Heart Health

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Comment by lois on May 13, 2009 at 6:15pm

Supposedly 500,000 women die a year from heart disease...
I read it once, but didn’t believe it.
Then I died on June 6, 2003.
With radiating pain in my upper back, I went to the emergency room. My intuition told me something very unusual was happening. Abnormal EKG's, nitroglycerin administered under my tongue, a lot of blood drawn, tears running down my face, it didn't seem good. About two hours later a cardiologist opened the curtain separating me from the man getting stitches, "You're young and a woman, probably indigestion; you’ll rest better at home." With that I was discharged. A few hours later at home I had a massive coronary and died.

It wasn’t indigestion.

I have missed a lot since then...
My oldest daughter and her husband had a baby boy, two years later they had a baby girl. I had always planned on being a cool grandma.
My other two daughters graduated college. One got married.
My brother committed suicide when his daughter was a baby, and we lost touch with her mother.
My mom was reunited with my oldest brother’s daughter, after thirty years. A miracle I had dreamed of most of my life.
Threading is more popular than waxing or plucking your eyebrows. I never enjoyed having my eyebrows waxed.
I missed my anniversary – 26 years of marriage.
Three reminder cards came in the mail to have a mammogram. The Women’s Breast Cancer center wasn’t notified.
Oprah ran a special on women’s heart disease in 2005. I liked Oprah, I would have missed it, I worked full time.

Real version: Barely conscious I was taken to emergency room the next day.
I needed surgery; I have been given another chance at life.
I am your sister, your mother, your neighbor, the lady you see panting on the treadmill, and yes that is me you see grocery shopping on Saturday morning.

I am Lois Trader, a woman living with heart disease. I care that I was hours away from being one of the 500,000.I have a story to tell.

Want to tell me yours... I'd love to listen. loistrader@msn.com

Comment by Dianne Rees on June 11, 2008 at 2:22pm

An interesting study from the University of Michigan suggests that vitamin D may prevent heart failure from enlarged hearts (a risk if you have heart disease or poorly controlled high blood pressure). The studies are preliminary, but at least in a rat model of heart failure, activated vitamin D prevented heart muscle cells from growing bigger. Some information about the study's published here.