English
In connection with Erica Rimlinger
“I’m fine. What happened that I didn’t eat enough at breakfast,” I told the medical staff in the emergency room. I prepared to get out of the hospital. I explained that my colleagues were too careful when they asked for an ambulance for me. They told the paramedics that I lost the knowledge and that I met with my desk when I fell. I didn’t remember it, but the blue spot that was formed on one side of my body was proof of what they said.
Nevertheless, I was ashamed of the entire turmoil and wanted to go home. After insisting to let me get out of the emergency room. I am a lawyer and can be very convincing. Yes, I was tired. Which mother who works is not? I thought that the menopause, my medicine for migraines and sleep cause the difficulties that I on the stairs when climbing or when I killed my skis in the Telesquí.
I generally felt bad that night and in the following days and nights. I couldn’t describe it: it was a discomfort. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep. One night at 2 or 3 a.m. I changed anxiously with channels in bed and saw a comedy special by Rosie O’Donnell.
At that moment, O’Donnell described the symptoms of heart diseases suffered by women. I remembered that the medical personnel had proposed that a heart problem could be one of the many possible causes of my fainting and that they recommended to monitor with a cardiologist. I didn’t think I had a heart problem because I was 48 years old and took care of my health properly, but I still planned an appointment with a cardiologist.
At that time, O’Donnell listed all the specific symptoms I had on TV. Pain on the back of the arm or neck? Yes fatigue? Yes, excess fluid retention? I looked into my ankles and was swollen. Yes, feel fear? Naturally.
O’Donnell said: “If you experience these symptoms, go to the hospital now.” In these moments I was worried. At 5:15 a.m. I woke my husband and went into the emergency room.
This time I stayed to carry out a complete exam. I still didn’t know the cardiologist with which I programmed the appointment, but he was only there. I was diagnosed with total heart suffice. There were no blockages in my heart, but it only worked between 5 and 10% of its capacity. He said, “It is as if his heart doesn’t work. We don’t know how he is still alive.” They had to undergo emergency surgery to place a defibrillator and pacemaker.
It was shocked. I couldn’t believe that I was so sick. In fact, my brain, withdrawn from the oxygen, resisted this message so much that I told my husband that the doctor told us that I could take my medicine and go home. The doctor had to explain my situation three times and even had to draw!
My surgeons have installed a defibrillator and pacemaker for my heart to correctly output beats. I had to take a month break at work and when I came back, I had to do it with reduced days. While my doctors and I identify the right doses of my medication, I spent months to carry out a cardiac rehabilitation and worked hard to regain my health three times a week with two stops as much time as possible as long as my insurance paid for these services.
At that time I endeavored to relax completely, but I would remember that I would have been more patient. In addition to the physical stress of my illness, I started to feel uncontrollable sadness. Fortunately, the surgeons warned me that this was common after heart surgery, so that the apparently random outbursts of the wine did not completely surprise me.
With the combination of devices and medication that complemented my heart function, I had a big difference in my energy levels in early stages of my recovery. I felt that my brain went to a thousand per hour. I started to understand how much I delayed information when I was processing information when I was sick. Almost immediately, 20 pounds for the water that no longer kept and a month and a half after my operation I was able to run three miles with my husband. He hadn’t been that much for some time.
2025
I share my story with other women because my life was saved by someone who told what happened to him. I am an educated and conscious person, but I have not recognized the symptoms. I remember how I deal with my busy life, feel sick, but without analyzing and staying without this feeling and staying in it, adapting it or questioning it. Now I pay attention to my instincts. If I have the feeling that something is wrong, I don’t ignore it. I have someone assessed it.
I tell women my age who do not automatically rule out the possibility of heart disease. Although I did not consume alcohol or drugs, I learned that the heart can deteriorate in any other way. One of my doctors suggested that my heart disease could be caused by infection and my genetics.
Recently, my doctors talked to me about the opportunity to remove the pacemaker. Sometimes after a while, after working well for a while, the heart can send electrical signals properly again. I still don’t know what the future has from a medical point of view. I never wanted to become a symbol of heart diseases, but if only one woman reads this and recognizes her experience in my story, my heart will be full of joy.
This educational resource was created with the support of Novartis
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