Sunday, October 6, 2013

A Post From Mom Brenda


Kitties – This is Mom Brenda here.  Sassy agreed to let me borrow the blog today.  I wanted to post today about something important that has happened to me lately in the hope that by posting this, other people can learn from my mistake. 

Recently, I have not blogged much because I have not been feeling well.  It was not anything specific, just minor things here and there over the last 3-4 months.  I was tired all of the time, but then again, I was not exercising much so that explained that.  Then I started having heart palpitations, but my thyroid medicine had just been changed so that made sense.  I was sweating   A LOT, but then again I live in Texas so what? 

A few weeks ago, I started having problems breathing.  I have had pneumonia a few times before in my life, so I figured, “great – this again?”  I got worse two weeks ago and went to the doctors.  They took xrays and sure enough, I had pneumonia.  I took the medicine for four days, but it just did not seem to be working……

I went back to the clinic to see if they thought the antibiotic should be changed.  They listened to my chest, and told me I needed to go to the hospital.  I reluctantly said that I guess I would drive over there later.  They informed me that no, I was going by ambulance. 

Turns out that my “pneumonia” was a minor heart attack.  I was in the hospital for almost a week. When I look at all of my symptoms put together, I had all of the classic ones.  But because I am only 51, and never had that moment you see on TV where the person grabs on to their chest and flops on the floor, heart problems just never occurred to me.  Please learn from my mistakes, it is not about age or what your current symptom is or what you saw on TV - it is about listening to your body and not making excuses!  Some of the symptoms for heart attack are heart palpitations, feeling tired all of the time, shoulder or/and arm aches (especially in women), trouble breathing which can lead to sweating and chest pain.  This is by no means a complete list, but see here is the thing,  I had every single one of these symptoms, but because I never put them together, a heart attack was the last thing I expected.   I will repeat once again because it is worth repeating:

Listen to what your body is telling you!!

14 comments:

The Florida Furkids said...

Yikes, we're glad you're okay. That had to be very scary.

Raz and The Florida Furkids and Mom Sharon

CATachresis said...

Thanks Brenda. I have been worried about you and wondered what was up, but didn't like to appear to be nosy!! So glad you have been diagnosed properly at last and hope you get back to full health very soon. Caro xx

Jenn said...

That must have been scary. It's good that you caught it in time, hope you get better soon.

AnnStaub said...

Uh oh! Good thing you talked to your doctor. Hope you're feeling better soon.

Cats Herd You said...

How scary! That's an important PSA. Thanks for sharing it, and we hope you feel better soon.

meowmeowmans said...

Thank you for sharing this, Mom Brenda. It's really important information. We are glad you are okay now, and glad you caught this in time!

Photo Cache said...

thank you for sharing this. hope you are okay. we will purr that you will continue to regain full health.

emma and buster

Timmy Tomcat said...

We are glad you are home. This is very scary stuff.
Thank you so much for being courageous and sharing your experience. We all need to pay attention to the warning signs and remember they may be be subtle.
Timmy and Dad Pete

Angel Gracie=^o.o^= said...

OMC! I hope you are doing better. Take it easy and don't push yourself too fast. Sending love and hugs to you.

Swami Zoe said...

Oh my, so glad you are doing better! And thank you for posting this. Sending light and love! Me-Ommmmm

www.shelter-cats.com said...

Whew. Hope you're recovering and thank you for passing on your experience.
Tommie, Mickey Mouser, and their woman Maggie

Sweet Purrfections said...

So glad to hear you're okay. I thought I was having a heart attack 4 weeks ago when I was having my shoulder pain. The pain was radiating down my left arm, my fingers were numb, and I was sweating. I had an EKG and everything was normal. My problem appears to be the shoulder.

Lin said...

Oh my GOSH!! How scary! I guess it is important to take every health change seriously!

I'm glad that you are okay, my friend. Thank you for the warning.

Cherry City Kitties said...

*hugs Mom Brenda* I'm so glad you're ok... I second what you say, at 52 if found out in pre-surgical testing that I had "issues that needed to be looked at with a heart cath" which turned out to be 2 blockages, one at 98% and I never had an obvious symptom which still makes my cardiologist crazy. I thought that it wasn't anything for someone over 100 lbs overweight to be tired a lot, and because I didn't exercise or was very active I wasn't short of breath or had pain. But I wasn't listening either.

Let's be glad that we're both ok and hope this helps others to take good care!

Dexter and Willow's Mom Carolyn