Anger

I volunteered at a Go Red event last Tuesday night.  It was there that I met Christi, a fellow Go Red Ambassador.  We talked and I told her I was new to volunteering and the Go Red Ambassadors.  I explained that it was all too new last year for me to really feel like I wanted to shout my story to anyone that would listen.

What she said to me surprised me.  She so freely said that the reason I didn't want to take part in any of sharing my story on this level was due to the anger stage.  I have always felt the grief of losing what my life was like before my heart attack but I have never really thought of it as being angry.

I came home and pondered the anger angle.  I realized it really was a combination of anger and grief.  I was really angry.  I didn't even wear red on Go Red day in 2012.  The anger has faded and the grief is gone.  It is replaced by a sense of purpose.  The purpose of sharing my story so that others will take their health more seriously.  The purpose of sharing my journey so that others can survive like I did.  There is still a lot of searching the reasons but these two seem like a pretty good starting point.

In the spirit of sharing my story I also volunteered at Kansas City's Half Day for Your Heart Luncheon last Friday. It was a great time and I met some more amazing ladies.  Being a Go Red Ambassador is just what I needed.  I am with women who understand what I've experienced.  It is very refreshing!

My great friend Brian was at the lunch and it was fun to have a good friend of mine there:

Next up, Greater Kansas City Heart Walk!

Love My New Doc!

I love my new cardiologist, Dr. Yang!  She is awesome!  I went to my first appointment with her with very little hope of being impressed.  I am the first to admit when I am wrong and boy was I wrong.

She had all of my records and had reviewed them.  She spent an hour or better with me.  We went over every detail of my history prior to and since my heart attack.  She concentrated only on me and together we devised a treatment plan.  They ran an EKG in the office and she said by the looks of that, if she hadn't already known I had a heart attack, she would not have guessed I had any cardiac history. She was also open to the nutrition aspect that I place a lot of importance in.  She made me feel very comfortable about choosing plant based nutrition. That is tops in my book!

My blood pressure is under control which is good news. I left with orders for lab work and an echo cardiogram.  The results of the echo came back and I got all good results back on Friday. My heart is functioning with no permanent heart damage from my heart attack. Time is key and I was quick to get to the hospital! I have disease in my arteries, but luckily not the actual heart muscle! It is the best news available and I feel very lucky to get it!:) I was glad not to have to go over the weekend waiting on test results

This week brings three Go Red Ambassador events culminating in Friday's Half Day for Your Heart luncheon.  I am looking forward to it!

My company has jumped on board in supporting the American Heart Association and we are walking the Kansas City Heart Walk in 4 weeks.  We have about 30 people walking.  You know it warms my heart and makes me teary eyed to see the support! Pics to come. On another note,  I downloaded the couch to 5K app on my phone.  It is couch to 5K in eight weeks.  We will see! One of my staff members has breast cancer and some of us at work have decided a breast cancer 5K in October is our goal.  We can get healthy and support causes that are near and dear!

Making Peace with Medicine

When I first suffered such a massive heart attack and survived, I was just glad I survived.  They pumped me full of all kinds of drugs in the ICU.   I didn't realize the number of drugs I would ultimately be taking when I went home.

When it became clear that I would go home taking all the drugs that they were pumping through me via IV in pill form, I was pissed to say the least.  Me?  Take all these pills?  Really?  I rarely took ibuprofen.  Here I am with two blood pressure pills, a cholesterol pill, blood thinner and aspirin.  That is six pills a day that I have been cautioned against missing.  Really, it was stronger than that---take all these pills and don't miss them or you could die. 

Here is the thing, I don't take meds.  I have a hard time finishing a course of antibiotics.  Before you ask, yes I know that is a terrible thing.  I am just not a planner.  I fly through life mostly by the seat of my pants.  Living life like that makes for a fabulous time!  The problem is that you have to be a planner to take meds regularly.  Plus, I was someone that the day before my heart attack had a total cholesterol of 134 and a blood pressure of 110/70.  It was inconceivable that now, three days later I was on a lifetime of six cardiac pills a day.

