A woman’s heart condition took her from dancing to despair – then a new direction

By American Heart Association News

MONDAY, July 17, 2023 (American Heart Association News) — At 32, Allison Graff considered her life a treasure. She loved her job in Florida. She owned her own house. She discovers the delights of dance, which she practices as often as possible in clubs. Sweating and getting tired seemed to be the price she paid for having fun.

But when the sweating continued long after she left the dance floor, and still taking a shower completely wiped her out, she knew something was wrong.

A visit to the emergency room confirmed his fears. And while that trip to the ER in 2008 began an often exhausting journey of high hopes and devastating despair, she still considers what she did that fateful day “the best decision I could have made.”

An angiogram showed no blockage. Good news, of course. However, an electrocardiogram showed that his heart’s electrical system was not working properly.

We can focus our time and energy on figuring out why it happened, the cardiologist told him, or we can focus our time and energy on helping you get better.

Graff opted for the latter. She returned to her home in West Monroe, New York, where her parents helped her develop and maintain healthy habits. She started taking prescription drugs, quit smoking, and cut sodium from her diet. She and her father took long walks together. Eventually, she got stronger.

“Family love is powerful medicine,” Graff said. “When you recover and you’re surrounded by people who help you do the right things, it allows you to step back and say, ‘Hmm, what’s best for me now?'”

She took a part-time, low-stress job, then later started working full-time in the arts, which she loved. She kept getting better. She got married and had a baby in 2013, a girl she named Avery.

“My heart had really reacted to the drugs and the new understanding that there was more to life than just what I could do in a day,” she said. “I was focused on my family and my health. I practiced yoga. I did a lot of good things for my body.”

Then in 2016, his father died. He was battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Graff had helped his mother and sister take care of him, which was a labor of love, but also extremely stressful. His health began to decline again and his marriage took a hit. She and her husband separated in 2019, and Graff and Avery moved in with her mother.

Graff started smoking again. Stress overwhelmed him.

In 2020, a day after her divorce was finalized, Graff got up during a visit with a friend and passed out. In the emergency room, he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. Doctors implanted a loop recorder to monitor his heart. She was sent home and told to calm down.

She tried. But she developed heart palpitations, became depressed, lost her appetite and didn’t know what to do. Then she had a mini-stroke.

“I felt my lip go numb,” Graff said. “When I reached out to touch my face, I had no control over my arm.”

Hospital tests confirmed mini-strokes in four areas of his brain. Additionally, she was diagnosed with moyamoya disease, a constriction of the blood vessels supplying the brain. If one of those vessels were to burst, she would have a hemorrhagic stroke.

For someone with atrial fibrillation, strokes and mini-strokes are “pretty common,” said Jeffrey Ascenzo, Graff’s cardiologist.

“This is especially true when the arrhythmia only occurs intermittently and sometimes without any other symptoms,” he said. “The underlying stroke risk is why atrial fibrillation is such a dangerous arrhythmia.”

It’s also the most common arrhythmia, he says, but not so much in a woman of Graff’s age. No more than another of his diagnoses: cardiomyopathy. There was nothing Graff could do to explain why she had developed these conditions. She could, however, undergo brain surgery to correct Moyamoya’s disease.

So a year ago — after focusing on reducing stress, creating a stable life for herself and Avery, and adopting a lemonade-making mantra with lemons — she did.

Graff may need additional surgeries in the future. But for now, she’s focused on living life to the fullest, moment by moment. This includes teaching yoga, identifying her feelings, listening to her body, and saying no when she needs to say no.

“She stays active, eats well, and most importantly, sticks to her medications and regular follow-up visits,” Ascenzo said. “I see no reason why she can’t live and achieve a normal lifespan.”

Graff said his emotions are more consistent these days. And while she may not be dancing the night away like she was before her heart problems began, she has found another source of joy.

“I do handstands,” she said. “Before all this, I was too scared to try.”

News from the American Heart Association covers heart and brain health. Any opinions expressed in this story do not reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved.

By Leslie Barker, American Heart Association News

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