Love Your Heart: Patient Stories

As part of the Go Red For Women movement, women who have had their own experiences with heart disease share their stories to encourage other women to "Love Your Heart." 

 

 

Riding a train back from a vacation in Reno last February, Caroline Smith began feeling sick. Then she experienced a sudden twisting pain between her shoulder blades. Caroline was experiencing a heart attack. Luckily, as a member of the Monona Quilters group, she had attended a January speaker session in Monona, Wis., featuring the Go Red for Women campaign. At the meeting, Go Red advocates Helen Martin and Deb Loughrin explained the causes and symptoms of heart attack and stroke and how to prevent heart disease. Read Caroline's Story

 

 

 

 

Diane Brown likens having a heart attack at 52 to "getting hit with a 2x4" in the middle of her forehead. But Aug. 17, 2005 was also the day Brown began a new chapter in her life. She's on a mission to help other women learn about a condition that's grossly mischaracterized as "a guy thing." Read Diane's Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since undergoing triple bypass surgery at 71, Norma Walker has not let anything slow her down. Continuing to drive, sew, work at her church, cheer on the Packers and stay up until midnight, Walker has proven to herself and others that people can leave cardiac rehab stronger than they were before their heart condition. Read Norma's Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An avid jogger, vegetarian, physician, and mother of three, 39-year-old Annie Hope had no known risk factors when she had a heart attack. She's living proof that heart attacks can happen to anyone at any age. Read Dr. Hope's Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Mary Celnicker, cardiac rehabilitation has been about healing her mind as much as it has been about healing her heart. Entering rehab panic-stricken after having emergency bypass surgery at the age of 50, she was overwhelmed with emotions and had no idea what her future would hold. Read Mary's Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deb Loughrin, RN, thought it was going to be just another day at work as a psychiatric nurse, but she just couldn't shake that "funny" feeling that something just wasn't right. In a few hours, she'd find herself in the emergency room, later finding out that she had experienced a mild heart attack. Three years later, Deb, a quilter, is helping spread the word about women's heart health through Go Red For Women's quilting initiative. Read Deb's Story

 

 

 

Like these women, you may be at risk for heart disease and you don't even realize it. Our hearts are in our hands - and by seeing your health care provider and getting a blood test and blood pressure test, we can save them. Assess your heart health now. Take the Go Red Heart CheckUp.