When I went to the second cardiologist I wanted him to prove to me that I needed to take all these meds.  I had a hard time because I had changed my entire life style and you want me to still take the same drugs that some one who drinks, smokes and eats chicken fried steak and gravy for every meal after a heart attack takes?  How does that make any good sense?  How is it that there is a standard of cardiac meds that I have to take when each patient is not the same? 

He and I discussed it for a long time and reluctantly I agreed to continue them.  He made some very good points.  He could tell that I was a medical googler and promptly gave me the links to the studies we discussed so I could read it myself.  I am a firm believer in questioning your doctor and I do. 

As I get farther from my heart attack, I have become accustomed to taking the medicine.  I also have warmed to the idea that if I want help staying alive, I probably will always take them.  It has become increasingly more important to me to stay alive than to be pill free.  Besides, perhaps I have always needed a little guidance in the planning department.  It forces me to plan a little!

I saw a new cardiologist yesterday and she busted my bubble about being able to quit the Plavix once I hit the year after the last placement of drug eluding stents in my LAD.  (The new cardiologist is another post all in itself.) Yes, I have had stents placed in the same artery twice.  June 11 would have been a year and I was told that I could stop taking the Plavix after a year. As much as I have been looking forward to stopping that pill,  I listened to her reason and actually felt relief that she wants me to continue taking it.  I have come to realize that even if I don't consider it good medicine to treat all cardiac patients the same, I have grown used to the peace the pills provide me. 

Go Red Ambassador

At the beginning of February, I attended a casting call in downtown Kansas City to be a Go Red Ambassador.  It was a lot of fun.  My Vegas friend as I call her if you have followed my blog, Deb, went with me.  So did my friends Diane and Tracy as well as my two daughters. You had to audition by giving an interview and telling your story.  How hard is that--it's not like I am a stranger to telling my story.  I will shout it to any one that will listen and then tell you even if you don't want to hear.

I was feeling pretty good about telling my story.  I sat down across from one of the local news anchors and we got started.  I did really good until she asked me about the emotional toll.  I started in about the emotional toll only to look up and see the tears streaming down the face of my 14 year old daughter.  I was a mess of tears after that.  To be a year and a half out and still see your daughters cry over this really does make the emotional toll on them hit home.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in this all being about me, but there is a whole other side to this.  I try to include them in the process of everything I do.  Even though I do that, I can see that I will never quite realize the emotional toll my story takes on them.

I had almost forgotten that I went down and auditioned when on the last day of February, I received an email from the American Heart Association Kansas City inviting me to join the Go Red Ambassadors.  It was so exciting! I have been looking for a way to help spread the message of heart attack risk and this is the perfect venue.  I went to my first meeting a couple of weeks ago and I had the honor of meeting some incredible women. I got to hear their stories and each was as moving as the next.  I think I will feel right at home with this group!  I look so forward to being able to do this.

On another note, my beloved Jayhawks are the number one seed in the South region of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.  Bring on the March Madness and Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

It is 61 days until the Greater Kansas City Heart Walk!  Go Team PPMIS!!

New Cardiologist

I have been looking for a new cardiologist.  I had an appointment with a new doc yesterday but had to cancel due to snowmageddon here in the Kansas City area.

How do you go about finding a cardiologist when you are 44?  It is not like I can ask my friends who they see.  When I ask my friends, I am saying "Hey, what cardiologist does your mom or dad see?"  When I go to the cardiologist, there are several people my age there but they are all bringing their parents to the doctor.

My first cardiologist that I met in the ER in the midst of a heart attack was a very gifted surgeon and he saved my life.  I didn't care much for his follow up care.  I chose a new doc because he was less than five minutes from my office.  I really liked him and he did a fabulous job when I had to go back to the cath lab.  I would have kept him as my doc because he was at least halfway open to the diet I have chosen and he was funny.  I like funny docs.  He chose to change his hospital affiliation and now he practices in Topeka.  That is just too far for me to go.

