TEXARKANA MONTHLY
A
MADE WHOLE HEART
BY KARA HUMPHREY
H eart-shaped candy boxes, heart-shaped balloons, heart-shaped cookies… February really is all about the heart. Every year, we use the fourteenth to celebrate those we love and express to them how much they mean to us. However, our heart obsession is not limited to the parties and confections of Valentine’s Day. February is also National Heart Month and serves to bring awareness to the importance of heart health and the millions across the nation who suffer with heart conditions. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared February “National Heart Month.” Over half a century later, the observation of Heart Month is still going strong. “Heart disease remains the single largest health threat to Americans—just as it was when LBJ was alive. Heart disease continues to kill more people each year than all forms of cancer combined.” according to heart.com . For many people, it is possible to recognize heart abnormalities at birth, but for Megan Menefee it was not as obvious.
She was 30 years old when she discovered a problem, a problem which to that point had caused her no real issues. It was almost by accident that her husband Dr. Kip Menefee, a Cardiothoracic Anesthesiologist, discovered something that gave him pause. “My husband, Kip, and I go snow skiing every year. It is our favorite hobby together. We had just returned from a ski trip in January 2010, and I wasn’t feeling very well. (It was) nothing major, just feeling a little under the weather with a sore chest and cough, possibly an upper respiratory infection,” Megan said. “I was kind of whiney and asked Kip to listen to my chest. To appease me, he put his ear on my chest thinking he was being funny. However, he leaned back with a bit of concern on his face and said, ‘Let me go get my stethoscope.’ He then listened and said, ‘Tomorrow, make an appointment to get an echocardiogram.’ I remember exactly, he said, ‘You have a harsh heart murmur.’ The
c r a z y thing was that all throughout his medical school and residency, he would listen to my
chest and heart sounds with his stethoscope to practice and never once heard anything out of the ordinary. Even growing up, my father, who was also a physician, would listen to my chest whenever I was sick, and he too never remembers hearing anything odd.” Though shocked, Megan did exactly as Kip suggested. “The next day I made an appointment with my primary care provider for an echo. I tried not to panic, but instead
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COMMUNITY & CULTURE
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