REDCAPs to be prominent at Heart Walk

#1 Guest_publisher_*

Group: Guests

Posted 23 September 2004 - 09:28 PM

<table border="2" width="679" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="3" height="2110"> <tr> <td width="659" colspan="2" height="127">  Survivors get ready for Heart Walk by emphasizing importance of fitness  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="405" bgcolor="#000000" height="676" valign="top"><img border="0" src="http://www.paulding.com/pics/carverheart.jpg" width="400" height="544"> Diana Carver, who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 1994 and suffered a heart attack in 2000, pumps some iron at Team Powerhouse as she tones for the Heart Walk and ride. Ms. Carver is living proof of the advances in medicine being practiced today, in part, because of the contributions to research by the American Heart Association.</td> <td width="242" valign="top" height="676">There are a slew of Red Caps -- whole teams of Red Caps -- set to walk Oct. 2 in the 2004 American Heart Association Paulding Heart Walk & Ride Wearing of those Red Caps is Diana Carver, who like all the others with the scarlet bonnets, points pride to her survival of heart disease.  Today, trim at 39+, Ms. Carver was at Powerhouse Fitness working out as she knows that her generally healthy condition is largely responsible for near normal recovery from a heart attack four years ago ... not to mention her diagnoses six years earlier of progressive congestive heart failure.  She credits here survival to both technology and modern medicine.  "I've got a defibrillator - pacemaker just like Vice President (Dick) Cheney," she, a nice sheen from her exercise glistening on her brow. Another defibrillator - one of the</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="647" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" valign="top"> automated types that are typically located in places like malls and other public buildings - is credited with saving her life back in 2000. "I was visiting my daughter - my husband was getting his eyes checked at Lens Crafters in Arblor Place Mall - when I collapsed with a heart attack," she said. A mall public safety officer at the mall grabbed the automated device and revived her heart beat on the scene before major damage to her organs and heart occurred. The result was that after three days in intensive care at the Wellstar Hospital in Douglasville, she was moved to a regular room for rehab; a feat she was able to accomplish quickly. "Right now I'm only limited by how I feel," she said of the level of exertion she is permitted. Indeed, good diet and exercise had allowed her to recover from the congestive heart failure of 1994 - virally induced doctors believe -- and now her heart, which had enlarged to 11 centimeters, is now a near normal 6.75 centimeters. An avid supporter of the Heart Walk, she says that heart disease impacted not only her life - she gave up the stressful occupation of home appraiser -- but that of her families. After her first illness she said her daughter asked if I would be able to garden anymore, saying "Mommy, I can't imagine you not gardening anymore." "Today I garden all the time," Ms. Carver said. What she doesn't do, is work appraising homes; rather she relaxes nine-months of the year and does the lower stress of work of doing other folks taxes for three months at Jackson-Hewitt. Paulding.com is doing a poll in conjunction with this article asking whether Pcom members have had their lives impacted by heart disease by themselves or by a family member.  Ms. Carver also encourages folks to tell their war stories about the personal side of the battle against heart disease. That heart disease can strike anyone anytime is no more evident than now. "I couldn't believe it about Ray Traylor," she said. "He was so active and healthy." <a href="http://www.paulding.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11201">Click here to vote in the poll or add your story</a>. <a href="http://www.paulding.com/forum/index.php?showforum=134">Visit the 2004 Heart Walk forum here for activities and even to offer to walk or help!</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="325" bgcolor="#FFF2C0" height="309" rowspan="2" valign="top"><img border="0" src="http://www.paulding.com/pics/pcom_pic.jpg" width="400" height="352"></td> <td width="322" bgcolor="#000000" height="64"> Pcom Sports</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="322" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" height="233" valign="top">The Moses Titans defeated the Dobbins Jaguars in middle school girls fast pitch softball. The picture shows Kristen S delivering a pitch in the Titans 6-1 victory. <a href="http://www.paulding.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11145">Click here for the topic and story</a>. Pcom placed this on the front in hopes of inspiring others in the community to get off their duff and contribute stories and pictures of similar activities! Thanks DD!</td> </tr></table>

#2 JohnnyJ

A Good Old Boy

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Posts: 6,576
Joined: 11-August 04

Posted 23 September 2004 - 11:03 PM

Heart disease of any variety can be very sneaky. The fact that I was 155 lbs, 5' 10 and very active in my work hid my problem until too late.

