Friday, May 11, 2012

The strength it takes..

While I was in the hospital, I had a visit from a therapist from the Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit.  He went what the program had to offer me and I was very interested and signed up. I was scheduled to start the program a few weeks after a few weeks of more recovery time.
The cardiac rehab would not only allow me to improve my health through exercising, but it also had a lot more benefits, which included the following: increased my overall knowledge of my heart (how it works, blood vessels, the parts of the heart, etc), improved my blood pressure, weight loss, and provided a great support group and kept me motivated to make important lifestyle changes. All of these things would allow me to decrease the risk of future cardiovascular problems.
The program consisted of an hour class 3 days a week. There wasn’t a specific timeframe of when the program is completed, it’s all based on your recovery speed. The hour long class was split up into three different sections: walk on treadmill for 30 minutes, use the NuStep for 15 minutes, and then weights for 15 minutes. Like all exercising, it’s important to warm up and cool down, so that was also incorporated into the routine as well.  Also, there was an actual educational class on Wednesdays. The class was only 30 minutes long, but we talked about all issues about the heart. I had the privilege to sit down and talk with a nutritionist and also a pharmacist. I was astonished of all the information that I learned through the program. It was incredible!
Before every workout session, I had to get hooked up to a cardiac monitor. This was known as an ECG (electrocardiography). This monitor traces the heart’s electrical activity at rest and during exercise. The abnormalities during the exercise may indicate something is going on with the heart. I went through countless sessions, and I still do not know how to read it the results on the monitor. Blood pressure and heart rate was also taken before and after the exercise.
There were several TVs on the walls, so while working out, I was able to watch TV. Also, there was a screen that showed my heart monitor, so the nurses and therapists were tracking it closely.
I can remember the first day of rehab, afterwards I was so tired. I didn’t realize how weak I’d become since the heart attack. I was on the treadmill and walking a very slow speed, no incline, and I was so tired. I experienced some chest pain, so I had to slow down my pace even more. I was so angry at myself for not being able to do what I wanted to do, but I had to remind myself, it’s one step at a time.
The cardiac program was a struggle for me, there were several session that I was experiencing severe chest pain. After talking with my cardiologist, he had ordered me to stop the program and have a stress test done. I was pretty freaked out again. I was scared to find out what was going on, but I had a lot of trust in my doctors and knew they would do what’s best for me. I had my stress test done and it showed that the area surrounding the damaged part of my heart was still pretty irritated. The doctor put me on some more medication and said to give it some more time to heal. Praise the lord that’s all it was!
About 2 months later, I was allowed to return to the program. To my surprise, I found the program to be a whole lot easier than what it had been before. I just needed some more time to heal. I had increased my speed and incline and was feeling great. Again, I’m stubborn, and the therapists and nurses wouldn’t allow me to go as fast as I wanted. I had to keep my heart rate under a certain level, and this made me mad, but I got over and pretty quick because I knew that I had to listen to them. They weren’t going to budge. They would be just as stubborn as I was.
During one of my last classes, I had a pretty good scare. I was working out and feeling great. I usually attended the 4-5 classes on MWF, but I had Friday off and I went to the 11:00 class. There was another lady in the class, who was also pretty young. Through talking, I found out that she was a roller derby girl. Well, during weights she wanted to try out some different exercises, and I thought well heck if she can do it, then I certainly can. WRONG! After we got done doing some pretty extensive exercises and were stretching I suddenly felt very ill and sick to my stomach. I told the nurse that I didn’t feel good and before I knew it, I hit the ground and passed out. I found out that my heart rate had dropped significantly within a few seconds and caused me to black out. The nurse had told me I was doing too much and my heart just wasn’t ready for it. After resting for awhile, I felt good enough and was allowed to go home. (They won’t allow you to leave if you are having issues). That day I learned an important lesson, my body wasn’t ready for such an extensive workout, and I needed to take a step at a time.
One of the greatest accomplishments came at the end of the program, I was RUNNING! I couldn’t believe it, just 4 months ago I had trouble just walking at a slow speed, but now I was running! The cardio staff said they’d never seen a patient run in the program before. I had to remind them that I was only 25 years old and most of all the other patients were well in their 50s or older. They acknowledged that, but said it was a huge accomplishment. I felt wonderful!
I finally graduated from the program in March. I was beyond proud of myself. I was able to prove to myself that I can accomplish something, as a long as I put my mind to it. It was such a bittersweet day on “graduation day”. I was thrilled to have successfully completed the program, but I was sad to leave the wonderful staff, especially Mary.  I leaned on Mary a lot throughout the program, she was the cardio nurse and was ALWAYS there for me when I had questions and would allow me to vent my frustrations to her. I think she’s a lot like me, stubborn, so when she didn’t have answers to my questions she would always find out the answer no matter what it took. I enjoyed going to rehab because I knew the staff would be there to support me, but also push me to becoming a stronger and healthier person. I will always be grateful for IU Methodist Cardiology Rehab Staff!
Lesson to be learned: Take advantages of rehab programs, they can truly help you out. Not only are they educators, nurses, and therapists, but they will become your friends and one of your biggest fan groups. They made me realize that I had “the strength it takes” and I hope everyone else fighting through a health condition can realize that as well.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Sadness, Anger, Anxiety, & Hope

