It’s on. I’ve been stress-tested, blood-tested, and pressure-tested. I’ve been examined, reviewed, and notated. Poked, prodded, and medicated. And all the tests and medical professionals have come to the same conclusion: There’s nothing really wrong with you, except for that heart attack thing. So yes, go ahead and train for that marathon. Go ahead and […]
09
May 2012
03
Feb 2012
It’s hard, if not impossible, to know what it is like for those around you, those who love you, when your own life is in crisis. I will never know what my husband felt like the day that I went to the ER but he drove our son to camp. I asked him if he […]
08
Nov 2011
This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time. And by long time, I mean since August 14, the day of my heart attack. It turns out that your body will, if you treat it properly, mount its own defense against heart disease and future heart attacks. It grows extra, natural bypass vessels […]
21
Sep 2011
My 12th Pill
By
I now take 12 pills a day. Me, the self-righteous riot grrl who demanded to see the results of studies of this drug or that drug on women and then refused to take them when the doctor admitted there was no such thing. Me, the nervous first-time mother who wouldn’t even take fish oil supplements while […]
02
Sep 2011
Her name was Ellen and she brought me dinner. The parish nurse at our church has organized volunteers to bring over dinner a few times a week, and Ellen’s day was Tuesday. She came to the door with a roast chicken, a salad from her garden, and a loaf of nine-grain bread. We chatted awhile, […]
25
Aug 2011
Her name was Mary Jean and she leaned over to talk to me as I waited for orientation on my first day of cardiac rehab. “Will you be joining us?” she said. “Yes,” I said. “I had a heart attack last Sunday, and I left the hospital on Wednesday.” “Oh,” she said, and paused. I […]
22
Aug 2011
A simple question, really. But it has taken me three days to try to answer it. The question came in a one-line email from a friend I haven’t seen since I was a teenager. It also came at a time when I was feeling, well, miserable. So I didn’t answer. (Sorry!) Here’s the weird thing: I really feel […]
21
Aug 2011
Yes, you read that right. I’m 37, a woman, a marathon runner, a healthy cook. I’m in shape with a normal BMI, an active, healthy, young(ish) mom of two. I’m not even stressed out. And I had a heart attack on Saturday night, late, maybe Sunday morning. It’s hard to tell, since it wasn’t diagnosed until I was […]
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