boys. Well, I know we played a lot of Wiffle ball in the backyard and a lot of video games. One that always sticks out in my mind is I was very good at pushing his buttons when you were playing video games. Whether that be a baseball game, racing game, whatever and often times, I would push him a little too far and he'd start throwing things. I think to this day he still owes me at least one if not to video game controllers from throwing him against the door or the wall. So I might have to give me a call after this. See if I get in that recouping his costs

spk_2:   8:55
like I was just so funny. Sounds like the two of you just had a normal brotherly relationship.

spk_0:   9:02
Yeah, looking back, it was pretty normal time. I wasn't real happy, but yeah, it

spk_4:   9:06
was. Dworsky has written several books to empower the Congenital Heart Defect, or CHD community. These books could be found at amazon dot com or at our website www dot baby hearts press dot com. Her best seller is The Heart of a Mother, an anthology of stories written by Women for Women in the CHD community and his other books. My Brother Needs an Operation, The Heart of a Father and Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. A Handbook for Parents will help you understand that you are not alone. Visit baby hearts press dot com to find out more.

spk_1:   9:51
You are listening to heart to heart with Anna. If you have a question or comment that you would like to address our show police in an email to Anna Dworsky at Anna at heart to heart with anna dot com. That's Anna at heart to heart with anna dot com now back to heart, to heart for them.

spk_2:   10:09
Before the break, we talked with Dan about his childhood with a brother with hypoplastic left heart syndrome are a geologist, and now we're gonna focus on what the teenage years have been like for him. So, Dan, tell us how you felt when you were 16 and I was 13 in a hospital, getting a pacemaker.

spk_0:   10:26
Well, there's an actual interesting story about this. Same time. So there was a whole thing going on here just before Tyler got a pacemaker. My dad had his appendix out in Wisconsin when we were on a camping trip, and so coming back from that, he couldn't drive it all. And so what happened was my mom went with my brother to Omaha for the surgery because my sister at the time needed tohave, dental surgery or jaw surgery or something like that in Fort Dodge, which was not really anywhere close.

spk_3:   10:55
Oh, my goodness.

spk_0:   10:55
So I ended up driving my father and my sister up the Fort Dodge a little farther to stay with my mom's cousin for the night, coming back, picking them up, driving them back to where we lived in Pella at the time, and then making multiple trips back and forth from Pella to Omaha because my dad couldn't drive

spk_3:   11:14
white a touch Yes, Oh, my gosh.

spk_2:   11:17
Everybody seems to have had something going on. Or I'll say where the caretakers to the people have something going on. Wow. Wow. So at a young age, I mean 16. It's really pretty. Yeah. You had a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.

spk_0:   11:31
I did, going back and forth. And I think if you ask my sister the trip back from Fort Dodge to paella, I think she swears I hit every single bump twice.

spk_2:   11:41
So I can just imagine that is really an amazing story. And you must have been worried about your dad because most people don't get their appendix taken out. When you're going on, it can't be trip.

spk_0:   11:58
No, I think he just wanted to get out of the tent and go statement hotel in much

spk_3:   12:02
support center. Oh,

spk_2:   12:06
my goodness. Wow, That's quite a story, Dad. Well, what was it like going through high school with Ty? Were you all in the same school?

spk_0:   12:15
We did all go through the same school. The interesting thing is that my sister and I and Ty and I are all about the same age difference. So I was in high school with my sister for a year or so. And then Tie was a freshman when I was a senior. So there was an interesting dynamic there. You know, your brother's a freshman. Ah, freshman.

spk_2:   12:36
Okay, but you were the freshman with your sister is a different with this sister brother dynamic than it was with you and your brother.

spk_0:   12:43
It's definitely different. I know with my brother and I. He played tennis in baseball as well, and we're actually the same tennis team, partially due to us only having six or seven people. But that was a fun experience. And then we've also loved baseball since we were a high and could throw ping Pong balls that we were given by our uncle. So you've been doing that for a long, long time.