I planned on blogging about my cardio rehabilitation Program, but that can wait. I'm not going to be lie; it's been an emotional past week. I've had several break downs, lots of anger, and a whole lot of anxiety.

Last Thursday morning, I heard some news that was very much unexpected and very shocking. One of my good friends from my hometown area had a heart attack. When I found this out, I couldn’t believe it and completely broke down. He is also in his 20s, so he's also pretty young to have had a heart attack. He had some chest pains and went to the hospital in St. Marys. I'm from a small hometown, so the hospital isn’t that big and doesn’t have all the capabilities that other hospitals do. He ended up being careflighted to a bigger hospital, which has a cardiology unit. He had a 100% blockage in one of his arteries and had to have a stent put in. He was in the hospital for a few days to recover and was released to recover at home. He is doing well and will continue to recover. The doctors still do not know why he had a heart attack, and like me, they may never know. The lesson that I want everyone to learn from this is that you CANNOT ignore the warning signs. Thank the lord my friend didn’t ignore his signs and got help right away.

I felt a whole lot of emotions when I learned about my friend. It was so hard to believe. I was overwhelmed with emotions and had cried several times. It brought brought back all of my memories of the day that I had my heart attack. I was angry and upset. I hated that he was going through the same thing I did. I hated that his family was also going through what my family had been through. I hated that the doctors couldn’t give him an explanation. I hated everything about the situation.

I knew that he would have a long road ahead of him and he would also probably have some melt downs like I do (You know guys can't always be tough :) ). However, I also knew that he would be a MUCH STRONGER person after going through this. I also think that he will be a great advocate of being heart healthy. I also knew that his family would become a stronger family too. These simple facts made me smile.

I know that everyone in my life is supporting me through all of this and I know they will continue to do so. I cannot thank my family and friends enough for being there for me. Everyone's support is simply amazing. However, I know I'm being selfish when I say this, but I now have a friend, who's been through the same exact thing that I've been through, who knows exactly what it feels like. It will be nice to be able to talk to him about it all. I know that I joked to him about being heart attack buddies, but it's the truth! Heck if both of us can get through a heart attack, we can get through ANYTHING!!

I had another very emotional day on Sunday night. I think it was one of the nights that I had cried the most in an hour, but this was a GOOD cry and it felt so damn good. On Sunday morning, my sister and two cousins participated in the mini-marathon in Pittsburgh (Steeler County!!!). This was the first mini for my sister and cousin, my other cousin does them all the time; however, this was her first time walking in it. I'm going to share with you the story from my cousins blog:

   "We had an awesome pace and felt that we could get to the finish line in 3 hours.  Our race goal was to get it under 3:15.  At mile 6 we felt that we would be able to complete this task as we were on target, but the hills were ugly and the sun was hot.  You could tell the excitement was starting to change around mile 9.5 all that matter to us now was the finish line.

