I used to joke with my GP, that even though I had high cholesterol and had been taking statins for many years, that if I didn't have heart attack while line dancing on Friday and Saturday nights I never would.

     I had made it to 51 years of youth and 2004 brought a new year and a new doctor. She didn't like what she saw - cholesterol back up around 300 (on 80 mg of lipitor) and a suspicious EKG, stress test scheduled.

     In Oct 04 I went out and bought a Gazelle and practiced for my "test" religiously every night for 20-30 minutes.  I would be so exhausted I would stumble to a chair, light up a cigarette and try to recover. All the while my 4 yr old granddaughter asking if I was ok (her mommie taught college at night). 

     At 9:30 am on 17 Nov 2004 I had my last cigarette. At 10 a.m. I was called back to begin being wired up and then three minutes into the stress test I looked at the monitor and mumbled something on the lines of - how can your BP get that high (220/120)? and thinking how can your heart go 250 bpm and you still be standing?  By 10:15 I was on a stretcher - the doctor calling for a crash cart and ambulance, someone trying to find my daughter's number on my cell phone and all the while I'm telling them I'm ok, I just need a cigarette and a nap.  My stress test had gone terribly wrong and I was paddling as fast as I could up the river Denial. The next afternoon the cardiologist patted me on the leg and said - there's nothing I can do. Then him talking to my daughter and daddy saying I don't know why she is alive - 6 blockages all 75-100%. I'll call the best surgeon I know. My family gathered and the surgeon came, your mom's alive but I don't know why, only by the grace of God will she survive until I can operate but he wanted to make sure everyone realized that my surviving the surgery was not promising - he wanted me in CVICU where I could be closely monitored.  The rush to make sure my daughter knew where "everything" was, my family knew not to prolong my life and to make sure my babies knew I loved them and was sorry for all this trouble.  Three days later the surgeon said we have to operate now.  Five bypasses (scars from 3 heart attacks found) and another 7 days in CVICU.  My son's 31st birthday present was me moving out of CVICU to the floor - 4 days later I went home. My 52nd birthday present was being alive. 

     In Jan 2007 I had to have an ICD, Implantable Cardioverter Defibulator.  My EF was back at around 20% but I am now, 1+ yrs after the implant, at 40-45%.  The pacemaker part works approximately 98% of the time as my heart rarely has a "normal" rhythm.

     I am alive, I am a survivor, I will fight this disease with every fiber of my being. It got my grandmother, it got my mother and it almost got me but I will not let this devil get my daughter and granddaughter. 

     Every aspect of my life has changed, mostly for the better, now I watch everything I eat, not so much the calories but the fat and cholesterol and salt content.  I am supposed to exercise 30 min. everyday, some days I do, some days I can't.  I take seven different meds exactly as directed.  I see three doctors a total of 13 times a year.   I am fluent in speaking heart disease.  But the best thing to have come out of my having heart disease is being a member of WomenHeart, the National Coalition of Women with Heart Disease.  I have thousands of Heart Sisters, I correspond with quite a few.  In 2006 I spent  4 days at the Mayo Symposium with 65 of my heart sisters learning how to go into my community and spread the word that Heart Disease is the Number One Killer of Women.