spk_2:   13:03
Wow. So he was on the tennis game. That's a very vigorous sport for somebody who basically has half a heart.

spk_0:   13:10
Well, he played pretty much everything growing up. Baseball, football, flake, football, I should say flag football, but pretty much anything kicked around a soccer ball. I couldn't tell you how many games of whiffle ball and Wiffle Ball homerun derby we played in the backyard. I mean, it's just been something like Okay, we're well that were in high school, playing sports. We've played forever. So it wasn't too much in that aspect, But it was kind of weird walking around and seeing my brother at the same school for a while.

spk_2:   13:36
Yeah, I can imagine when you were talking about all of these words, I was thinking, Wow, flag football, OK, I live in Texas. There's no way there would be flag football in high school. You must have got to do it really

spk_0:   13:50
well. This school or before high school,

spk_2:   13:52
that was any four high school. Okay,

spk_0:   13:54
we actually didn't get football as a high school until seventh or eighth grade. They had just gotten a football program in the high

spk_2:   14:01
school. Wow, It's a football in Texas is just, you know, it's everything you can't

spk_0:   14:08
say Texas without saying football.

spk_2:   14:10
I know it's crazy.

spk_0:   14:12
They're fanatic about football here. Well, I believe it. I mean, I'm a Detroit Lions fan and our quarterback is from Texas,

spk_3:   14:18
you know? Wow. I hope

spk_2:   14:20
he's doing a good job for you guys.

spk_3:   14:21
I think so. Good. What

spk_2:   14:25
was it like for you when you went off to college? and left your family.

spk_0:   14:30
I think for me at that point, I was ready to move on to the next stage.

spk_2:   14:36
Well, yeah. It sounds like you were super mature for your age, so I mean, you weren't going to college at 16 right?

spk_0:   14:42
Right now, But

spk_2:   14:43
you had already shouldered a lot of responsibility at 16. So I'm sure by 18 which is when kids typically go to college. You were ready for that?

spk_0:   14:51
Oh, definitely. I mean, and the experiences and circumstances that you deal with what kind of form and mold you as a person. And it was one of those where Okay, Mom and Dad, I love you, but I'm ready to be on my own,

spk_2:   15:03
right?

spk_0:   15:04
I didn't really think about it at the time, but, I mean, we had cell phones and we had things like Skype and other things where if I needed to talk to me or I wanted to say, Hey, what are you doing? That type of thing. We had the options to do that. I think if I had gone to college at a different time when those things weren't as prevalent, it would have been different. But I mean, it didn't really feel like for me. I was too far away with having those options if I needed something or he needed something, so I didn't really think about it too much.

spk_2:   15:32
How far away did you go to school?

spk_0:   15:33
About four hours from fellatio. I went to college in northwestern Iowa, in Orange City, and that's about four hours. So not too far

spk_2:   15:42
away. Okay, yeah, that's not too bad. You were able to go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas and all of the major holidays.

spk_0:   15:49
Yep. And I had that. There were several other people from my high school who also went up and went to college in the same place.

spk_2:   15:54
Oh, great. And it sounds like you're from a small town, so it sounds really tight knit. That's the impression I'm getting Funny

spk_0:   16:03
enough. Orange City, Iowa, and Pella, Iowa, are two of the bigger Dutch communities, and so there's basically a pipeline going back and forth. There was one time I think it was end of October. Early November, I was walking to class in shorts and I got a phone call from my mother about three minutes later, asking why I was wearing shorts

spk_3:   16:21
to class. I love it. So if he has five everywhere Wow, I love

spk_2:   16:32
that story. Well, what was it like for you when your brother went off to college? Where you already completely out on your own by that time?

spk_0:   16:40
Let's see. He When he started college, I think I was just married.

spk_2:   16:45
Oh, wow. Okay,

spk_0:   16:46
so I didn't really think too much about I mean, obviously proud of him for going to college. And he's since graduated. But I didn't really think anything about it. And I was getting married and then having my senior year, I got to get ready to make sure I graduate and all that fun stuff,

spk_2:   17:00
right? Absolutely. So, what did you study in college?

