Lori Emery-Olson – Heart Attack Survivor

In 2009, I was a married 38 year old, with a 2 year old and a 6 year old.

Thursday, October 8th of 2009, was one of the last days of a week without my husband, who was out of town hunting.   I had dropped off each of my kids at school, then went in to work to see about taking the day off, for a “me” day.   I arrived at work around 10 am and was getting settled, waiting to meet with a supervisor, when I started to feel what I would call indigestion.  It wasn’t going away so I went outside to get some fresh air.  The sensation was getting worse – it was getting harder to breath and I was starting to feel sweaty.   I was pacing, trying to figure out what to do, when a co-worker let my supervisor know I didn’t look well.  My supervisor sat me down to talk to me.  As we talked, my hands were cramping up and my symptoms continued to get worse, so he decided to call 911.  The paramedics came and said I was having a panic attack.  After some time of trying to “calm me down,” they decided to take me to the hospital.  It was there that they hooked me up to an ECG - it determined that I was having a heart attack.  I had 100% blockage in my LAD.  After two attempts, a successful stent placement was completed and I began my new life as a heart attack survivor.   Of the handful of risk factors, I had two that contributed to my event – stress and genes/heredity.

Another piece I’d like to share – just under two years before my heart attack, I lost my 58 year old mother of a heart attack. L Since all of this, I’ve been doing what I can to bring awareness to others on the seriousness of heart diseas,e and the importance of taking better care of ourselves by knowing our numbers (BP, cholesterol, etc.), eating right and being more active.


Original Published Link Lori Emery-Olson – Heart Attack Survivor

#BP, #Cholesterol, #ECG, #HeartAttack, #RiskFactors #Heart/Cardiac

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Breast Cancer Survivor Uses Her Experience to Help Other Women

Image
On a typical day at  Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging at Green Spring Station , patients coming in for imaging tests such as  MRIs ,  ultrasounds  and  mammograms have a comforting advocate available in the waiting room. Kate Pisano is a patient liaison — there to meet the needs of the patients by providing resources and support. With Kate’s smile and cheerful attitude, it’s not obvious that recently she too was a patient sitting in the waiting room confronting her own major health challenges. Two years ago Kate was fighting breast cancer and facing it alone as a single working mother of two teenaged sons. Months after a painful divorce, Kate noticed a lump in her breast while getting undressed. “I was afraid of what the lump might mean, so I waited several weeks before finally making an appointment with my doctor,” she said. That appointment led to a mammogram followed by a  biopsy . In April of 2012, Kate’s greatest fear was confirmed: She had breast cancer. “The diagnosis was a complet
Read more

Having pancreatic cancer a suspicious tumor on your pancreas

Image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=QDwctWY-DOQ Joseph “Cook” Edens III doesn’t let pancreatic cancer get in the way of living a full life. Edens was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a Whipple procedure at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Unfortunately, a bout of pancreatitis returned, and in 2015, surgeon Christopher Wolfgang and his team performed a total pancreatectomy on Edens, removing his entire pancreas and spleen. The Arlington, Virginia, resident is now cancer-free and back to a busy lifestyle of work, sports and family time. About Johns Hopkins Pancreatic Cancer Care Having pancreatic cancer — or a suspicious tumor on your pancreas — is a frightening diagnosis. Johns Hopkins experts, some of the most experienced pancreatic specialists in the country, are working to dispel fear and create hope in patients with pancreatic disease. Pancreatic cancer, tumors and cysts are being treated with dramatic success at Johns Hopkins. The first step when dealing w
Read more

Howard's Weight Loss Journey

Image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfmgTU6L524 HOME››ABOUT LAHEY TEXT SIZE | SHARE | PRINT Howard's Story “I thank them for helping me get to where I’m at, and they keep telling me that it was all me doing the work. But, I know that if I wasn’t coming every two weeks to see them, I wouldn’t be this way.” They say timing is everything, and in April 2011, Howard Jardine was eager to change his life. Weighing in at 405 pounds, he decided it was finally time to join Lahey’s Medical Weight Loss program. Looking back, Howard says it was one of the best decisions he has ever made, as he found support from a team that encouraged and motivated him throughout his weight loss journey. At 405 pounds, Howard was the heaviest he had ever been, and the heaviest that he wanted to be. He was starting to feel the strain that the weight was causing on his relationship with his five-year-old daughter, and he didn’t want to miss out on her milestones. Howard’s mother was overweight and suffered a stroke a
Read more