This thesis is an autoethnographic analysis of congestive heart failure and recovery. Everyone gets sick, and sickness becomes a central part of the ill person’s identity. Illness is a fundamental part of being human. Advancements in medical techniques and technology allow more and more people, people who would have otherwise been dead or unable to function, to enjoy living in the world of the healthy, even if their health may be fleeting or fragile (Frank, 1995). Congestive heart failure and severe cardiomyopathy are such illnesses and are a perfect ground for a narrative approach to medicine due to their fluctuation between periods of clinical stability and exacerbation (Volpe & Testa, 2019). Arthur Frank (1995) establishes the narrative genre of automythology as a medical journey and highlights the importance of storytelling in medicine, develops the idea of the body as a text - and that of the sick body as a story to be told in order to heal - and that the story of the sick is worth telling. Medicine is organized and communicated through storytelling events (Hunter, 1991) and through medical narrative, humans can come to better understand themselves, their illness, each other, and the world around them (Cousins, 1979). Volpe and Testa (2019) state that storytelling is a pivotal tool for healing in many cardiovascular conditions such as heart failure and cardiomyopathy (2019). Through trials and tribulations, death and eventual rebirth, a transformation can occur that provides a new approach to living. Through an automythology composed of journals, lived experiences, stories, and analysis applied to the structure of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, I utilize the healing power of narrative. Through the reclamation of my identity as a runner, I come to better understand my own condition and journey while assisting others on theirs.