A Change of Heart: Big news! Mayo announces SCAD studies!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Big news! Mayo announces SCAD studies!

I cannot tell you all how excited I am to see this.

Mayo Clinic is now doing two studies on Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissections.

http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2011/08/17/scad-spontaneous-coronary-artery-dissection-studies-at-mayo-clinic/

This is huge. SCADs are so rare and so poorly understood, to have a prestigious institution like Mayo taking an interest and doing studies is fantastic.

Here's to advancing medical knowledge!

2 comments:

AnonymousAugust 30, 2011 at 11:06 AM
Hi Laura - this is indeed BIG NEWS and you and Katherine should be justifiably proud of your influence on making this new research happen. Way to go!!!

I've put a permanent sidebar "News" link to this Mayo site from my blog Heart Sisters - www.myheartsisters.org

Congratulations on getting this ball rolling.... :-)

Cheers,
Carolyn Thomas
ReplyDelete
Replies
LauraAugust 30, 2011 at 11:29 AM
And thank YOU, Carolyn, for all you do to promote women's heart health with your blog.

hugs,
Laura
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

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).