I told the girls that the last three miles is always the hardest part of a race because everything starts to hurt and the mind starts playing tricks on you.  That is when it started to change for one of my cousins.  I was getting worried as miss fast walker asked if we could slow our pace down.  I took the water I had and poured some over her back.  She looked like she was fading and I didn't want her to drop this close to the end.

We slowed our pace down, I knew we would not get to the finish line for our 3 hour mark but I knew we would finish under 3:15.  I kept telling the girls come on we only have 1.3 to go, we got this.  The struggle continued and I knew we had to walk for something.  I said... okay girls let's do this last mile for Grandpa (God Bless him in Heaven on May 5th he has been gone for 14 years).  I prayed to Grandpa and asked him to send us the strength we needed to get to that steel finish line. 

I believe our crazy loving Grandpa helped all three of us because once we saw the finish line we knew no doubt we would reach it.  One of my cousins started to cry because all her hard work paid off.  Both of them never knew they could do something like this but deep down I knew they had the heart to do it.....after all we come from the same blood.  I even got teary eyed under my glasses because i was proud of what they accomplished.""


There was something about this experience that my sister and cousins had that sparked something in me. I had been through a heart attack and now dealing with coronary heart disease, but I told myself If I can get through that then I can push myself into truly becoming heart healthy. I was done feeling sorry for myself and was going to do something about it. I wasn’t going to allow the heart attack and heart disease run my life anymore; I was going to do something about it. With that being said, I'm determined to accomplish some big dreams and goals, and one of them is to participate in a mini marathon. I want to feel the accomplishment and the emotions of crossing the finish line.


Lesson to be learned: Be thankful for each and every day. If you have a health condition, try not to let it ruin and run your life. Enjoy life and all that it has to offer.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

One simple change...

It was really hard for me to accept the fact that I did have a heart attack. This wasnt a nightmare it had really happened. I knew that I never wanted to go through it again, so lifestyle changes were a must.

One of the first things that changed was my diet, and let me tell you, I was NOT a happy person about this. Why? Well because my new diet would become a "low-sodium" diet. I thought how in the world am I going to be able to do this? I was the person who added table salt on almost everything, it was just natural for me to do so..I would add it to pizza, popcorn, pasta, veggies, pretty much everything.

The low sodium diet started the very first night in the hospital, as my menu was specifically for this diet. Lets just say that I didn’t really eat all that much because the food just tasted so boring to me, had no flavor and I REALLY wanted my salt..but that was not an option. My cardiologist put me on a strict diet, I was only allowed 2,000 milligrams (1/2 teaspoon) of sodium per day!

I had a hard time understanding why a low-sodium diet was needed. Well, during my cardio rehab program (discuss that in another post) I learned exactly why it's a bad thing. First, if you eat too much sodium it can cause your blood pressure to rise and cause some fluid retention, especially in your legs and feet. Since this leads to high blood pressure, your heart has to work harder, and this eventually strains your blood vessels and heart. The heart now has to work harder to pump enough blood and oxygen to the rest of your body. Also, over time, the blood vessels can become hard, and when this happens, the blood has a hard time flowing through the artery. All of this can lead to heart attacks, stroke, and kidney failure.

The average American eats five or more teaspoons of salt each day. This is about 20 times as much as the body needs. In fact, your body needs only 1/4 teaspoon of salt every day. Astonishing, isn’t it?

Well, since I was on a new diet, it was time to purchase new groceries. After I was feeling good enough to walk around, my parents and I went to Kroger, where we spent several hours in the store. We went down pretty much every isle looking at the food labels, and it was beyond my imagination how much sodium there actually already was in food! I was quick to find out that many of my favorite foods had too much sodium. I was very frustrated and didn’t know how I'd ever be able enjoy this diet. I was quick to learn I would now be eating a lot of frozen chicken, frozen veggies, and fresh fruit. There would be no canned food in my future.

