Amy Grant is recovering well since surgery, saying 'I'll sing until the day I die'

Well-known Christian singer Amy Grant is recovering from an unexpected heart surgery two months ago and urges women everywhere to take care of themselves. 

Grant underwent open heart surgery for a condition she didn't know she was born with. 

"I've had an irregular heart beat for the last ten years," says Grant in a recent interview with Good Morning America (GMA).

She confesses to having issues with singing over the past five years. 

"I remember a couple of times telling Vince, 'I feel like I'm suffocating'."

Grant didn't connect the fact that she was having difficulty breathing to potential heart issues. 

It wasn't until her husband, country singer Vince Gill, went for a heart check up that Grant even considered getting her heart checked. The doctor simply asked if she would get a check up too, which surprised Grant. Eventually, she agreed.

"It was a total surprise," Grant says when the doctor gave her the news that something wasn't right. "I had a birth defect."

The genetic heart condition is called Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venus Return (PAPVR), in which some of the veins carrying blood from the lungs to the heart flow into other blood vessels or into the heart's right atrium instead of correctly flowing into the heart.

The doctor urged her to have heart surgery before her 60th birthday. 

If they hadn't caught this defect with a routine check-up, the doctor told Grant, "It would be fine, fine, fine, and then one day catastrophic."

Since the surgery, Grant has been recovering very well and thanks all her fans for their prayers through this time. 

She says, "Take a minute and take care of yourself. Do you know how many women die of stroke and heart disease? More than all cancers combined."

Grant has been a big part of the Christian music scene since the 80s and has won 6 Grammy's.

"We are a community. Even in times of isolation, we still have an impact on each other and we can have an incredible impact for good."

As far as new music, Grant did not specifically say if she's recording in the future. Rather she says, "Music changes everything! I'll sing 'til the day I die."