I AM SO BLESSED...I NOW HAVE TWO BIRTHDAYS!

My design team at Digital Whisper created this darling banner for me while I was in the hospital.

August 2nd I had a heart attack!. I had chest pain for a couple of months and thought it was indigestion. I guess I was in denial. It started with the first 15 minutes of my workouts and then it came when sweeping the sidewalk and woke me up a couple of times. I called the doctor on Wednesday and she was out of town so they fit me in on Thursday morning. By the time I arrived at 9AM I could hardly stand the pain. The nurse came out into the waiting room and then immediately got the doctor on call. They did an EKG and saw that I  had had a heart attack but didn't know when.They wheeled me to the ER next door and did blood work after giving me 5 baby aspirin. The blood work showed triple red enzymes which meant I was having a heart attack. They took me via ambulance to the airport where I was transported by Life Flight to Riverbend Oregon Cardiac Center. I don't remember the flight at all. They did an angeogram which showed 4 completely blocked arteries. My heart had started to harvest tiny veins on its own to get blood supply to my heart. What an amazing thing our body is!

On August 4th 2013 I had open heart surgery. They sawed open my sternum to get to my heart. The rib spreaders caused so much brusing I looked like I had been hit by a Mack Truck ! They put me on a heart lung machine and took a vein from my leg as well as a mammo veins and bypassed the blocked arteries. God is good. He gave me a new life. My husband said I was close to death and he was so scared. I was unconscious for two days and on a breathing machine.

I have always been healthy as a horse. Strong and never sick other than a cold. My kids were shocked and still can't believe Mom had a heart attack.

Because of all of my husbands health problems these past two years I always kept baby aspirin in my night stand, desk drawer and purse but when it came time to use them, it never crossed my mind!

I had a friend in her 30's in the 90's that came to work with what she described as "terrible indigestion" and dropped dead at our bosses desk.  

My warning to you all is this....if you have pain, a feeling that you need to burp, a heavy squeezing feeling in the middle of your chest radiating down the back of your left arm and up in to your jaw area, DO NOT IGNORE IT. Go to the doctor and get checked out or go to the ER and have it checked. God was watching me. I was blessed. I could have dropped dead in those two months I was having this pain. Two week prior I was in Las Vegas where my 6 month old great grandson was dying and I could have easily died there with all the stress.

I am thankful beyond words for this second life God has blessed me with. My second birthday is August 4th.
Thank You Jesus

I am on the mend. Starting Cardiac rehab today. Up and walking and doing a little more each day. I feel fantastic and can't wait to use this new energy with the blood pumping through my heart as it should have been doing for who knows how long. I am excited and so very thankful.
Love you all, please take care of yourself and never ignore signs that your body is trying to tell you.