When I was younger, I would faint a couple times whenever I got hurt, but it wasn't until 5th grade when I went to the doctor because of this. I had just hit my funny bone in class and felt a little dizzy, so I rested my head on the table. Next thing I know, I had fainted and ended up on the floor.
Talk about my teacher and classmates being worried, and definitely my parents. After that incident I went to the doctor immediately. It turns out that I have a heart murmur. A heart murmur is an extra sound caused by blood flow through a heart valve that is either leaky and/or narrow.
For this reason, whenever my blood pressure speeds up because of things such as pain, there is a possibility that not enough blood goes to my heart, causing me to faint. My cardiologist required me to have an appointment with her after every year. However, with the help from Kung Fu, each year that I went to the appointments, my heart improved extending how often I had to visit the doctor. Now after seven years of Kung Fu, my heart does not prevent me from doing anything.
On top of my heart murmur, I have a minor problem with asthma. Before I joined Kung Fu, I would often get sick. In the winters, I would get colds, and my coughs would be very heavy on top of having asthma. The doctor would either advise me to take medicine or sometimes tell me to use my inhaler to help myself from coughing so much.
Throughout the rest of the year, I would be just fine. However, even though my asthma was never a major problem, I still remember having problems breathing easily during the night in which I would need a humidifier when I was younger.
After all these years, I've gotten stronger and stronger. I still have a humidifier; however, I don't use it anymore. Thanks to practicing Kung Fu, I haven't fainted in many years and rarely get sick as often as I used to. Thank you, Sifu, for all of your help; you've helped me more than any of my doctors have.
Alice Nguyen
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