I had a heart attack at the age of 39

As he told Jacquelyne Froeber

February is American month.

It was on Friday night at Waikiki and I was delayed. I rushed to the background and apologized to the crew. “I went to the Mac meter to make my makeup and needed more than planned,” I said.

That wasn’t exactly true. I was not planning to go to Mac – I had forgotten my makeup at home. And it wasn’t the first time. Embarrassment, I avoid contact with other singers.

The truth was that I didn’t know what was going on with me. I was tired all the time – drained – even walking on a stairs stairs took my breath away. And the forgetfulness was not like me. I made it a full -time job and sing a few nights a week, but I knew something was far away.

Just before I went to the stage, I bent down to put water in my cup and felt pain on my back. I got and got up quickly. I had felt this pain before.

About a year earlier, I visited friends in Las Vegas when I began to have heartburn and pain in the back and nausea that didn’t go away. I knew something was not right, so I called in 911. In the hospital, I was diagnosed myocarditis – Inflammation of the heart muscle. But they couldn’t tell me why it was happening. I was not sick and there was no known infection. I tried to ask questions – why was I in such intense pain? – But basically they slaughtered me, they gave me morphine that literally made me get sick and said that the symptoms would go on their own. I had an attendance at home and the doctor said the same thing. I had myocarditis and I would be fine, but I shouldn’t push myself or exercise for about a month.

2019

Now, the same feeling was back, but a thousand times more intense. I did what many women do when they had heart problems – I tried to work through it. I have exchanged with myself: If I could go through the set, I would drive myself directly to urgent care.

But I couldn’t do it. Until then, I could get up. One of the singers called in 911 and the correspondents took me to a stretcher through the full area of ​​visitors and locals waiting to see the show.

In the hospital, the doctor came to the room and spent my symptoms with me. He said I had a heart attack and wanted to have surgery.

We looked. “This is not the case,” I said.

I was only 39. I exercised most days of the week. I knew I could probably eat better, but it wasn’t like I had a burger and potatoes every day. Also, it wasn’t even possible for someone to have a heart attack … was it?

I called my family. They agreed that it seemed strange that someone so young could have a heart attack, but that I should have the process because something was not wrong. I could not disagree.

When I woke up from surgery, the doctor confirmed that I had a heart attack and had to do potential. He showed me the radiography where the balloon was implanted in my heart. He also said that I was anemic-obviously low iron levels could be a factor that contributes to a heart attack-and I had to take medication by reducing blood pressure.

I circled with me as he gave me recipes and I was cleared to go home. After leaving, I sat there surprised and tried to wrap my brain around what had happened. I was still shocked when a nurse commented on how beautiful I looked. I realized that I was still in full makeup – eyelashes and all – from the night before.

In the weeks after surgery, I was surprised by how much better I felt physically. I didn’t have the breath. I wasn’t tired. But mentally, I fought. I was afraid that I was going to have another heart attack. I pulled around my life in a state of anxiety waiting for the other shoe to fall.

I was also depressed. I thought I did everything before the heart attack and yet it was still happening. I felt damaged in some way – as if it were my fault. It took a long time, but I started to see a therapist and quickly learned that awareness of your mental health after a traumatic health event is just as important as taking care of your physical health.

When I talked to family and friends about what happened, everyone said the same thing: You’re too young to have a heart attack. Most people, like me, thought you had to be older and experience chest pain – but it’s not like movies. Women can have different symptoms from men, including severe heartburn, back pain and nausea like me. And forgetfulness was also a sign due to reduced blood flow to my brain.

2019

I wanted to spread the word, so I came into contact with my local capital of the American Heart Union. I began to talk to events about survivors of heart attack and to share my experience with myocarditis, which increased to young people during Covid. In 2002, I was honored to be an ambassador for the Go Red for Movement Women Movement for raising heart health awareness.

I have learned that a heart attack can affect the life of a woman in ways that we probably won’t think about. For example, I could not continue to take birth control pills and I am not a candidate for hormone therapy because hormones increase the risk of a cardiovascular event. Also, I was destroyed to find out that I couldn’t be a bone marrow donor, despite being a fight for someone who really needed it.

Looking back, I wish I had supported myself more during visits with healthcare providers. I would have asked more questions when we said that we would “monitor” my cholesterol levels, but that didn’t include a timetable or the fact that high cholesterol could lead to a heart attack. I would have trained myself for blood and numbers and signs and symptoms of heart attacks on women.

The transition from such a terrifying terror for health has changed my perspective to life. Shortly after the heart attack, I abandoned my full-time corporate work to focus on singing and fun-mainly on cruise ships around the world.

So far, I have been to 37 countries and I wake up excited to do what I love every day because I know that all this can leave in a moment – why not live the life you want to live in? Just make sure you take care of your heart along the road.

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Our real women, real stories are the authentic experiences of real -life women. The views, opinions and experiences they share in these stories are not approved by healthy and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of healthy.