spk_0:   17:04
I was a history major.

spk_2:   17:07
And what is it that you do

spk_0:   17:09
right now? I'm actually working for Citibank in their Costco Payment Investigations Department.

spk_2:   17:14
I totally get that. When I was going to graduate school, I worked in a credit union and there were a lot of us. There were different kinds of majors. And you know what? They really wanted to have people there who had different interest and who had a college education. It didn't have to be a banking. They were really interested in heavy people with a diverse background. So how interesting. Where to tie study in college.

spk_0:   17:40
He was a political science major, I believe.

spk_2:   17:44
What is he doing right now?

spk_0:   17:46
Right now, he is working. I believe the company is called The compra knew in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They work with recycling electronics, protecting data, empowering community.

spk_2:   17:57
Wow. So it sounds like both of you are working in jobs that are fun for you. Something that you enjoy. Is that true?

spk_0:   18:06
That definitely. At least for me. It's always interesting. Never quite know what's gonna happen the next day. What people are gonna do. Usually what I end up doing is searching for payments that people have sent in. And they didn't put their name on or they don't have part of their account number on it. And so I get to try and search for these things. And so, from a research aspect, I enjoy it. That's kind of why I was a history major. I enjoy researching and looking into things and figuring out why did this happen? What caused it? That type of thing,

spk_1:   18:33
Dan, your detective that sounds much

spk_0:   18:36
cooler than

spk_4:   18:46
tonight forever by the Baby Blue Sound collective. I think what I love so much about this CD is that some of the songs were inspired by the patient's many listeners will understand many of the different songs and what they've been inspired. Our new album will be available on iTunes. Amazon dot com. Spotify. I love the fact that the proceeds from this CD are actually going to help those with heart defects. Enjoy music Home

spk_2:   19:15
Tonight forever. Before the break, we were talking with Dan about his teenage years with his brother, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. And now we're going to talk to him about his feelings about the future. Dan, After you got married, how did that affect your relationship with Ty?

spk_0:   19:33
That's quite the question. Basically one of the things before I got married, you know, he'd occasionally asked me about advice about girls and that type of thing. Soon as I get married. Suddenly I know nothing about girls, and he says that my wife all of those questions

spk_2:   19:51
So it sounds like he has a good relationship with your wife. Seems

spk_0:   19:55
like it. He gets along with her pretty well. They're both in tow, the idea of flipping houses and that type of thing. So they talk about H G TV shows from time to time, and it's like good luck. I have no interest in

spk_2:   20:07
that. Did you know your wife from childhood? This is somebody that I grew up with?

spk_0:   20:16
No, my wife and I met at our freshman orientation before college.

spk_2:   20:21
Okay, that's pretty cool. Is she from the same area?

spk_0:   20:25
She's from Lamar's Iowa, which is just about 20 minutes outside of Orange City, where we went to college.

spk_2:   20:32
So not too terribly far. But it's not. Somebody who grew up, went to high school with

spk_0:   20:36
No, no. One of the first things we did at this freshman orientation was we got split up into small groups to go on a scavenger hunt, and we're standing in a circle and we're going through our names and she's standing next to me and we have name tags on, and she keeps looking at me and say, You know, Hi, I'm Dan Shy Doc and a little bit later walking to the first spot and she looks at me and goes, Ah, that doesn't work. Those letters do not make those Salinger.

spk_3:   21:01
That's not right. Would

spk_2:   21:05
you Told me how to pronounce it? I thought Okay, I think it's check. Is that right? Slovak? Slovak. Okay, because we have a lot of chicks in the community where I live. And so I was curious. I knew that I was going to pronounce it. Say, Jack and I thought, I bet that's not the right

spk_3:   21:22
way. I don't have

spk_0:   21:24
a rich uncle. Patio hosts Wheel of Fortune.

spk_3:   21:27
No, E no, I just missed out on that.

spk_2:   21:33
Little did she doubt that she was gonna have that last name for herself? Did she keep her lifesaver? Did she take yours?