So, I got on Cigna's website and pulled up cardiologists in the Kansas City area.  This is a fairly good sized city and there I sat looking at a long list of cardiologists and not one inkling of who to choose.   I have heard good things about the cardiology group at Olathe Medical Center.  I have had a couple docs from there recommended to me.  Turns out, neither one of them will take 44 year old women that are 16 months post MI as new patients--go figure.  Of all things, my heart problems are not bad enough to see them. So, I chose a woman doc.  She is 41 by her bio.  I hope I like her.

The biggest thing I want out of a doc?  I want a doc to acknowledge the link between nutrition, inflammation and heart disease.  I am not talking about just the watch your salt kind of nutrition.  I am talking about the link to nutrition and all kinds of diseases.  I have an auto immune disease (psoriasis).  Auto immune diseases cause inflammation and that contributes a lot to heart disease.  When I went vegan, my psoriasis went away.  When I slipped cheese and a little other dairy back in over the late summer and early fall my psoriasis came back. As I have taken it back out and gone totally vegan again, the psoriasis has gone away.  If I can control that, I can control a lot of the inflammation in my body.  I want a doc that does not dismiss all of this.

So many docs just want to treat with medicine.  I have been told by two docs that the medicines I take are standard treatment for heart attack patients.  I am not really sure I like that no matter what changes you make in your life that it is just the same standard meds.  Should I have to take the same standard meds as a heart attack patient that smokes and eats chicken fried steak and gravy?  I am not so sure about this and I have yet to meet a doctor that has been 100% convincing.  My appointment with my new cardiologist is now moved to April 1.  We will see how she does.  My greatest hope is that she is more open to treating with nutrition than my other docs have been.

The Last Heart Attack

I was at lunch with a friend I had not seen in many years today.  We had a great time and before we knew it, two hours had flown by.  She told me that she had started to watch "Forks Over Knives."  She stopped it half way through so she could restart it and watch it with her husband.  She told him she thought they might need to go vegan.  (To find "Forks Over Knives", click here.)

I have mentioned here before and told her today that the very first hint I had that I needed to go plant based was about four weeks after my heart attack when I saw a show on CNN.  It was called "The Last Heart Attack."  It was the first inkling I had that I really needed to drastically change how I lived my life--more than just watching my salt and fat intake.  It was really the first tangible information I had on how to prevent another heart attack.

 I never, ever would have taken the time to watch this if I had not just had a heart attack.  What I learned shocked me.  Now, I have to tell you that it did not come as a shock to learn that nacho cheese as its own food group wasn't healthy for you.  I just did not think that my diet as a whole was any worse than most.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  I'm not saying I would have changed my diet had I really known prior to my heart attack.  You see, I was like many of you who will read this and think it will never happen to me.  It did happen to me and I hope by the information that I am able to share that it will not happen to you.

I had never been able to find a link to the show until I was searching again today to send it to my friend.

In my opinion, it is a very valuable 39 minutes and 48 seconds.  Although I know a lot of people turn their nose up at the thought of a plant based diet, trust me when I tell you laying in the ICU post massive heart attack can change your views on a lot of things.  I will give you that it is not an easy way to eat in our culture of fast food and barbecues.  At least for me, it takes a lot of planning.  I still recommend watching this video so you can see if it makes sense to you.

Yummy Quinoa Recipe

My co-worker Rebecca made this great gluten free recipe.  To make this fit my vegan, heart healthy no added oil way of life,  I will leave out the feta cheese, leave out the salt and saute the veggies in water and not oil. She let me try a bite that she brought to lunch today and this was super yummy!

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know I am a disaster in the kitchen, so here's hoping for a disaster free evening in the kitchen!

Garlic Jalapeno Quinoa

Emotional Day!

Yesterday was the 10th Annual Wear Red for Women Day.  I was not at all prepared for the emotion of the day.  As I said, last year I did not participate in any Go Red activities because I was still too stunned that I had even had a heart attack.

