Grandmother inspires Kugluktuk
Millie Kuliktana battles rare heart and lung disease called pulmonary hypertension
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, May 15, 2017
KUGLUKTUK
One of Kugluktuk's best known residents is back home after a brief health scare earlier this month.
Kugluktuk resident Millie Kuliktana visits with two of her grandchildren, Nolan Norberg, and Leighton Blais. Around Kuliktana's neck is the pouch that holds a pump that infuses her with life-saving medicine for pulmonary hypertension. - photo courtesy of Millie Kuliktana |
To say that Millie Kuliktana is recovering gives the impression she is taking it easy. But that is simply not the case.
Kuliktana, 54, suffers from a very rare heart and lung disease known as pulmonary hypertension (PH). She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in spring of 2010, and given three months to live.
She has been defying the odds ever since.
In late April, she had problems with the pump that infuses her body with life-saving medication. Doctors told her she had to get to Edmonton immediately, which she did. Her pump was fixed and she got back home to Kugluktuk on May 4.
Kuliktana said the scare did not faze her - she has been dealing with the serious health condition for seven years now, ever since she was first diagnosed with PH. Kuliktana was anxious to talk about her condition, noting that May 5 was World Pulmonary Hypertension Day.
She said the disease is frequently misdiagnosed and World PH Day helped bring global attention to the importance of improving the quality of life and raising the life expectancy of the more than 25 million people living with PH worldwide.
"After a near death experience in 2010, I landed at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, where I underwent lots of testing and they concluded that I had ... pulmonary hypertension. They don't know the causes behind it," Kuliktana said. "Most of the people I know who have this disease in Western Canada live in Edmonton or at least in the vicinity of a hospital. I go down for routine visits every three or four months to see the doctors face to face. Every month I do Telehealth, which doesn't do justice ... but it is a good way to keep in touch with the doctors."
Kuliktana said that to her knowledge she is the only person in Nunavut suffering with the disease.
Kuliktana had to retire as a life-long educator and move to Edmonton in 2013 to be monitored and learn how to live with the pump.
The married mother of four children also has six grandchildren ranging in age from one to 18. She said when she and her husband moved to Edmonton, leaving her family behind was the hardest thing she ever had to do.
"Watching my grandchildren grow up - they're the ones who gave me the courage to go and receive life with a pump. I owed it to my family to live beyond what was expected of me," she said. "After three years of living in Edmonton, I begged and I begged my doctors to allow me to come home. When they let me go home twice a year, they saw how refreshed I was when I came back."
She said the doctors wanted to know what she did when she was home that agreed with her so much and seemed to improve her health. Kuliktana said she explained to them that she fished, breathed the fresh air, cooked and baked for her family, and connected to elders in their language.
She added that when she was stuck in Edmonton there was not much more that she could do other than walk the malls.
Kuliktana said that she gets her life-saving medication - eight to ten boxes every three and a half months - shipped to her. At some point, she said she may need a double lung and heart transplant, but Kuliktana added she'll cross that bridge when she gets to it. She said every time she thinks the hassle might not be worth it, she gets emotional, thinking of her own late mother,
"She struggled from rheumatoid arthritis. For her to be in pain and never give up. You can't stop living. I push myself. I love to take care of my grandkids. They are the number one priority why I am here," she said.
"When I feel low, I know there are people who are worse off than me. I've spent a lot of time in hospital. I've seen them. I do a lot of short-term planning. I don't do long-term planning, because anything can happen."