spk_0:   21:38
She took mine. And actually, on our wedding day, as we were driving from our venue to where we were having the reception, I looked in Ireland. Remember when you said those letters don't go together at all?

spk_3:   21:51
You could have

spk_0:   21:51
that for the rest of your life. Congratulations, dear.

spk_2:   21:55
And whenever you have telemarketers calling you, I bet they come up with all kinds of creative ways to say your gaze.

spk_0:   22:02
They do in a soon as they do. I say Sorry, I don't know anybody by that name,

spk_2:   22:08
huh? That's awesome. Let's get a little bit more serious for a minute now. We were talking at the very beginning. A little bit about you and your wife having a baby. I'm imagining that she brought Caylee home to visit the family. And they all got to meet her before you got married, right? Yes. And did you tell her about ties? Heart defect?

spk_0:   22:29
Yes, I did.

spk_2:   22:30
When did you talk to her About his heart defect?

spk_3:   22:33
Probably the first time they met.

spk_0:   22:35
I don't think it ever really came up before that.

spk_2:   22:38
Yeah, I can't imagine why it would. You know, what must you know somebody else was talking about And you said Oh, yeah. My brother has a heart defect, but yeah, I can imagine. Right. That's not something that you would normally say. I guess. So do you think that she was worried when you all decided to get pregnant? That maybe her baby would have a heart defect

spk_0:   22:57
if she did? She'd never voiced them to me. It didn't cross my mind at all. She never said anything about it up until they said your brother has type of glass left heart syndrome. We want to make sure we take a second look at that. And that's when it kind of was like, Well, boy, this could be something extremely serious. Thankfully, there wasn't anything, but I think that's probably win. That worry level started to creep up higher and higher.

spk_2:   23:21
Yeah. Now, has your older sister had any babies?

spk_0:   23:24
No, she is not currently married, and I don't think she's saying anybody. So no, no babies for her.

spk_2:   23:29
Okay, So your baby was the first grand baby?

spk_0:   23:32
Yes. First Grant baby.

spk_3:   23:34
Oh, my God.

spk_2:   23:35
Karen is so excited.

spk_0:   23:37
She was. Yes, very, very excited.

spk_2:   23:40
Neither of my son's had gotten married yet. And there are no grandbabies yet. Joey is going to marry Ashley. I know he is. They're engaged right now, and I love her already. Consider her my daughter. So I know when Ashley gets pregnant, I'm going to be a nervous wreck. How did Karen handle it?

spk_0:   23:55
I never heard anything from her about it. And I mean, she was just excited that Caylee was pregnant. And we're gonna have her first grand kid and all she really wanted. And all she ever mentioned was she wanted the baby to be healthy.

spk_2:   24:06
Right? Okay, Karen, I'm gonna have to call you when Ashley gets pregnant. So I could be calm like you were.

spk_0:   24:12
Well, she might not have been calm at all. I don't know what she was like with talking to my dad about it at all, but I know talking to me, she was just basically excited.

spk_2:   24:21
Well, good. And that's how I hope I will be, too, because you don't want congenital heart defects to overshadow everything and yet something we have lived with for over two decades. So it's something that it's always there. It doesn't go away. And you just hope and pray that if something does happen like it did with tide like it did with Alex, But you're gonna have the strength to deal with it. And your family sounds really tight, really supportive of one another and so close that you know that if something were to happen, you have that support there. Yes, and I'm surprised that Karen found out in utero because I didn't find out until after my son was born.

spk_0:   25:01
Well, I could be wrong, but I believe she said that they found out beforehand.

spk_2:   25:05
Yeah, there were people who did find out back then. I mean, the ultrasounds definitely were not as sophisticated as they are today. And I don't know, the doctors looked for it back then. I mean, I remember us looking at the heart single Look at the her Pete. But I don't remember them ever saying, Let's look at how many chambers there are in that heart. We just looked at the heart beating.