It's been almost 6 months since my heart attack, and I'm very PROUD to say that I HAVE NOT added any salt to my food. To be honest, I don’t miss my table salt at all. I've been using a lot of pepper. I know that Mrs. Dash. is a good substitute for salt. I have tried it a few times, but cannot find a flavor that I like yet.

I've adapted to the low-sodium diet pretty well. Again, at first I really thought it was going to be impossible, but in all reality, it's not bad at all. Yes, there are times that I break the rule eat something that is considered high in sodium, but I figure that is okay, as long as I don’t do it all the time (remember, I'm stubborn!). I could never ever give up on chicken fingers and French fries. :)

The purpose of this post is to hopefully make everyone recognize the importance of really watching your sodium intake. By just changing this, it can greatly reduce your risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or any other illness that is caused from high blood pressure. Next time you’re at the store, take a look at those food labels, and I guarantee that you’ll be just as surprised as I was.

I found a good website that has a guideline for a low sodium diet:
Mrs. Dash website:
http://www.mrsdash.com/

Thursday, May 3, 2012

What? How? Why?


The number one question that I've been asked and I've asked several times myself is how does an overall healthy 24 year old have a heart attack? Well, that question cannot be answered, as it still remains an unanswered question...

First, what exactly is a heart attack and how does it form? Simply stated, a heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart becomes blocked for a long enough time that part of the heart muscle is damaged or dies. Another name for a heart attack is "Myocardial Infarction".

Second, what causes it? Well it can be caused my numerous thing such as: plaque (high cholesterol) buildup in the walls of the coronary arteries, a family history of heart problems, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, and obesity.

Now, back to the number one question, what caused mine? Well, during my heart cath, I didn’t have any plaque buildup, so that was ruled out. I had no prior history of heart problems, nor did my family. My blood pressure wasn’t high. I was not obese, not a smoker, and didn’t have diabetes.

With everything being ruled out, it still remained an unanswered question. What caused my dissection in my artery?

When the doctor was going over everything with me, he started asking what medications I was on. At that time, the only medication I was taking was birth control, which helped control my ovarian cysts. As soon as I said this, he was quick to say that I needed to stop taking the pill IMMEDIATELY.

I didn’t understand this at all, how does birth control play a factor in a heart attack? A birth control pill contains estrogen and progestin. The estrogen can increase the risk of blood clots by altering the delicate balance of clotting factors produced by the liver.

Did the birth control ultimately cause a blood clot and it traveled to my heart? The doctors couldn’t confirm that’s what caused my heart attack, but also couldn’t rule it out.  With that being said, I discontinued taking the pill and will never go back on it.

The bottom line is there isn’t a clear answer to why I had the attack. One of my cardiologists said it was simply bad luck. Whether it was just bad luck or a dangerous side effect from my birth control, I will never know the answer. It's became very frustrating not knowing the cause, but I just have to face the facts that I’ll never know.

The point that I want to stress is that it's critical to know the side effects of medications. All women taking birth control need to know that there IS a risk of blood clots.  I'm not trying to discourage women from taking birth control medications; I just want everyone to know the risks. It may, or may not, have been what caused my heart attack, but I do know that I will not take that gamble again.

Lesson to be learned: know the side effects of all medications you are taking.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Is this really happening?


Tuesday, November 8, 2011 started out like any other day, the alarm went off at 5:30 AM and I pushed snooze..hit snooze again..and again, until it was finally time to force myself out of bed and get ready for work. I got ready, packed my lunch, and was out the door by 6:15. It was Election Day and according to the state of Indiana, it considered a "state holiday", so I knew it would be a quiet day at work because no one would be in. So you may be wondering, why is Kristy going to work? Well, in my position, we are required to work 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and it was my scheduled day to work. As I'm driving into work, I can feel my chest starting to get tight; it felt as if someone was stabbing me. I didn’t think anything of it, and just thought it was either heartburn or anxiety. I'm going to be honest right now, and it's kind of hard for me to tell everyone, but I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder several years ago. It had been a stressful past few days, so I thought it was just an anxiety attack and would go away. My commute to work is usually 20-25 mins, depending on traffic. As I'm getting closer to arriving at work, I can feel my chest getting tighter and my neck starting to hurt. I came into work and told my coworker (who I replacing) that I was having some pains, but I would be okay. I took some aspirin and started my workday.