This year was such a different story.  My day started with my girls and I getting dressed in our red:

Almost immediately yesterday morning, my friends and family started posting the nicest things on my Facebook page.  I was already teary eyed from reading those things and I walked into work to find this:

My friend Rebecca was printing these stickers but our color printer had tanked so she was hand coloring them.  That was all she wrote, I was crying!  On top of that, there was a sea of red:

I have awesome co-workers!

I was caught off guard by the flood of emotions I found myself in yesterday.  I am so lucky to have so many friends, family and co-workers that support me in my battle with heart disease.  I surprised myself with just how much this day meant to me this year.

This year is a year to celebrate being a survivor and to continue my journey to health through nutrition and exercise.   It is also a year to share my story in hopes that it helps someone else avoid or survive a heart attack.  I hope that other women literally take it to heart!

In that spirit, I attended the American Heart Association - Kansas City's Girls Day Out and Go Red Casting Call:

I had my girls and my great friends go with me.  It was an emotional interview and I cried.  Sometimes the things that make my cry surprise me.  My story is important and I would love to be able to reach a wider audience.

All of February is heart health month.  Make an appointment with your doctor and discuss your cardiac risks--get checked out.  Take to heart the stories you hear and realize that you could be the one in three women.  Take care of your hearts!

Go Red for Women

We are nearing February which did not mean anything to me last year.  Last year I was still struggling with what my life would be like post heart attack.  What did being a heart attack survivor mean to me?  I really was not in the mind set to be able to celebrate being a survivor.  There was so much emotion wrapped in all that I had experienced.  In fact, last year on Wear Red for Women I did not wear red.  Well, I did wear a little red but only by default that my beloved Jayhawks are crimson and blue.

This year is a whole different story.  I have given out 100 Red Dress Pins to wear this Friday.  I have shouted it from the roof tops!  I am proud to be a survivor and will share my story with anyone that will listen.  The more research I have done on heart attacks, the scarier it is.  I hope that my story can help other women. To do this gives purpose to chaos.

The chaos was life immediately post heart attack when I had no idea what my limitations would be.  Could I recover fully?  I am among the most fortunate of heart attack survivors.  I suffered very little heart damage.  Have I mentioned why? Of course I have but to mention it again, I called an ambulance.  Less than hour between start of symptoms and the cath lab.  Time is of the essence as I showed in my post New Heart Attack Guidelines. I have a whole host of cardiac medicines I have to take and no matter what, will only be able to stop one of them ever.  If that is the worst case scenario, I am very lucky!

The purpose emerging from the chaos is to educate you and whoever will listen to me that heart disease is real.  It isn't something that will never happen to you.  I thought it would never happen to me and it did.  It happens to one in three women.  It can and will happen to you if you do not take care of yourself.

This February, no matter what town you are in, find your local chapter of the American Heart Association and find out here what they have planned.  All of them will have special events surrounding the 10th Annual Wear Red Day.  Learn more about Go Red for Women here.

Time to Go Red!!

Next Friday February 1 is Wear Red for Women day!  So don your red and join in supporting the fight against Heart Disease.

I am so excited that my great hometown of Kansas City is having some really fun events surrounding this day!  If you are in the area you can find a list of events on our local American Heart association page:  http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Affiliate/OverlandPark/Kansas/Home_UCM_MWA023_AffiliatePage.jsp

They are having the second annual Red Dress Dash on the Country Club Plaza on February 1:

On Saturday February 2, my girlfriends and I are going to an event in The Power and Light District:

I am looking forward to a fun day with them!

How will you be Going Red this year?

New Heart Attack Guidelines

This is the Heart Attack I had.  I am republishing this without permission, thinking no one will mind if it makes one person call 911 when they are having a heart attack!  I found this on the Yale Heart Study FB page.

New Guidelines Seek to Streamline Care for Worst Heart Attacks: TIME is of essence in saving lives

By Robert Preidt

Streamlined guidelines meant to improve treatment of patients with the most severe form of heart attack were released Monday by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.

