Watch Dr. Oz on Dec. 17th, and have a heart-healthy holiday!

When you get involved with WomenHeart as a WomenHeart Champion--meaning you've gone through the training program at the Mayo Clinic--you get paired up with a more experienced volunteer, usually someone local to you if possible, and she's called your Big Sister (on the WomenHeart message board, we refer to each other, Champion or not, as "heart-sisters," since we're all united by our cardiac problems).

My "Big Sister," Marietta, is going to be on The Dr. Oz Show on Thursday, Dec. 17th. His program that day is about people who've had heart attacks during the holidays, the so-called Merry Christmas Coronary and/or Happy New Year Heart Attack, which you can read about here:

http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/news/campusnews/2009/12/07/doctors-warn-against-holiday-heart-attack-spike.101760

To reiterate the tips listed at the end of the article:

Don't stuff yourself.

Watch your sodium and alcohol intakes.

Do what you need to do to reduce your stress.

Be vigilant about taking your medicines.

And--if you experience any symptoms, get medical help immediately. You're not doing anyone any favors by ignoring your chest pain; delay now could be costly down the road.

A Change of Heart issue 2 is on!

After the success of my first heart-related fanzine, A Change of Heart, I've decided to put out another issue.

This one will be timed to come out during February, which here in the United States is American Heart Month. If that issue does well too, then I may have an annual fanzine on my hands. :)

So if you wanted to submit something for the first one but didn't get around to it, or if you want to send me a letter of comment (LOC, in fan-speak) on the first issue (link goes to pdf version available from efanzines.com), here's your chance.

I'm looking for essays, poems, artwork, and short fiction--from fans with any type of heart disease/heart failure, on the topic of being a fan with heart problems. See first issue for examples.

As before, emailed submissions are greatly preferred--to laurahcory at yahoo, but if you know someone who doesn't do email, ping me and I'll get you my snail-mail address.

Deadline for submissions is Jan. 30th, 2010.

Dipping toes into golo

One of the local tv stations has a website with an active GoLo (GoLocal) community; I've joined and started posting a few blog entries over there.

http://www.wral.com/golo/profile/5880574/

I'm pretty much just focusing on heart-health related things with it.

Quick Symposium Notes

Tired, but here are some quick Symposium thoughts:

My brain is full. Crammed full of knowledge--medical, scientific, networking skills, so much to remember.

My heart is full. Full of love and appreciation of my new-found heart sisters from around the country.

Here are a few quick photos on my Flickr page from various events throughout the five days at Mayo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/womenheartsymposium2009/

From our tour of the Mayo Clinic: the cardiac cath lab--good to see while standing up instead of lying down, let me tell you. Two pictures from the day we spent out at Assisi Heights: the statue of St. Francis is from the inside, and the courtyard shows the snow that greeted us that morning.

Jyl is a belly dancer and a WomenHeart Champion. Jan, beside her, is local to me and a WomenHeart Champion. I am a WomenHeart Champion. Stephanie, in the picture with me, is a WomenHeart Champion. The pictures of us are from our dressy dinner/reception on Tuesday night.

I will upload more pictures soon but I'm also hopeful that other Symposium attendees will share some of theirs; a lot of mine ended up being blurry, alas.

Clinical Trials

One statistic that always leaps out at me is that women only make up around 27% of the participants in heart-related research. I honestly feel like this is one reason why women die more frequently from their heart attacks than men do; there's simply not as much known about heart disease in women.

We can start to change that by participating in clinical trials. Here's a good source of clinical trials:

http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/

In fact, searching that site, I just now found a study that's currently enrolling young women who've had heart attacks. As soon as this post is up, I'm going to email them and sign up, and I would encourage other women to seek out research opportunities as well.

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.

Medical IDs, and SCAD discussion

At the local WomenHeart meeting last night, my group leader was admiring my new medical ID bracelet. I already had one, but this one is my new dressy one, with lavender and purple beads.

My feeling on medical ID jewelry is this: just because it's functional, doesn't mean it has to be fugly. ;)

Here are the two places where I got my bracelets, Fiddledee Ids, and Lauren's Hope.

I already have a plain black leather strap bracelet for everyday wear--the Kingston, from Fiddledee Ids. For swimming, I have a waterproof one of these, in purple.

My new one looks similar to this style from Lauren's Hope. I did the build your own option and chose two different shades of purple for the beads. I also have this purple adjustable waterproof bracelet.

So yes, I have four. Two for daily wear, and two for exercise. Both of the exercise ones are waterproof and both of those have been tested in swimming pools and the ocean.

I'm happy with the quality, engraving, and shipping speed from both Fiddledee IDs and Lauren's Hope; you can't go wrong with either place. They both have plenty of options for men, women, and children, and lots of choices to make your medical ID jewelry pretty as well as functional.

On another topic, I'm trying to round up as many SCAD survivors as I can and get them posting in one place, so we can find each other easily. The discussion I started over on the WomenHeart board is here: All the SCAD Ladies Put Your Hands Up.