The following is a story I shared with my family and friends when it happened 11 years ago. Many found it helpful, so I’m hoping you will too.
From what I hear, many of you think of me as a pretty healthy person. And generally speaking, I agree. I eat well, except for those garlic wings at the Fox Hills Mall, a little See’s candy occasionally, and most recently the 2 slices of cheesecake from Chic. I exercise regularly (when I have time). And I maintain a healthy weight. I don’t have high blood pressure or diabetes. And even though my total cholesterol was 221, my HDLs and LDLs were so good, they said I’m in good shape and to continue doing what I was doing. So you can imagine what a surprise it was to find myself in the ER Sunday morning at 1:00 am with chest pains. And here I sit in my bed Thursday, after being released from the hospital yesterday with a stent in my left descending artery, coming to terms with “what the #@*^! just happened?!”
At first glance, it seems like I got the big warning Sunday morning when I attempted to take a brisk walk and found that after a few hundred feet, I was winded, my chest hurt and I had pain and numbness in my left arm. Whoa! So I decided to slowly return to my car and call my doctor the next day. That evening, I went to the movies and began to have more chest pains numbness in the left arm after a bit of walking. I’m getting concerned now. Could I be having a heart attack? Probably not, but to be on the safe side, I took some aspirin. The symptoms subsided. I came home and looked up heart attack symptoms on the web and learned that the possibility was real. By now, the pain is coming and going. I take another aspirin and decide I’ll cancel my meeting in the morning and go to the doctor. I thought of going to the ER, but didn’t want to have that co-pay. If I can just manage til morning. I can save that charge. Plus it’s not hurting right now. When I lied down to go to bed, the pain came back stronger. Okay, I’m gonna have to pay for the ER visit, but not an ambulance. I had my daughter drive me to the hospital, but all the way there, I was scared that I might really be having a heart attack and die on the way because I was too cheap to for an ambulance.
Fortunately, the ER took me in right away, did an EKG, and determined that I did not have a heart attack. They did lots of tests and as they asked when did this start, I remembered 3 weeks earlier when I was on the elliptical machine at the gym and could barely do 5 minutes without being winded as opposed to my normal 20-30 minutes without breaking a sweat. I remembered thinking how out of shape I had gotten and how I needed to build up my stamina. And each time I exercised after that, I remembered how annoyed I was that I had no endurance. I even mentioned it to my doctor last week. She did a blood test, said it looked good and if it didn’t get better she’d do a stress test on me. So when I found myself sitting in the ER, hooked up to monitors, I began to understand why I had been struggling through exercise.
But even that knowledge, doesn’t reconcile for me how I had an artery with 85% blockage! One of the doctors said, “it’s just the luck of the draw.” Damn! I could have exercised even less and eaten more pizza and cheesecake and pecan pie and butter…And truth be told I could have done that, and I also could be dead or severely incapacitated. Now that I’ve had an opportunity to research heart disease more thoroughly, I’ve found that even though I may not have the obvious risk factors of obesity, fat-filled diet, inactive lifestyle, I have some others – heredity, age, race, and STRESS!
This entire experience has been a wake-up call for me. And I hope it will be for you too. The obvious message is to listen to your body and respond, take good care of it, and know your numbers – blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, etc. Below is a link that may be of help in recognizing your risks.
http://arteriosclerosis.org/cardiovascular-risk-factors.htm
When all is said and done the biggest take-aways for me are:
Live each moment fully, my next one is not promised.
Start making my dreams a reality TODAY, because “as soon as…” won’t happen unless I make it happen.
Live authentically and honestly each day- that’s where freedom lives.
Keep unwrapping my gifts and SHARE everything. My gifts are of no value wrapped in a nice package, sitting on a shelf.
Be prepared to go today and plan for tomorrow. I don’t want to run out of health, dreams or money before I run out of life.
Tell the people I care about, that I care about them.
So I’m taking this opportunity to let you know that I care about you. And I’m wishing you a Life filled with Peace, Prosperity, Love & Light.
Update:
It’s also really important to be your own health advocate. For a year, I kept being told by each physician, that it was just “the luck of the draw” because I had no true markers for heart attack. Once I started taking bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, I learned that my heart attack was most likely triggered by menopause. After age 50, nearly half of all deaths in women are due to some form of cardiovascular disease. In fact, their risk for heart disease increases dramatically. Have your hormone levels checked, along with your other routine health assessments. I see my cardiologist yearly and continue to get a really good bill of health.