The updated recommendations are for a type of heart attack called ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). It occurs when a cholesterol plaque ruptures and a blood clot forms within an artery leading to the heart muscle, completely blocking the blood flow. This can lead to damage to a large area of the heart.

This type of heart attack strikes about 250,000 Americans a year.

"Time is of the essence in the evaluation and treatment of these patients," Dr. Patrick O'Gara, chairman of the guidelines-writing committee, said in an American Heart Association news release. "The sooner blood flow is restored, the better the chances for survival with intact heart function."

Percutaneous coronary intervention is the preferred treatment when it can be done quickly. The treatment includes balloon angioplasty to open a clogged artery, followed by the insertion of stents to keep the artery open.

Patients who are taken to a hospital where percutaneous coronary intervention is not available should be given clot-busting drugs, if safe, followed by transfer to a facility where the angioplasty-stent treatment can be performed if needed, according to the guidelines published online Dec. 17 in the journal Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The guidelines noted that patient delay in reporting symptoms is a major obstacle to timely and successful care of STEMI, and called for efforts to improve patient recognition of heart attack symptoms and to make people understand the importance of immediately calling 911 rather than traveling to the hospital by car, for example.

Among the other recommendations:

Emergency medical technicians should perform electrocardiograms at the scene to speed patient assessment and treatment.

To reduce brain injury, cooling procedures should be started before or at the same time as cardiac catheterization.

Patients should be provided with care plans when they're discharged from the hospital. The plans need to be clearly communicated and shared with patients, families and other health care providers.

Referral for cardiac rehabilitation is a key part of a care plan.

Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_132307.html

Executive Summary Guidelines:
http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1486352

American Heart Association's 10 Years of Fighting Heart Disease in Women

This is a great video that the American Heart Association published today.  I absolutely love this!  If you have no other reason to GO RED on February 1, 2013, GO RED for me!

New Year, New Determination

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a great holidays!  We had a great holidays.  I ate and ate and ate.  I have eaten enough and put enough foods back into my diet that I have gained back almost all the weight I lost.  I went vegetarian instead of vegan.  That means dairy is not my thing.  This requires a new determination to not only re-lose what I gained back but then lose the additional 23 pounds I had left.  In the end it is about being healthy and feeling good, but the number on the scale really does matter to me.

In a solemn reminder to pay better attention to the fact that I am 44 and I have heart disease, an acquaintance of mine died on New Year's Day.  I knew her years ago when we were kids.  I did not remain close to her but many of my good friends did.  There is a possibility she died of a heart attack--44 years old.  See, the farther I am away from my own heart attack, the easier it is for me to forget.  It is sobering moments such as this that lead me to a new determination not to let this kill me.

This acquaintance was the one in three.  I am the one in three.  My friend Beth is the one in three and my friend Stacy is the one in three. One of every three women has heart disease. Ladies, if you stood in a group of three women, are you sure that you are not the one in three with heart disease?  How sure are you?  As we begin this new year, please make yourself familiar with the symptoms of a heart attack and watch "Just A Little Heart Attack."  Go see a doctor and discuss your risk factors.

Organization is the complete key to me being vegan.  If I do not have something substantial pre-prepared for lunch and dinner, I just eat whatever.  Eating whatever led me to my first heart attack and I really don't need it to lead me to a second.  I really have to regain that organization.  I have been struggling with this but have a new commitment to get it back.

I also have joined the local gym.  The city runs it and it is super cheap to join and open 24 hours.  I have a friend from Jr. High that is going with me.  It is much easier to go when I know someone is going to meet me there.  I have worked out four of the last seven days.  I go again tomorrow.  Wish me luck in this new endeavor!

As January gets under way, we can look forward to Friday February 1, 2013.  This is the American Heart Associations 10th Annual Wear Red for Women Day.  You can order Red Dress Pins at http://shop.heart.org/american-heart-merchandise.php.  Celebrate and support the women you love with heart disease!  If you don't have anyone else to Go Red for, Go Red for me!

Humble Brag Letter

So, yesterday Jen at People I Want To Punch In The Throat linked me because I sent her a copy of my Humble Brag Christmas Letter and she used it.

