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An anniversary

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I meant to make a note here yesterday but got distracted. ("ooohh, shiny...")

I have now lived ten years past my first heart attack.

First heart attacks usually kill women. My theory is because the "first" heart attack is not really their first. The earlier ones are misdiagnosed, usually as anxiety. Mine was, initially. I probably had two minor ones before the one that finally landed me in the CICU.

But I lived, because the doctor I butted heads with the most in the practice I saw then was also the most conservative. While the other doctors in the practice blew me off, he sent me to the ER and probably saved my life. Thanks, Dr Hudson. All is forgiven. Eye-wink

My heart condition is unusual--just this side of rare. It's called Prinzmetal's, or variant, angina. It happens at rest, not during activity. My heart isn't clogged. It's cleaner than a lot of 30-year-olds' hearts. It just decides now and again to spasm so hard I have a heart attack.

Nevertheless, a heart attack is a heart attack. My symptoms were the same as a lot of women's. If you don't know them, learn the symptoms of heart attack in women. They are different for women than they are for men. Learn them if not for yourself then for the women in your life that you love--your grandma, your mom, your sister. And if you experience the symptoms, GO TO THE ER. When I went ten years ago, I was sheepish and sure they'd send me home shaking their heads at the stupid panicky woman.

They didn't.

So here's to ten years I wasn't sure I'd get. I'll keep celebrating a year at a time, the rest of my life.


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