Change of Heart: My Journey of Transplantation, Revelation & Transformation

by Kristy Sidlar, Elizabeth Ann Atkins (Editor)

Overview

​​She was loving her life as a healthy, young professional and fitness instructor.

But one day while teaching an aerobics class, she collapsed-and spiraled into a life-threatening health crisis.

Kristy Sidlar needed a new heart.

Now, in her gripping memoir, Change of Heart: My Journey of Transplantation, Revelation & Transformation, she provides fascinating and inspiring insight into her extraordinary survival story that chronicles her frightening heart failure-and her triumph over what could have ended her vibrant life far too early.

In engaging vignettes, Kristy takes you on an intimate journey as her failing health prompts doctors to put her on the heart transplant list. Then, miraculously, a donor heart becomes available. Page by page, Kristy takes you through her death-defying experience as she courageously-and optimistically-endures surgery and recovery.

Then she embarks on a new life that's so healthy and energetic, she's training for a triathlon.

While Kristy shares her story in a way that sparkles with her humorous, upbeat personality, she also introduces you to her Wellness Widget, a tool that she created for anyone wanting to cultivate wellness across multiple dimensions of their lives.

This book makes you laugh, cry, and ponder deep questions about living and dying, while inspiring you to cherish your life and loved ones as never before. Thanks to an organ donor family that was grieving the loss of their loved one, Kristy explores the power of gratitude and the inexpressible joy that the greatest gift of life can bring.

Kristy is on a mission to use her remarkable survival story as a heart transplant recipient to encourage men and women everywhere to make overall wellness a priority. She advocates for heart health, especially for women, as a long-time volunteer and board member for the American Heart Association. And she's a board member for Project Beautiful - Inside and Out.

Her career in the staffing and recruiting industry has enabled her to live and work in Singapore, and travel the world. 

A Michigan native, Kristy has a Bachelor of Arts from Hope College. She and her husband, Dave, enjoy spending time in Northern California.

Kristy's hobbies include photography, fitness, card-making, and driving and admiring exotic and classic cars. After completing three 5K races since her surgery, she's currently training for a triathlon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781956879056
Publisher:	Two Sisters Writing and Publishing LLC
Publication date:	03/26/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	244
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Elizabeth Ann Atkins loves escorting writers along the exhilarating yet sometimes exhausting and intimidating journey of writing, publishing, and promoting books. She's written about 40 books-fiction and non-fiction, published by major New York publishing houses as well as by the company she founded with her sister, Two Sisters Writing & Publishing.As America's Book Coach, she guides aspiring writers along the sometimes treacherous terrain of writing, publishing, and promoting a book in her "6 Months to Book Success" program.As creator and host of The Goddess Power Show with Elizabeth Ann Atkins, and author of The Biss Tribe: Activating Your Goddess Power, she's on a mission to edu-tain women to live bigger, better, and bolder and achieve their infinite potential. She co-hosts the Emmy Award-nominated TV talk show MI Healthy Mind, which airs every Sunday on major networks across Michigan, and aims to shatter the stigma around mental illness, addiction, and abuse.Elizabeth writes fiction and nonfiction, ranging from erotica to memoirs for accomplished leaders, as well as spirituality, such as her 2019 memoir, God's Answer is Know: Lessons from a Spiritual Life.With a master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Elizabeth's books include novels White Chocolate, Dark Secret and Twilight (with Billy Dee Williams). Elizabeth has ghostwritten books for executives, prominent government and civic leaders, physicians, a surgeon, veterans, an intuitive medium, a family that triumphed on NBC's The Biggest Loser, an insurance agent, and a quadriplegic man who lived his dream to become a record company CEO. Her novellas about empowering women to overcome abuse and identity crises were published in My Blue Suede Shoes: An Anthology and Other People's Skin: An Anthology. Elizabeth runs Two Sisters Writing and Publishing with her sister, the young adult author Catherine M. Greenspan. Together they have published dozens of books, including two annual anthologies of short stories by international writers who won the Two Sisters' ongoing short story writing contests. Elizabeth is a health and fitness enthusiast whose 100-pound weight loss was featured on Oprah. She has taught writing at Wayne State University, Oakland University, Wayne County Community College District, and at national conferences. As a speaker who promotes human harmony, Elizabeth was previously represented by the American Program Bureau. She rouses ovations by reciting her autobiographical poem, "White Chocolate," and has spoken at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, GM's World Diversity Day, Gannett, 100 Black Men, the NAACP, and many other venues. As an actress, Elizabeth plays a major role in the feature-length film Anything Is Possible, nominated for "Best Foreign Film" by the Nollywood and African Film Critics Association. And Elizabeth plays a 1950s journalist in the international shipwreck drama, The Andrea Doria: Are The Passengers Saved?Elizabeth has been a guest on Oprah, Montel, NPR, Good Morning America Sunday, The CBS Evening News, and many national TV shows. After writing her master's thesis about mixed-race Americans, her work appeared in The New York Times, The San Diego Tribune, Essence, Ebony, and many publications. Her Detroit News articles on race were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she wrote a biography for the Presidential Medal of Freedom tribute for Rosa Parks.
Few people get a second chance at life. But Kristy Sidlar had a second and a third. She dodged death twice, both times thanks to total strangers. The first was when she collapsed from a life-threatening heart condition and someone was at the right place at the right time. The second was when she finally received the greatest gift of life - a donor heart. Now she shares her experiences to inspire others. In her memoir, Change of Heart: My Journey of Transplantation, Revelation & Transformation, Kristy shares her powerful story with humor, heartache, and hope. The book features Kristy's Wellness Widget, a tool for readers to use to upgrade their minds and bodies to strive for optimum health. As a long-time volunteer and board member for the American Heart Association, Kristy advocates for heart health, especially for women. She's also a board member for Project Beautiful, Inside and Out. A life-long sales professional in the staffing and recruiting industry, Kristy has lived and worked in Singapore and traveled the world. Kristy is a Michigan native with a Bachelor of Arts from Hope College. She and her husband, Dave, love spending time in Northern California. Kristy's hobbies include driving and admiring exotic and classic cars, photography, fitness, and cardmaking. After completing two 5K races since her surgery, she's currently training for a triathlon.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Chapter 2 - The Adjustment

Chapter 3 - The Journey

Chapter 4 - The Progression

Chapter 5 - The Reality

Chapter 6 - The Cliff

Chapter 7 - The Transplant

Chapter 8 - The Re-Entry

Chapter 9 - The Reunion

Chapter 10 - The Countdown

Chapter 11 - The Homecoming

Chapter 12 - The Revelation

Chapter 13 - The Recovery

Chapter 14 - The Normalization

Chapter 15 - The Release

Chapter 16 - My Wellness Widget

Chapter 17 - Your Transformation

Chapter 18 - Ask Me Anything

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Author Bio

End Notes