My blog is normally about the after effects of suffering a massive heart attack at 42.  Because she has driven so much traffic here and was so gracious in linking me, the following is a slightly modified version of my letter:)

Our Family By The Numbers

3,243 miles between our home and Bataan, Costa Rica where Brendan moved after joining the Peace Corps.

2,080 hours Tyler spent in the County Jail (where he works :)).

1,048 miles flown by the youngest girls  first flight without parents.

1,000 times a week Minnie barks at absolutely nothing.

702 times that our granddaughter has made us laugh.

615 miles driven weekly by Jim as he travels the beautiful sunflower state for work

144 safety presentations Jim has presented during his travels.

133 miles between our home and college where Ashlyn is a freshman

86 times that Rachel has reminded us she will be old enough for her driving permit when she turns 14.

78 times that girls have fought over wearing each other’s clothes.

38 dance lessons (plus 2 recitals) attended by Emma.

35 friends and family that helped Jodi celebrate her first heart anniversary on October 13, 2012.

19 young kindergarten minds being molded by Amber.

10 dolphins Emma spotted during dolphin camp

5 stents total in Jodi’s LAD after going to the Cath Lab again in June.

3 different jobs that Jodi has now had with her company.

1 family that wishes each and every one of you a very happy holiday season filled with love and joy!!!

May each of you have a joyous holiday season!  Merry Christmas!

"I thought of you"

When I had my heart attack, I was totally surprised.  In hindsight I shouldn't have been, but I was.  This leads me to believe that others would be in the same state of surprise and downright shock that I was if they suffered the same fate.

I write a lot on my personal Facebook page about the signs and symptoms of heart attacks.  When I share stuff from the American Heart Association or a link to an article on heart attacks, I always wonder if my friends are sick of seeing that on their walls. Usually I decide I don't really care if they are sick of it and I post it anyway.  I figure if any of my friends really don't like it they can block me or de-friend me.

Why do I continue to post things that I think my friends get sick of? In the 14 months since my heart attack I have had numerous times when friends say to me that they had a pain in their chest or numbness in an arm and they have thought of me and went to the doctor.  I like hearing that.  I am like the voice in the back of their head that says "go to the doctor".  I had a girlfriend say that to me just recently.  I have a friend who has decided to quit smoking say that it was in large part due to my heart issues that he made that decision.

If you are one of those people that feels everything happens for a reason, then I have finally found my reason.  The reason this happened to me is so that I can help educate others. The statistics are startling and I was fortunate enough to survive all of the startling statistics. If even one of my friends catches a heart attack before it kills them, then it was all worth it. If even one of you that read my blog goes to the doctor or hospital and are able to catch a heart attack before it kills you then all of it is worth it.

As such, if you have not taken a moment to watch this video that I posted a while back, please do!
"Just a Little Heart Attack"

I hope you continue to think of me every time you have symptoms that worry you.  May I always be the voice in the back of your mind.

Lulled Into A False Sense of Security

I have found a unique group of women online that have also had heart attacks. It had been sometime since I had red Jen's blog, My Life In Red.  Last I read she was doing great and back to marathon running.  If you read my blog, you know that I had struggled with being overweight and sedentary.  If you think that heart disease does not apply to you because you are thin, fit and active, go read Jen's blog.  She was all of those and had a heart attack very young.

The reason I mention Jen's blog is that once I caught up reading her blog, I realized that she has recently had additional stent placement just like I did in June.  It has been almost 14 months since my heart attack and I will admit that I have been a little laxed on my diet because I have been lulled into what I know is a false sense of security.  The farther I am away from being so critically ill the more I have started to forget a little of what that was like.  I didn't realize how much that was true until I read Jen's blog last weekend. She was back to marathon training and here she is sick again.  I am glad I read it because I have made a real attempt to get back to what I know will work and keep me healthy and I am really ready to get back to it this week.  I thank her for sharing her story and struggles for exactly this reason.  It really drove home for me that I need to get rid of that false sense of security. This is a life long chronic disease for me that is never actually going away no matter how good I think I feel.  This is the absolute reality of heart disease.

