A Change of Heart: Heart Walk Success

Monday, September 28, 2009

Heart Walk Success

The Heart Walk went well yesterday. Thanks to generous friends and family, I raised over $250 for the American Heart Association! Thank you all so much for all your help and support.

Here's a link to my pictures on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47904085@N00/tags/2009heartwalk/

We had a warm, sunny day for the walk; I understand that last year was unseasonably cool. There were over 200 people on the team from UNC, and it was great to catch up with the rehab staff and some of the people who were going through rehab at the same time as me.

There were a lot of dogs at the walk, everything from huge friendly golden retrievers down to mini-poodles that people were carrying.

I'm looking forward to walking again next year.

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Why am I doing this?

In March of 2009 I had a heart attack. It was as much a surprise to me as it was to the doctors; I don't have any risk factors--no high blood pressure, no diabetes, no clogged arteries, no family history; plus I'm a young (in cardiac terms) female who exercises. Definitely NOT the usual suspect for a heart attack.

But tell that to my body--I had one anyway. Turns out that I experienced a rare thing called a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. Don't google the term unless you're prepared to be depressed by mortality rates and statistics, and the fact that doctors really have no clue about what causes some people to have them.

The bright side is that my toast landed butter side up, and I'm still here. In 2009 I put together a one-shot fanzine called A Change of Heart; you can get a PDF copy of it from efanzines.com here. This blog is an extension of that fanzine and an effort to reach more people, both in and out of of the fannish science fiction community.

If you want to read my story from the beginning, I suggest starting with this link to my wonderful husband Paul's journal:

Laura Had A Heart Attack Monday Morning.

He kept up a pretty good running commentary of what was happening while I was still in the hospital, and it starts there. The "Next" and "Previous" links move to later and earlier entries, detailing our experiences.

In October, 2010, I competed in and finished the Chapel Hill Ramblin' Rose Triathlon. These are pictures Paul took of me riding my bike and running (he couldn't get into the pool).