Learning the Hard Way

I came close to death a couple weeks ago. Listen Up.

What I’ve learned:
1. Don’t ignore chest pain. Ever. My symptoms-crushing pressure in chest, pain to jaw, pain down arm, shortness of breath, sweating and nausea.
2. Stress Tests can give false negatives. Take them with a grain of salt.
3. Negative heart enzymes mean you did not have a heart attack. It does not mean you aren’t getting ready to have one at any moment.
4. ALL MY TESTS WERE NEGATIVE. I went to two different hospitals. None of those tests revealed what was wrong. Within 24hrs of all theses “negative” tests I finally got a Cardiac Cath. I was told I needed quadruple bypass ASAP at just 57 years old.
5. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!
I knew something was wrong. No one knows your body like you do.
6. Women-speak up for yourself. We still get less attention than men concerning heart issues.
7. Doctors need to look at the entire patient, not just the numbers.
8. I added my dog picture just to lighten things up.