Even though I say I have heart disease, some days I just feel too good for that to be real.  However, no matter how good  I feel at any time I could be back in the cath lab, they could be cracking my chest open or I could just suddenly die.  I don't look sick, people don't treat me like I am sick (nor should they start!) and I really don't  feel sick.  The harsh truth though is that I am sick.  I have a disease.  Not only do I have a disease, but my disease is the number 1, NUMBER 1 killer of women.  How's that for a high risk disease?  Even as I write this, it is still hard to believe. 

There is an emotional side to having a heart attack and now heart disease that is not often discussed.  This has been the hardest part for me. There is great anxiety involved with this diagnosis.  There is great sadness involved with this diagnosis.  There is great fear involved with this diagnosis.  Most days I do a pretty good job of setting all of this aside.  It is important for me to acknowledge these feelings but then put them away.  I think that these feelings can become all encompassing if you let them.  I choose to live my life as if I am not ill but I welcome the reminders (like this one from Jen) to remember to take it seriously.

Just When I Think I Know Everything.....

I've never really been one to go around claiming I know everything, but let me tell you, I have done a ton of research on heart conditions and I consider myself a non medical expert at this point!!  All of my research has been in an effort to learn the things I need to learn to keep myself alive as long as my friends that are healthy.  This is not anything that is taught by the hospitals or docs.  They teach to control illness with medication.  I have learned you can control illness with nutrition.  I still need the medicine and always will, but I significantly improve my chances by really paying attention to nutrition.

Just when I think I know everything about something, I prove myself wrong.  I've done a lot of research on the effect of stress on your heart and really thought I had a pretty good handle on my stress level.  Just before my Heart Anniversary, I was offered a new position in my company.  Always up for a challenge, I accepted it.

What I thought prior to accepting this new position was that I had my stress level pretty well under control in my old job.  Boy was I wrong!  Now that I am in the new job, I can see just how stressful my old job was.  I no longer come into contact with the same people and I find the current folks I work with to be a lot less stressful.   I had been practicing the stress relief techniques I learned, but I can still see now that I really did not have a handle on my stress level.  Stress is damaging in many ways and I really need to be careful.  I like working and want to work so I need to make sure that if I find stress in my new job that I handle it better than I did before.

The other thing I don't know everything about is what it takes to keep my nutrition on track.  I did not do well over the summer.  What I have learned from gaining back hard earned lost pounds is that planning is key.  As I did not have much time to really plan out my food over the summer, so went the weight loss.  I am going to have to plan out my food better when I travel.  I just have not been very organized since my second heart cath procedure.  It is time to get back to it!  I have gotten back into walking and now back to no added oil vegan. It feels good to get back to it!  I don't even feel like Thanksgiving will be a challenge!

On the Thanksgiving note, I wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  Once again this Thanksgiving I am thankful that I lived to see my birthday last week.  Unlike those that fear getting older, I celebrate the second chance I've been given to celebrate each of those birthdays.

The Things I Learn

So I found this article:

Heart Attack Risk Factors

I'm not sure what to think of it.  I have psoriasis and was taking Zithromax shortly before my heart attack for an upper respiratory infection.

Wow, the things I learn post heart attack amaze me.  I never would have read this article had I not had a heart attack because I could not possibly have been at risk!

Happy Heart Anniversary to Me!!

Yesterday was my one year heart anniversary.  One year ago, I was being chauffeured to the hospital in an ambulance.  When I arrived I was in the midst of a massive heart attack.  How surreal it all was.  Even today, it is still hard for me to believe.  I'm not sure the words "I had a heart attack" will ever flow out of my mouth without some bit of disbelief!  This last year has been a totally amazing ride!

I threw myself a big celebration this weekend.  On Friday I had date night with my husband and we stayed in town for the night.