spk_0:   25:24
Yeah, well, we had to be careful. We didn't want to find out. And we didn't find out what we were having until our daughter Alina arrived. And so it's like, Okay, we want to look at it and all the heart stuff, but we don't want to see anything else that might spoil that for us.

spk_2:   25:37
I can't believe this. We just said you're a detective and you didn't want to know. Did

spk_3:   25:42
you know?

spk_0:   25:44
To me, it's kind of like Christmas.

spk_2:   25:46
Yeah,

spk_0:   25:46
I'll give you the list of what I want, but I don't want to know until I open it.

spk_2:   25:50
Oh, my gosh. I had to know that

spk_0:   25:55
I had to give up finding out for any other kids that we have to not find out on the 1st 1

spk_2:   25:59
Are you planning on having more Children?

spk_0:   26:01
We are planning on having more, and so will probably be finding out, but did not find out for the 1st 1 I basically had to give up that option for the rest

spk_3:   26:09
of us. Well,

spk_2:   26:12
it sounds like you have a wonderfully happy family, and it sounds like everything is going great. What kind of uncle is tie? Does he spoiler?

spk_0:   26:21
She's not quite at the age of spoiling, but one of the first things that he bought Elena were Chelsea once so like the soccer team, and he also bought a little bear with the Children, jersey on

spk_2:   26:34
it as sweet.

spk_0:   26:35
And then we got a picture off him where he has his big Chelsea fan has all kinds of stuff. And then we dressed Elaine up in the Chelsea one Z and then took a picture with this. He's definitely someone who's sitting there like Okay, I'm not going to try and fight it. I love big enough

spk_2:   26:54
in my family. My husband's brother, my brother in law, played the devoted uncle, and he would send the loudest, craziest toys to my Children. So watch out because you never know

spk_0:   27:08
why my dad's brother did the same thing, at least for me. He got me a little phaser gun when I was little. That made made all kinds of noise. And I have already warned my siblings that if they do anything like that, we're having the first kids. So we will be able to reciprocate the love the known, his decoys.

spk_2:   27:26
That's right. And they only get noisier and crazier the longer time goes on, so they are gonna have to watch out. That's too funny of phaser gun. I love it. I love it. I just love these stories. When I was a mother of a young child who had a congenital heart defect, that prognosis for Alex was not very good, and everything was so doom and gloom. I would have loved to have talked to somebody like you and hear that you had a wonderful relationship with your brother growing up. And now you've had a child and that child is heart healthy. I mean, what a picture of hope you've painted.

spk_0:   28:02
Well, it's pretty easy when I'm a big Star Wars fan, so I kind of think from time to time. My brother's a little bit like Han Solo from one of the movies. He's flying his Millennium Falcon and see Threepio that one of the droids is calculating the odds of things and his line back. That was never told me the uts on That's my Brother to a T by parents have the option of going through the surgeries or taking him home and letting him die. And for the last roughly 24 years, 25 years he's been like, never tell me the ads. I'm just gonna beat him.

spk_2:   28:37
I love it. That is the perfect way for us to end this ship. So thank you so much for coming on the show today.

spk_0:   28:44
Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.

spk_2:   28:46
There was a lot of fun. Thanks for listening today. Friends. I hope you'll tune in next week, at noon on Tuesday or any time. That's the great thing about podcast. Once we broadcast, they are always available whenever it's convenient for you. So have a great day. And remember, my friends, you are not thank

spk_1:   29:02
you again for joining us this week way Hope you have been inspired on empowered to become an advocate for the congenital heart defect community. Heart to heart With Anna With your hose down, Dworsky can be heard every Tuesday at 12 noon Eastern time.

spk_5:   29:27
This program is a presentation of Hearts, Unite the Globe and is part of the Hug Podcast Network are tonight. The Globe is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing resource is to the congenital heart defect community to uplift on power and enrich the lives of our community members. If you would like access to free Resource, is pretending to the CHD community. Please visit our website at www dot hug dash podcast network dot com for information about CHD, the hospitals that treat Children with CHD summer camps for CHD survivors and much, much more.