I wasn’t tired. I was in heart failure.

As he said Erica Rimlinger

“I’m fine, I just didn’t eat enough breakfast,” I said to the medical staff in the emergency room. I was prepared to get out of the hospital. My colleagues, I explained, were too careful, ordering the ambulance for me. They told Emts I died, fell and hit an office on the road down. I didn’t remember it, but the growing bruise on my part deposited the truth of their account.

Still, I was embarrassed by all over the hustle and I wanted to go home, so I talked out of ER. As a lawyer, I am very good at supporting. Sure, I was tired. What isn’t mom working? I was accusing menopause, my migraine medicine and the lack of sleep for the breath I am experiencing walking to the stairs or carrying my skiing to the elevator skiing.

That night, and in the following days and nights, I generally felt bad. I couldn’t describe it: it was more a hardship. I was exhausted but I couldn’t sleep. One night at 2 or 3 am, I was anxiously flipping channels in bed when I stopped in a Rosie O’Donnell Comedy special.

At the same time, O’Donnell happened to describe the symptoms of heart disease in women. I remembered that medical staff had suggested a heart problem as one of the many possible causes for my fainting and recommending that I follow a cardiologist. I didn’t think, as a reasonably healthy 48 -year -old, I had an issue of the heart, but I made the cardiologist’s appointment anyway.

Now, on television, O’Donnell mentions all the specific symptoms I felt. Pain on the back of the arm or throat? Control. Fatigue; Control. Excessive water profit? I looked at my ankles, who were swollen. Control. Feeling fear? Absolutely.

O’Donnell said, “If you are experiencing them, go to the hospital right now.” I was worried now. At 5:15 am I woke up my husband and went to ER.

This time, I stayed for a full exam. The cardiologist I had made the appointment with but had not yet seen it. Diagnosed me with complete heart failure. There were no blockages in my heart, but it only operated with a capacity of 5% -10%. He said, “You have almost no heart function. We don’t know how you live.” I should have an emergency surgery to place a anomaly and pacemaker.

I was shocked. I couldn’t believe I was so sick. In fact, my oxygen brain was so resistant to these news, I told my husband that our doctor was saying that I could take my medicines and go home. The doctor had to explain to me my condition three times and even had to take a photo!

My surgeons installed a defibrillator and pacemaker to keep my heart beating properly. I had to take a month out of work and returned with part -time work after that. While my doctors and I understood the right doses of my drugs, I spent months in heart detoxification, worked hard to regain my health three times a week for two hours at a time for as long as my safety paid for it.

At that time, I was impatient to recover completely, but with the back I would like to be more patient. In addition to the natural tax of my illness, a wave of uncontrolled sadness hit me. Fortunately, my surgeons warned me that this was Common appearance after heart surgerySo I was not completely caught away from my seemingly random explosions.

By combining the devices and medicines that again help my heart, I felt a huge difference in my energy levels early in my recovery. My brain felt like it was in steroids. I began to fully understand how long it took me to process information when I was sick. Almost immediately I lost 20 pounds of water, and within a month and half of my surgery, I could take a three -mile night walks with my husband. I was not able to get so far away for a while.

2025

I share my story with other women because my life was saved by someone who was talking. I am educated, a man who is known for health, but I did not recognize the symptoms. I think back on how I had fueled through my busy life, I felt sick, but not to analyze the feeling or to stop to host or challenge it. Today I hear my instincts. When something feels away, I don’t ignore it. I get it check out.

I tell women my age not to automatically exclude the possibility of heart disease. Although I was not a drinker and I didn’t take drugs, I learned that the heart could get sick in other ways. One of my doctors suggested that heart disease can be caused by an infection that has helped me with my genetics.

Recently, my doctors discussed with me the possibility of removing the pacemaker. Sometimes, since it works well for a while, the heart can start sending the right electrical signals again alone. I still don’t know what my medical future holds. I never wanted to be the face of heart disease, but if only one woman reads it and recognizes her experience in my story, my heart will be happy.

This educational resource was created with support from Novartis.

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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.