Yesterday, I threw myself a part at a local tavern. So many people came out to help me celebrate and on top of that brought cards and gifts.  That was unexpected!  An occasion such as this reaffirms how lucky I am to have the lifelong friendships that I have and also how lucky I am to still be here to enjoy them. What a blessing!

Of all the odd things, my friend in this last pic had a heart attack when she was 37.  What are the odds?  Strikingly high I have discovered in the last year.  She and I are each 1 in 3 with heart disease.  Are you the 1 too?  Take care of yourselves so you are never the 1.  Heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined.

After the afternoon long party, my friend Beth and I were off to Norah Jones at a historic theater in town.

What a phenomenal performer Norah Jones is!  Just an amazing concert.  It was the perfect ending to an absolutely perfect day.

 This weekend has turned out to be a much more enjoyable weekend than this same weekend a year ago!

Where Did the Summer Go?

Wow, July 1 was the last time I wrote.  How time flies when you are busy! 

Well, on June 11 I had the second heart cath procedure performed by my new cardiologist that I love.  I was really pissed off when I found that I had to have that procedure.  All the lifestyle changes  I made and I still needed two additional stents.  The new blockage was restenosis from scar tissue.  It turns out that one of the complications from my original surgery was that they tore my artery.  I had a lot of blockage at the site of the tear from scar tissue. That was a second heart attack waiting to happen if I had taken what my first cardiologist had to say to heart (so to speak).

As I am two and a half months out from the second cath procedure I can see that the re-stenosis diagnosis was a blessing in disguise.  When they performed the first procedure on the night I had my heart attack, my arteries were so small that they really could not expand the smallest stents they had completely.  Hence the reason my artery tore.  As they placed the second set of stents (for a total of 5 in my LAD) they were able to expand the stents farther than the first time because of the scar tissue build up.  It actually gave my artery additional strength and allowed a more successful stent placement.  Blessing in disguise!

I had a second nuclear medicine stress test in August and all turned out great with that one.  My heart looks good, my ejection fraction is good and I actually have only a very, very small amount of permanent heart damage from my heart attack.  This is entirely due to the fact that I called an ambulance as quick as I did and I was taken seriously and received excellent proper treatment right away when I arrived at the hospital.  Rosie O'Donnell recently had the same heart attack that I had.  She waited a long time to seek treatment and is very lucky to be in the 20% of women that survive the "widow maker".  Please don't ever wait that long.  From what I now know, most women die because they are sick with heart attack symptoms and then go to sleep.  Often times, they just don't wake up.  Make sure that is never you!

At my follow up appointment in July, I was able to stop taking the lisinopril (BP med) and I now have cut the carvedilol (the other BP med) in half.  Good news is that after I got to stop taking those, my BP is back up to normal after dropping really, really low.  Really low BP gives you the sensation of being pretty drunk and it is hard to function!  I have to take the blood thinners until next June though because the new stents are also drug eluding.

Outside of that news, the new way of eating has been extremely difficult to follow over the summer.  I went to vegetarian instead of vegan.  I have gained 8 lbs back.  I am back to vegan again.  It is a very difficult way of life for me if I do not have proper time to prepare.  The summer has been so busy that it hasn't left a lot of time to prepare food.  Plus, my kitchen hates me so this has not been an unwelcome turn of events!!  I had two 25 year class reunions, my company's User Summit that we put on for our client's, vacation and we moved the oldest daughter to college.  Whew!!  I had the best time at both reunions.  I feel very fortunate to have been able to attend!

Me in the middle at the second reunion I attended. Vegas and 30 year friend Deb on the left!

My heart anniversary is fast approaching on October 13.  It will have been a year since the near fatal heart attack.  I am throwing a party at a local bar--they serve a great veggie burger!   What's not to celebrate?  I have gotten a rare chance to beat death and be able to see what the turn out would have been at my funeral.  It is humbling really.  I really had no idea what a lucky girl I am.  I look at all these people that have expressed genuine concern and realized that no matter how I know them, I am lucky to have had each and every one of them touch my life in some way, shape or form. It makes me rich beyond my wildest expectations!  There really are no words.