Followers

Monday, November 7, 2022

Let's Talk About Cardiac Issues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                        I have them, and several people I know do, including my own sister.



                                         Since the days following Julie Powell's passing, wonder has been expressed at how one could have died so young.  I will hazard a guess.  Not being connected to Powell or family, nor an MD myself, but based on my personal experience, I feel Julie either was not aware she had cardiac issues or had foreshadowings that she ignored.



                                              I speak from personal experience.  Readers on here know I was born two months premature, and with a congenital heart defect.  That was corrected on May 10, 1966, but eighteen years later, in June 1984, I developed something called atrial flutter, saw a cardiologist from then on, and was on and weaned off several heart medications.   In 2020, at the height of Covid, I discovered my heart was beating too rapidly to be normal.  I never felt a thing.  I had tachycardia, but, unlike many, I am one of those people who don't feel it.  There had been foreshadowing, years before, in another doctor's office, and that summer, 2020, when I became excessively tired, and my good friend, Nicholas, the cat, saved my life, knowing something was wrong, and staying by side till he thought I was saved.



                                                 The result was cardioversion, heart monitors, and then the ablation.  I was on Eliquis for six months, and Cardizem for two years.  I am now off the last, though I still take blood pressure medication.



                                                    I was lucky.  It was discovered by professionals, and something was done, and I survived.  I still pay gratitude to all at NYU Langone.



                                                      Julie was not so lucky.  I wish she had been.  I cannot speak of genetic connection in her case, but there may have been in mine.  My maternal grandfather died two years before I was born, at 67, in 1952.  He had a long cardiac history, and things were limited then so not much could be done.  I was fortunate, but not till the ablation did I ponder the grandfather I never met.



                                                        Like me, Julie might not have known, either.  Besides sadness at her passing, I am urging those out there--if you feel something, take action immediately.  And if you think something is wrong--even if you just think--take action immediately.  



                                                           It saved my life.  And it might have saved Julie's.

4 comments:

Victoria said...

I can hardly comprehend all the intricate systems of the human body!
Animals too!
Inserts even!!

The Raving Queen said...

Victoria,
It always fascinated me, but when
it came to dissecting stuff, I knew I was
not wired for the sciences.

Victoria said...

Ugh me also
Dissecting that frog in high school!
That formaldehyde smell!!!

The Raving Queen said...

Victoria,
Just your mentioning it. I can still smell it.
That was the year I found out science was not for me.