I am a former amateur runner; I did a lot of Sunday races and some a bit longer, even running several marathons. The adventure with my heart began in 2009, when at a visit for sports fitness, the doctor found me of arrhythmias in the recovery phase, released me the suitability but invited me to make further investigations. I turn to the head of cardiology at the hospital in my country, who invites me to limit my activity to small races, avoiding marathons. In 2012 the first warnings of malaise arrive and atrial fibrillations occur: the first return spontaneously, then with drugs. In August 2014 I am hospitalized, the heart seems thickened and the doctors invite me to undergo ablation of the pulmonary veins. The ablation succeeds perfectly, but the fibrillations persist even if more delayed in time.

In July 2015 the heart has thickened again, and the cardiologist recommends me a check-up at the Careggi-Florence Center for Cardiomyopathies, directed by Dr. Olivotto. As soon as my reports have been viewed, I am included among the patients to be checked quickly. At the checkup, a suspicion of Cardiac Amyloidosis is reported: to be sure they invite me to undergo a bone scan. That examination shows that Amyloidosis is no longer a suspect but a certainty.

I am sent for advice to the Amyloidosis Center, also in Careggi, by Dr. Perfetto. Also in this case I find an exceptional doctor, who takes care of me and follows me assiduously. First of all he makes me perform, twice, the analysis of the periumbilical fat which is always negative. Subsequently, myocardial biopsy (BEM) is performed, which is positive. As there is currently no specific therapy, I am subjected to various treatments but without any improvement. Fibrillations become more frequent. I still have the hope of a new drug and I am also available to undergo an experimentation, but no news arrives. Dr. Perfect, during a subsequent visit, asked me if I was still able to dress myself and if I could go to the bathroom by myself. These questions surprised me a lot because I was still completely independent, but he told me that my future would perhaps also pass through these obstacles. In the same session I am offered a heart transplant. My wife and I fail to speak and breathe, we can't come up with that kind of proposal, we weren't ready.

There are many problems to perform the transplant, I learned about it later, because having exceeded 65 years of age, even if a few months ago, many transplant centers do not take me into consideration. But a center is found that can receive me, Dr. Olivotto together with the heart surgeon Dr. Bonacchi tell me that my life expectancy cannot be long and that they had found a center at the Udine hospital. Beautiful city but in my mind it did not recall a city where medicine was at the forefront and then so far from my residence. I ask for a new meeting with Dr. Olivotto to evaluate all the specific problems, he, as a very good man as he is, receives me and dedicates me the time necessary to reassure me. I confirm my intention to take this painful path and with many unknowns and difficulties, I start all the visits to validate my state of health and be included in the waiting list. Here too the great professionalism and humanity of the Center directed by Dr Olivotto makes itself felt, it manages to schedule all visits, trying to fit one after the other without getting too tired but doing it as quickly as possible.

On 13 July 2017 I was called by the Udine hospital to be placed on the waiting list with all the exams I had already carried out. Once all the formalities have been completed, they inform me that there is also a receptive structure for the sick and for a family member where they host patients in long hospital stays free of charge. Once back home, we carry a lot of anguish for what will happen to us, we begin to prepare our bags without any certainty, we do not know when it will happen, what season it will be, if summer, winter or other clothes will be needed we do not know what other accessories to prepare but we decide to start anyway by inserting summer clothes for now and then ……. we will see, we will change the suitcase.

On the 25th evening at dinner time they call me from the Udine hospital: there was an organ suitable for me! I am assailed by concern and despair for the gravity of the intervention that I am about to undergo. As a first impact, I want to give up and wait for the next organ. The doctor who is on the phone with a lot of patience invites me to accept, telling me that I was in critical condition and that the organ that was proposed to me was perfectly compatible, and that I could have remained on the list indefinitely, but a heart more suitable than so I could never receive it. I accept the intervention and the most dramatic period of my entire history begins because the wait to leave goes on for several hours. The anguish was really great: every half hour I first contacted Udine and then Careggi, who had to organize my transfer. Finally at two in the morning the order to leave arrives. I have to go to the military airport of Grosseto and from there a reserved flight would have transferred me to Udine. I definitively close the suitcases prepared in bulk and, accompanied by my cousin and my wife who will follow me throughout the adventure, we leave for Grosseto; the anguish slowly eases. Once in Grosseto we wait for the plane and once on board the best phase begins because the crew members make me sit at the cabin door and for the first and perhaps last time in my life I see the world from the cabin of a plane from take off upon landing. A great experience! Only negative side: as soon as I landed, at the end of the runway there was an ambulance waiting for me and that vision made me forget all the beauties I had admired until then!

Arriving at the hospital, the preoperative preparation begins, I relax and upon entering the operating room I am quite calm but aware that several days of gigantic suffering will be waiting for me, with the anesthetist I can even make a joke, I don't think very funny, it was not the opportune moment.

I wake up in the ICU, encounter a lot of non-dramatic suffering, I was prepared for worse. The doctors and nurses are very attentive to my condition. My days were spent looking at the clock to wait for 19, when my wife arrived, but we could barely exchange a few words and it was already time to leave. Certainly my wife, morally, has suffered more than me and I have always been aware of it. Even just the fact of having her husband subjected to an operation between life and death and being alone 500 km away from home without having any support or consolation, the only foothold were some friends and relatives who called her continuously, therefore with their proximity they supported her a little. After 5 days of intensive therapy, the situation finally improves. I am happy ! one day in sub-intensive care, and then after returning from the first endomyocardial biopsy (BEM) I go to the ward. Visits and tests are not lacking, I start a very annoying herpes in the mouth, but then it subsides and we go on. On 17 August I am transferred to the reserved structure called "Casa Mia", where I stay for over two months of continuous checks and various monitoring, during which my daughter and the whole family come to visit me, we spend days all together with serenity we haven't had for years, and other friends too.

After this great adventure it remains to get used to this new lifestyle. My body and I have to learn to tolerate immunosuppressants, it's not easy. The first year I have to go every month to Udine to do the BEM, thank goodness that almost all of them go well, only sometimes a hint of rejection. I can't find a moment of tranquility between trips to Udine and the exams to do at home. After the second year, the situation is finally getting stronger and finally the visits and checks slow down and I really manage to have a normal life.

The physical situation becomes excellent. I am much better than before the surgery.

Some voluntary associations invite me to attend assemblies with students of the fifth year of high school in which I act as testimonial to invite students already of age, to donate blood and to enroll in the organ donation lists. This dress also excites me and gives me incentives to always be at the service of humanity, since the heart given by a person who unfortunately no longer exists, has allowed me to spend a few more years in good condition and I will never finish. to thank him.

It would be nice if these people increased and more lives could be saved !!