Heartfelt

Heart disease was never something I worried about much. However, when my father died at 72 during open-heart surgery, I became less cavalier and much more concerned about my own potential for a heart attack.

At age 69, I had no history of heart problems. On Saturday, August 9, 2014, suddenly I felt dizzy and that was the last I remember. My husband found me wedged between the nightstand and the bed. Immediately he called 911.

When the doctor told Roxanne that the back pain she’d had for six weeks was due to a heart attack she was shocked. Within four years, she received the gift of a new heart. She has since recruited thousands of organ donors.

Before her heart attack, Barbara loved being a mom, wife, vegetarian and healthy. There were no red flags.

When Kimby woke from gall bladder surgery, she felt intense pain in her upper arms and yelled for help. Immediately she was surrounded by medical professionals asking questions about her heart.

"With a total of four stents will I ever have enough strength to return to normal activities?" I asked. I suspect others who have had surgery or a serious illness are left wondering the same thing.

“I couldn’t lie flat to sleep, started coughing while lying down and had to use the bathroom every 45 minutes to an hour.” It turned out Rebecca Stewart had peripartum cardiomyopathy - heart failure due to pregnancy.

One thing some of us heart patients grump about the most is having to change our diets. Give me eight new medications to take? No problem. Try to teach me new ways to manage stress? Sketchy. But eliminate my best friends, salt and fat, from my diet? No way!

I smoked too much. I worked too much. Ate a horrible diet. My only exercise was finger calisthenics with the TV remote. I was a 5-foot-6, 200-lb couch potato.

At three months old Crystal Flores was diagnosed with seven different congenital heart defects. Eight open-heart surgeries later she declares, "Heart disease can't beat me!"