Minnesota woman shows resilience after a scary medical diagnosis; “It changes your life… And that’s, that’s the miracle of it.”

By Beret Leone

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Nancy Rajanen is a bit of an art aficionado. Each trip she takes with her husband, Greg, they bring back a piece of art.

“It also gives me a memory,” Rajanen said, pointing to wooden figurines. “I remember a guy carving that.”

While the international décor is beautiful to look at—it also serves as a reminder to live fully. More than a decade ago, the world traveler, mother, grandmother and instructor at the University of Minnesota started experiencing shortness of breath.

“It was such a surprise,” Rajanen said, “But things happen and you just have to learn to deal with it.” At first, she thought it was asthma, but doctors determined it was heart failure.

“And it was just so out of the blue because, because I’m an unlikely candidate, I don’t smoke, I’m not overweight, I don’t have diabetes, I don’t, you know, I exercise, I eat well. So it was like, how can that be? But it was,” Nancy said.

“Nancy’s case originally was that we referred her to the University for a possible heart transplant because her heart was that weak,” M Health Fairview Cardiologist Dr. Eric Ernst said.

Dr. Ernst says it never got to that point though. But, despite managing her symptoms with medications, they were still unpredictable.

“What we do sometimes in that situation is we implant a device called a cardio MEMS device,” he said. It’s a remote monitoring device—the size of a paper clip—to help doctors manage Rajanen’s heart failure. Rajanen was one of the “early adopters.”

“I’m thrilled with how well we it’s been able to help us with those really challenging patients,” Dr. Ernst said. Once a week, Rajanen lays down on a special pillow and the pillow send her scans directly to her care team. It allows her to adjust her medications in real time. At first, she was scanning her heart twice a day, but thanks to the device now it’s only once a week. “The fact that I’m able to live a full life remotely, anywhere that I want to, and know that I still have that protection of that somebody’s keeping an eye on my heart. For me, that’s, that’s kind of life changing,” Rajanen said. These days, at age 70, Rajanen feels good. “I would say I’m darn close to being my old self,” she said. Rajanen is back to her active routine, staying out of the hospital and enjoying retirement “I would say that we’re always looking ahead to what our what our next adventure will be,” Rajanen said.

She’s looking forward to adding to her art collection – in January Nancy and Greg are taking a family trip to Vietnam.

“It changes your life, and it lets you live your life. And that’s, that’s the miracle of it,” she said.

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