As Erica Rimlinger said
“I’m fine. I just didn’t eat enough breakfast,” I told the medical staff in the emergency room. I prepared to leave the hospital. I explained that my employees were excessively careful by ordering the ambulance for me. They told the Emts that I passed out, fell and hit a desk on the way down. I didn’t remember it, but the developing bruising on my side showed the truth of her account.
Nevertheless, it was embarrassing for me from all the excitement and wanted to go home, so I spoke to the emergency room. As a lawyer, I can argue pretty well. Sure, I was tired. Which working mother is not? I accused the menopause, my migraine medicants and my lack of sleep for the shortness of breath that I experienced to go up the stairs or to carry my ski to the ski lift.
I generally felt bad that night and in the following days and nights. I couldn’t describe it: it was rather a discomfort. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep. One night at 2 or 3 a.m. I pressed the channels in bed when I stopped in a comedy special by Rosie O’Donnell.
At that moment, O’Donnell happens to describe the symptoms of heart diseases in women. I remembered that the medical personnel had proposed a heart problem as one of the many possible causes of my fainting and recommended to pursue a cardiologist. I don’t think I had a heart problem as a reasonably health-conscious 48-year-old, but I still agreed the cardiologist appointment.
Now, on television, O’Donnell listed all the specific symptoms that I felt. Pain in the back of the arm or in the throat? Check. Fatigue? Check. Excess water gain? I looked at my ankles that were swollen. Check. Feeling of fear? Absolutely.
O’Donnell said: “If you experience them, go to the hospital now.” I was worried now. At 5:15 a.m. I woke up with my husband and we went to the emergency room.
This time I stayed for a full exam. The cardiologist with whom I had made the appointment but had never seen was there by chance. He diagnosed me with complete heart failure. There were no blockages in my heart, but it worked at only 5% -10% capacity. He said, “You have practically no heart function. We don’t know how you live.” I would have to have an emergency operation to place a defibrillator and pacemaker.
I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that I was so sick. In fact, my oxygen brain was so resistant to this news that I told my husband that the doctor told us that I could get my medication and go home. The doctor had to explain my situation three times and even had to draw a picture for me!
My surgeons have installed a defibrillator and pacemaker to hit my heart properly. I had to take a month off and then return part -time. While my doctors and I found my correct medication doses, I spent months in the cardiac rehab and worked hard to win my health three times a week for two hours in succession as long as my insurance was paid for it.
At that time I endeavored to relax completely, but afterwards I wish I wished that I was more patient. In addition to the physical strain on my illness, a wave of uncontrollable sadness hit me. Fortunately, my surgeons warned me that this was a common event after heart surgery, so that I was not completely surprised by my apparently random outbreaks of the sob.
With the combination of the devices and medication that my heart kept again, I had a big difference in my energy levels at the beginning of my recovery. My brain felt like on steroids. I started to understand how long it took me to process information when I was sick. I lost 20 pounds of water almost immediately and within a month and a half of my operation I was able to take three miles in the evening with my husband. I hadn’t made it that far for a while.
2025
I share my story with other women because my own life was saved by someone. I am an educated, health person, but I have not recognized the symptoms. I think back on how I had enforced my busy life, felt sick, but didn’t analyze or stop the feeling to record it or to question it. Today I listen to my instincts. If something is aligned, I don’t ignore it. I let it check it out.
I say women my age that they should not automatically exclude the possibility of heart disease. Although I was not a drinker and did not take any drugs, I learned that the heart can get sick in any other way. One of my doctors suggested that my heart disease may have been caused by an infection that was supported by my genetics.
Recently, my doctors discussed the opportunity to remove the pacemaker. Sometimes, after it works well for a while, the heart can send the right electrical signals again. I still don’t know what my medical future is doing. I never wanted to be the face of heart diseases, but if only one woman reads this and recognizes her experience in my story, my heart will be happy.
This educational resource was created with the support of Novartis.
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Our real women, real stories are the authentic experiences of women in real life. The views, opinions and experiences that are shared in these stories are not supported by healthwomen and do not necessarily reflect the official politics or position of healthwomen.
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