I can remember sitting at my desk and the pain getting worse, not only was my chest aching and neck becoming stiff, my right arm was going numb. I knew something was right; however, as most of you know, I can be pretty stubborn, so I kept thinking the aspirin would kick in and the pain would go away. During this time, I'd been texting Mark, who is a very good friend of mine, and telling him my symptoms. He kept telling me to get off the phone and call 911; again, I was being stubborn. I had finally convinced myself that I did need to get the hospital and was going to drive myself. Since no one was in the office, I called my boss. While on the phone with my boss, I started to cry and was in some pretty serious pain. He told me to get off the phone and he was going to get me help. Next to our office is the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, and they are staffed all the time as well. My boss had called over there and before I knew it, I had 2 people at my side. By this time, I was really starting to freak out, and started to hyperventilate. They told me that they had called 911 and help was on the way. They escorted me outside, where EMTs arrived and transported me to IU Methodist. I'm not sure what happened, but two ambulances and a fire truck all came within several mins of each other...I admit, I started to laugh, which helped calm me down.

As I was in the ambulance, they hooked me up to all kinds of machines and started asking my medical history. The pain continued to get worse, so they gave me baby aspirin to chew and also nitrostat...nothing was helping. The lady EMT was looking at my EKG and told the driver that something didn’t look right, so to turn on the lights and sirens and get to the hospital ASAP. The hospital is a mile or so from work. I was really scared at this point; I didn’t know what to think.

I arrived at IU Methodist and was quickly surrounded by numerous doctors and nurses. I was being hooked up to all kinds of machines. I had blood work, ultrasound, and an  x-ray of my chest done. Mark arrived at the hospital, and I was so grateful to have someone there with me. I didn’t want to call my parents yet, because I didn’t want to freak them out, I wanted to know what was going on. However, I did end up calling them and my dad kept insisting that he would come, but I said it would be silly to drive 2 hours if I was going to be released. He agreed and said to keep him updated. Since I was in a lot of pain, I was given morphine to help control the pain, which just made me pretty tired. The ER doctor said I had a little bit of fluid around my heart, but was nothing to be concerned about. Six hours later, the Dr. was pretty sure I just had some inflammation in my chest wall cavity and that I would be released soon. Mark had called my dad to let him know that I was going to be dismissed.

The doctor came back in and I thought he was going to give me my dismissal papers; however, that was not the case. He informed me that my blood work showed my heart enzymes were elevated. I had no clue what this meant and asked what that was. The doctor reported that something was going on with my heart and they called for a cardiologist. Once again, I started to freak out, thankfully, Mark was there calming me down. The cardiologist ordered for my blood work to be done again, just to make sure there wasn’t a mix-up in the lab..because how could a 24 year old be having a heart attack? Again, the blood work showed my enzymes were elevated. My cardiologist told me that I was going to go to the cath lab and get a heart cath done to see what's going on. I couldn’t believe all this was going on and it was happening so fast. Mark had called my dad to let them know what was going on and they said they were going to be on their way to Indy soon.

I got to the cath lab and do not remember much., only that they told me they were going to give me some medicine to "relax" which ultimately put me to sleep. I guess it didn't take long and I was out relatively quick. The doctor said that one of my arteries had a dissection, which caused a clot, which resulted in a heart attack. He was able to push some kind of medicine through, and it cleared it up. He did report that some of my heart muscle was damaged.

The next few days were a total blur to me, because I was on so much medication. I was in ICU the first night and then was transferred to the heart floor. I was released from IU Methodist on Friday and was ordered off work for another week. I returned back to St. Marys and started my recovery process.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011, ultimately changed my life. It gave me a new outlook and an appreciation for life.

Through this blog, I'll share with you my journey to becoming, 'heart healthy’.