A Change of Heart: Getting some press for women's heart disease

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Getting some press for women's heart disease

I'm in the February issue of Carolina Woman magazine:

http://www.carolinawoman.com/body02-10.php

In mid-January I sent out a press release to the various local media outlets, asking them to please do something for National Wear Red Day and American Heart Month, and included a bit of my own story.

This time I got two nibbles. Fingers crossed, there's going to be a story soon in the local daily paper with another young heart attack survivor and and me, and then a couple weeks ago Carolina Woman magazine called and said they wanted to run my press release as kind of a "letter to the editor." So of course I said great, and now there it is. :)

Of course if I'd known they were going to run it as-is with no chance to alter it, I would've put more in it about the three local WomenHeart support groups, but at least the website is in there.

In other heart-healthy news, I've just registered for the women-only Ramblin' Rose Triathlon.

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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).