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That light still shines bright in Myanna, even after all of these years. Over time she has had more medical procedures and diagnoses than many children. She has been diagnosed with multiple feeding disorders, congenital heart defects, asthma, autism, ADHD, anxiety disorder, mild cerebral palsy, spina bifida occulta , OCD and sensory process disorder. yet, she is resilient and she fights on...in June 2016, she had the release of her tethered spinal cord surgery. This surgery and the procedures leading up to the surgery were traumatizing for her. It was this surgery and recovery that showed her how sad and scary hospitals can be for a small child and thus, the idea, the dream,  of bringing smiles to children in the hospital was born. July 2018 she underwent hernia surgery and she has recovered just fine. 

 

From the time she was 3, she started to participate in heart events. She has contributed to school functions such as "Jump rope for your heart" as well as reading marathons for the American Heart Association. She enjoys the Heart picnic every year and this past year (2022) MyannasHeart was invited to set up a table. At the picnic we passed out t-shirts, sports bottles and other swag and even had raffles and spinner games for the children. Myanna had so much fun meeting other heart warriors and handing out gifts and we cannot wait until this year.

Myanna also runs in the StarKid 5k with family and friends. In 2017 and 2019, her photo was used as part of the post card and website screen saver on the Starkid 5k website. In 2019 MyannasHeart also had their own team at the race with some awesome shirts!

While she loves participating in these events, she also wanted to raise awareness for Congenital Heart Defects among her peers. With mom's help, she created posters that she brought into kindergarten class that listed the names of hundreds of children who have all different types of CHDs and life saving heart surgeries. She even included some heart angels who passed away while fighting this disease. In February 2018 during American Heart Month, Myanna chose to explain her scar to her first grade class. She provided a small booklet to show her specific congenital heart defects and general facts about CHDs. The children loved listening to her story and were enthralled by it. They were fascinated to hear she had a surgeon  fix two holes in her heart.

Myanna has always found a way to make people happy. Her smile is infectious and she has a whimsical pixie look to her. Everywhere she goes people adore her. I can't imagine our lives without her.