Author: Tony Trott
Remember that scene in Titanic (1997) where Leonardo DiCaprio stands on the bow of the Titanic and yells, “I’m the king of the world!” as the wind blows through his hair? Sometimes it seems to me like it’s some kind of personification of Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA) that believes it is the king of the world because FA thinks it can do anything it wants to.

I can just be living my life as best I can when FA decides to throw me a curveball. In this case it was my ejection fraction. Ejection fraction is a measurement of how much blood the left ventricle of the heart pumps out with each contraction. I try to have an echocardiogram done each year, and up until this year it had been on the low side of normal, but my latest echocardiogram showed it to be below the normal range. This is not a death sentence, and I am asymptomatic now, so my heart doctors and I are going to try a low dose of meds for 3 months to see if they can help with heart health. I will do another echocardiogram after using the meds for 3 months and we’ll go from there.

So how can I be “Happy on Wheels” when I find out things like this? I wish I could give you an answer to that question, but I can’t. I can tell you what helps me, and you can certainly try them as well, but no promises.

First is to trust people; specifically, your doctors and medical professionals who are trying to help you. That can be a really difficult thing to do, and it can certainly involve getting second opinions (from actual doctors, not just looking up symptoms on the web or something like that). The second thing I do is focus on something else. Right now, there is a lot of NCAA basketball to focus on and baseball is just starting and I’m reading a great book about Jackie Robinson. So, there are plenty of distractions for me! The third thing, is to just let things slide off your shoulders. I know that is not always possible, but maybe doing the first two things (especially the second one) can help with this one.

Those are just things that work for me, and maybe they can help you too. Good luck.