Did the AHA Heart Walk Yesterday

Did the AHA's Heart Walk today with my friend Christine and with fellow heart-sister Tesca and her family--thanks again for walking with me, everyone!

We got to the site a little after 1pm and walked around, checking out all the booths. I still had my red "survivor" cap from last year so I didn't get another one but did get a 2010 Heart Walk pin.

There were around 15,000 people at the event (WRAL says 20,000), and a fair few peeled off after the one-mile walk, while we die-hards did the whole (almost) three miles.

At the last turn before crossing the finish line, the people who'd already finished kind of clustered up and were cheering on the people still walking. As I neared the finish line, an older gentleman also wearing a "survivor" hat came up and shook my hand and congratulated me.

I have to remember not to pair up these particular socks with my running shoes again; I'm getting a big blister on the outside of my right foot between my ankle and heel.

One thing that stood out was the lack of water stations along the course. I did the one-mile walk last year and there was no water on the course, but I thought surely they'd have it for the three-mile walk. They had water beforehand, and apples. Afterward, there were Subway sandwiches, apples, and Diet Pepsi, but Chris and I both said, "Eeew no," to the Diet Pepsi. Note to self: if walking next year, grab all the water bottles I can carry before the walk starts.

One cool thing was that they had Duke's mobile cath lab there, so I went in and looked around and listened while they talked about what happens during a heart cath. It was nice to see all the equipment and such from an upright position, as opposed to laying down and drugged. It was a little freaky, but my feeling is that exposure will help.

Last year, in preparation for the WomenHeart Symposium at the Mayo Clinic, they'd sent us a textbook and one of the chapters we had to read was on heart procedures. I thought I was doing fine and I actually had sat down to eat supper while reading about heart caths.

I got a few paragraphs in and looked at the detailed illustrations, and had a panic attack. I started getting lightheaded and short of breath and my vision was starting to tunnel. I had to get my husband to come help me upstairs so I could lay down for a little while and wait for the feelings to subside.


While at Mayo, we had a chance to tour a cath lab, and I did it. I was worried some about having another panic attack, but again, seeing everything while standing up seemed to make a difference, and it was good to see actual examples of stents. They're really small, about the size of the spring from a ballpoint pen.

As for this year's Heart Walk, the weirdest giveaway goes to UNC Cardiovascular--most booths had something at least vaguely heart-related, you know, healthy recipe cards, water bottles, etc. UNC has now ensured that whenever Paul and I need it, we have MORE COWBELL. That's right, they were giving away cowbells. :)

Thanks again to everyone who came out and walked with me, and who sent donations.

AHA's Go Red Luncheon Today

Today was the AHA's Go Red luncheon.

Lunch was at the Crabtree Marriott in Raleigh and was very nice, except that my chicken was under-done so I left still feeling a bit hungry. On the up side, I finally got to meet in person another local heart-sister whom I've been emailing and Facebooking with for several months, and that was great. We had a wonderful time just standing around and talking, though we did take the opportunity to attend one of the break-out sessions on exercise and yoga. I wonder if I can get work to buy me a stabili-ball chair...

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.

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.

Triangle Heart Walk, Sept. 27th

OK, last place I'm posting this. I'm only posting it once, but I'm posting it to 2 different FB accounts and 3 different blogs, so my apologies to those of you who see it multiple times. After today, I'm not going to mention it again, because I don't like asking for $.

This year, I'm participating in the Triangle Heart Walk, which is a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. If you're wondering why I'm doing this, see here (though most of you know the story).

I'm uncomfortable asking for money, so this is the only time I'm going to post the link:

My page for HeartWalk donations is here.

Annoyingly, the online form only seems to let people give in $25 increments; if you'd like to give a different amount, you'll need to print out the donation pdf and mail it--sorry about that. :/

Meanwhile, here are some heart disease stats from WomenHeart:

* Heart disease is the leading cause of death of American women, killing more than a quarter of them.

* Over 213,000 women die each year from heart attacks--five times as many women as breast cancer.

* More women than men die of heart disease each year.

* Women are less likely than men to receive appropriate treatment after a heart attack.

* Women account for only 27% of participants in all heart-related research studies.

* 23% of women and 18% of men will die within one year of a first recognized heart attack; 22-32% of female and 16-24% of male heart attack survivors will have another heart attack within five years.

* 12-25% of female and 7-22% of male heart attack survivors will be diagnosed with heart failure within five years.

* 34.9% of deaths in American women over the age of 20, or more than 450,000, are caused by cardiovascular disease each year.

* Over 166,000 women die each year of congestive heart failure, accounting for 56.8% of all heart failure deaths.