My own story begans in 1982 when I suddenly lost use of my legs and lost my sense of balance. This only lasted a few minutes. After a trip to the ER and an examination by a highly respected heart doctor it was determined that my heart was "as fit as a 21 year old athlete's heart". (I was 33)

1988 I lost my sense of balance.
Diagnosis....High blood Sugar (I am hypo-glycemic).

1994 Lost of use of legs, lost of sense of balance, a feeling of being swelled and I felt HOT.
Diagnosis of another respected heart doctor....two small arteries partially blocked on the front of my heart. I would never notice any problems with these small feeder arteries. (This was the MAIN artery on the front of my heart) Solution...Pills to disolve the blockages.

5:30 A.M. Aug 21, 1997 Massive heart attack at Paulding Hospital.
I had felt bad all day. Dizzy, weak, swelled feeling, very hot and indigestion. I hardly ever had indigestion, so when it lasted 4+ hours, I drove myself to the hospital at 2:00 A.M.

The doctors gave more pills after the attack. I felt no better, no relief from my earlier symptions.
I convinced the doctor to do another examination....He found a mess. We went immediately into surgery for a quadrupal by-pass.

Diagnosis:
I was born with small arteries, about the size of a baby's arteries, now.
I was involved in a highly stressful job.
The doctors did not like my smoking.
The hypo-glycemia was a problem with my heart.

The heart surgeon sent this message to my Doctor..."If _______ has another heart attack, DO NOT CALL ME, I have done all that I can."

I could and still can die at any moment.

If you think you have a problem, have it checked!
If the first doctor does not help you, see another!

Way down deep inside, somewhere, there lives a devil in each and everyone of us. Try as we may, we fail to keep him bound constantly. Gossip is his meat, rumor is his drink. Mean and greedy is his way of expression. He enjoys the pain of others, but will whine and cry like crazy when he gets a bit of the pain, himself.

#3 Guest_publisher_*

Group: Guests

Posted 25 September 2004 - 05:43 PM

I am the youngest in my generation of my clan. This is partly because my dad was the youngest in his family and my mother was the next to the youngest of her's.

My first recollection of heart disease was when I was 11. Even at that young age and at that time, we were allowed great freedom and he had to chase me down about a mile or two away. He told me that my uncle, whom I was just beginning to know well - we shared an interest in coin collecting and he had all the old coins - had a heart attack and had died.

I remember crying as I pedded my bicycle home where we all loaded up in the car to drive the 50 miles to Jonesboro.

Heart disease took him at 58. His name was Herbert and he smoked and was, of his group, the least physically fit or even involved.

Heart disease runs in the family ... although it is not a early killer as it is in some families ... it just appears to be the part that wears out first.

My dad died in April 2003, also of heart disease. He would have been 84 in June. He had congestive heart failure but was clear headed and smart to the end.

Of particular note was the mention, by the cardiologist when I finally coaxed him to the hospital for a checkup, that he had had a heart attack some time earlier. No specific date or time but I do know that my dad was not one to complain about his health.

Despite being a 'doctor of optometry' - my mother was a nurse who died of cancer 20 years ago - my dad was proud that until his 83rd year he had never been in the hospital. He went to the doctor and took meds and all, but until a couple of months before his death when he had a pacemaker installed, he had, to my knowledge, never spent a single night in the hospital.

So, you can see that he had had a heart attack at some younger age came as a bit of surprise.

What we know, intellectually, is that heart disease is in most cases a lifestyle induced disease. We also know that intellectually knowing something and really understanding it are two different things.

The marvels of modern medicine, while it can give many of us a second change, has not figured out how to get into our brain to make us do the things we should to avoid the bullet.

Indeed, our biggest enemy is denial of the issue and our basic conservatism, not only as individuals but as a society. It is kind of like if we were to be able to really understand the nature of our vulnerability societally, we'd be doing a lot more in regard to the environment just as if we were able to grasp the same kind of vulnerability individually,, we'd be able to reduce heart disease.

Said another way, I'm guilty of denial on the individual level because that's what society teaches... which is 'don't believe there is a problem until the problem happens.'

I hope the heart walk effort brings one of those defribrillator devices to the square. I suspect that I'll need one sometime in the next decade -- intellectually

#4 chickadee

Paulding Com member

Group: +Member plus pink
Posts: 820
Joined: 30-December 03

Posted 27 September 2004 - 03:52 PM

JohnnyJ's is absolutely correct!!!! Keep having things checked - if you dont like the first answer go to the next doctor!!!! I'm Johnnyj's daughter - age 23 - and I have had my self checked out just because of the family history - dont wont to wait until it is too late. Luckily, I am okay other than being well, I like to refer to it as "a little extra healthy" and having hypoglycemia. Mom had Breast Cancer and I have mammograms done regularly too!!!!!!!! Your health is nothing to joke about!!!!

Better known as JohnnyJ's daughter and Pastor Matt's wife..... it's okay I'm used to it.

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