So what is
'Minnie The Metronome'
Exactly?
G'day everybody, Minnie here,
Well well well...
Where to start ladies and jellybeans. 2021 was a rough start to the year for me and i'm here to tell you why:
For those that know me know that I have had a heart condition from birth (a thickened aorta accompanied by a loud heart murmur). My childhood Cardiologist said that we should just keep an eye on it by monitoring it with Echocardiograms annually. But as you know, life get's busy and I ended up missing a few ECG's (naughty Minnie). 2021 came around quickly and I thought it was more than time to get the old ticker checked out again.
Residing on the Sunny Coast now I decided to sniff out a new Cardiologist. I cruised on in to my appointment (thinking that i'd be sent back home with the same results) but much to my surprise after my tests there were a few jaws on the ground of the Heart Clinic that day.
Turns out I have a Unicuspid Aortic Valve; which is an extremely rare congenital malformation of the heart which affects only 0.02% in the adult population. Crazy right! Well it turns out the universe didn't think that was crazy enough just yet - add a pinch of severe Aortic Stenosis and a dash of severe Aortic Regurgitation and BINGO!!! We've hit the nail on the head! The Doctors were baffled at how I was able to be driving extremely long hours to gigs, then sweating it out throughout the shows like i did, all whilst hitting it hard on the party front and then not feeling any of the side effects of my condition, when I have essentially an 80 year old's heart.
What happened next you ask? My Cardiologist insisted I had a CT scan ASAP to make sure I didn't have anything else going on so he could push me through to have urgent open heart surgery... But... SURPRISE! They'd found that my Mediastinal Lymph Nodes were incredibly swollen. I was told that it could be the results of Lung Cancer, Lymphoma or an Auto Immune Disease and that I would need to have a Biopsy to determine which one it was before I could be operated on. So it was off to Oncology and Biopsy time! I received the results not long after my Biopsy.
No Lung Cancer. *Wahoo!*
No Lymphoma. *Yee-haa!*
But an Auto Immune Disease called Löfgren's Syndrome Sarcoidosis.
(insert failing trumpet noise: *wah wah wah* here).
For those who don't know what Sarcoidosis is: Sarcoidosis is a disease characterized by the growth of tiny collections of inflammatory cells (granulomas) in any part of your body — most commonly the lungs and lymph nodes. But it can also affect the eyes, skin, heart and other organs. It causes excessive inflamation, shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, chest pain, a skin rash (which I currently have been battling with for the past 3 years, if you've come to a gig you may have seen this), dizzyness etc. The list goes on. So as you can imagine - this coupled with my heart problems ain't pretty. My energy levels have been rapidly decreasing (which you also may have noticed if you've been at one of my more recent gigs) to the point where I can't even walk up my driveway to take the bins out without losing my breath and almost passing out. Scary stuff for a now 27 year old.
What has to be done? I hear you ask. Well! It's time for me to get all fixed up so I can keep on living and have my quality of life improved immensely. To do this I have to have open heart surgery urgently to put a new Mechanical Heart Valve in place where my valve is supposed to be (but isn't because it's non-existent). Pretty insane to think I'll have a pure pyrolytic carbon valve in my chest that you'll be able to hear tick. I'm not even kidding, you'll be able to hear my chest tick! I'll be a walking Metronome haha.
All in all this is going to leave me with a 8 - 11 inch scar, a huge a** bill from the hospital and next to no work for the next 6 months minimum whilst I recover, not to mention the work I've already had to cancel at the start of this year upon finding out my conditions. Unfortunately I can't do this alone. As you know I'm an incredibly hard working, dedicated musician who finds it hard to receive charity at the best of times. But in a time like this, I need your help. So I've found a way that it feels like I'm still giving something back to you guys.
I'll be offering a bunch of different goodies to purchase:
- 100 x 'Minnie The Metronome' Beanies
- 100 x 'Minnie The Metronome' T-shirts
- House Concerts with yours truly ;)
If you'd like to follow and support my endeavour please head over to the MERCHANDISE PAGE to grab your very own beanie, shirt or house concert. Or if you simply just feel like donating click the GOFUNDME page above. If all goes to plan I'll be back on the road in no time playing music at all of your houses and who knows, I might even show you my scar ;)
Thanks for your time everyone. You are all legends and I thank you from the bottom of my dicky heart <3
Minnie xx