{"id":1754,"date":"2014-02-07T10:08:38","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T16:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovingonme.com\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2017-05-10T14:28:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T19:28:41","slug":"are-you-listening-to-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/2014\/02\/07\/are-you-listening-to-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Listening to Your Heart?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Erica<\/a>Have you ever felt numbness in your left arm?<\/p>\n

Have you ever had a pain in your chest so intense that you knew something was wrong, but you were too afraid to act on it?<\/p>\n

Heart disease is the #1 killer of all women in America. Why? Because as women, we are under so much stress to be the perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect girlfriend, perfect co-worker, perfect boss, perfect church lady, perfect EVERYTHING.\u00a0 Too often the person we neglect most is ourselves. As women, we often overlook being tired and portray a fa\u00e7ade of invincibility. But we are not invincible. Stress kills and we, as women, need to stop, listen to our bodies and take a stand in the fight against heart disease.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Does heart disease run in your family?<\/em>
\n Do you know if you have high blood pressure?<\/em>
\n Do you have diabetes?<\/em>
\n Are you overweight?<\/em>
\n Do you smoke?<\/em>
\n Have you ever been overly tired?<\/em><\/p>\n

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then you need help NOW, not later.\u00a0 You are at risk for having a heart attack or stroke and there is no time to wait.\u00a0 I waited, ignored the signs and I will forever pay a heavy price.<\/p>\n

My biggest regret is that I could have prevented the last ten years of hospital stays, testing, medication, needles and x-rays by just being honest with myself about my history.<\/p>\n

The first man I was in love with was my father. My John Wayne, my Denzel Washington, my Harry Connick Jr., my Bill Cosby, my Tom Cruise, my dad, my father.\u00a0\u00a0The day was June 13, 2003, only a few months before I was to be married.\u00a0\u00a0I left for a business trip but had seen my father before I headed to the airport. We both promised to work on our father\/daughter dance and he vowed he wouldn’t do what we affectionately referred to as the \u201cI can\u2019t believe my dad is dancing like this in public\u201d moves. He agreed and sealed it with a kiss on my forehead. Before leaving home, I felt this overwhelming since of fear and something made me stop and pray right at the door for my entire family. My day was very weird, from cancellations at the airport, no rental car availability and my brother being nice to me, all in the same 24 hours. I felt off, that my universe had or was going to be tilted, but I didn’t think my world would have crashed at my feet.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 6 hours later, I received a call that a child never wants to hear. My father, my first love, my everything had passed away at the age of 60. My father had worked over 30 years for an amazing company and he loved his job, but it was stressful and he didn’t take the time needed to take care of him. Between giving my brother, myself and our mother a wonderful life, he didn’t take the time needed to ensure his longevity. Although he was quite aware of our family history, Dad said what I said, \u201cthat stroke, that heart attack wouldn\u2019t be him”, but it was.<\/p>\n

After my father passed away, I went to the doctor because I was so heart-broken, I thought I needed some special medication to help me move forward in life.\u00a0 The doctor said, “Your blood pressure is 210\/120.” \u00a0If you’ve never had your blood pressure taken, like I had not at this point in my life, this is extremely high.\u00a0 The doctor\u2019s fear was that my condition was chronic and would eventually lead to a stroke or heart attack. Before I left the office, the doctor prescribed medication to manage my high blood pressure and hopefully prevent me from becoming a heart attack victim.\u00a0 It was the first time I had ever heard the words \u201cheart attack\u201d and my name in the same sentence.\u00a0 Still, as I look back, the doctor was more concerned about my health than I was.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t understand the danger I was in having a blood pressure reading of 210\/120. I didn\u2019t understand how much I needed medication to help mitigate the irreversible damage high blood pressure was doing to me. A better understanding of this fact may have convinced me to take the medication as prescribed and not just three times in all.<\/p>\n

But I should have known because heart disease is in my family medical history. My paternal grandmother passed away at age 59 from a single heart attack. My paternal grandfather had two heart attacks before dying at age 69 from a third heart attack. I think somewhere in my mind, I made myself believe it couldn’t happen to me because I had been a modern dancer, worked out, and ate right. I didn’t have anything to worry about. I was wrong.<\/p>\n

Even with knowing about my family history, it took 3 years before I fully understood the danger. It was March 31, 2006 and all the warning signs were there. I felt weary and exhausted for several days. I was so tired that I couldn’t summon the strength to get on a flight even though I was at the gate. My husband didn’t know what was wrong, but could see the exhaustion in my eyes and was so concerned that he asked me to delay my trip, so I stayed. After three days, I felt okay and figured the extra rest had cured me enough that I could have a night out with my husband and friends. It turned out to be quite a night. We hadn’t been at the bar very long before I felt nauseous, heard ringing in my ear, started sweating, and my vision became blurry. All I remember saying was, \u201cI don\u2019t feel so good.\u201d\u00a0 When I woke up, I was in cardiac intensive care at Northwestern Hospital and the day was April 1st<\/sup>.\u00a0 It was April Fool\u2019s Day, but this was no joke.\u00a0 I have a complicated issue with my blood pressure, putting stress on my heart, which in turn, puts me at a high risk for heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s my story. What\u2019s yours? Know your history. I knew mine, but didn’t think it really had an impact on my life. Check your numbers. Don\u2019t ignore the signs. Above all, know your body and listen. Make a difference in your own life, not excuses. Today is National Go Red Day across the world. February is the month to show solidarity in supporting a friend, a mother, a sister, a daughter who is fighting heart disease.\u00a0 Join me and we can fight together and win!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever felt numbness in your left arm? Have you ever had a pain in your chest so intense that you knew something was wrong, but you were too afraid to act on it? Heart disease is the #1 killer of all women in America. Why? Because as women, we are under so much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":11650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"switch_like_status":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[204997546,114917237],"tags":[204997429,204997428,204997423,204997425,204997424,204997426],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/erica-annise-large.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eAxC-si","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12640,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions\/12640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}