October 15, 2011, I ran my first ever 5K race (run). It has been 11 months since my heart attack. I have lost 70 lbs., I have started eating healthy (and loving it) I can not even really eat junk food anymore. I have not had a cigarette since the hospital. I also run about 4 miles a day.

After the heart attack, I was bound and determined never to go back to the hospital for my heart again, so I started walking (to get my body into shape) increasing to 3.25 miles a day. Then in March my Brother-in-law suggested that I run a 1/2 marathon... Yeah right?!?
But after a lot of noodling the idea, I tried to run a bit on my walks, I decided maybe I could. So I made the commitment to run in January 2012 (10 months away) a 1/2 marathon in Disney World.

So on March 21, 2011 I started my "training" for the 1/2 marathon in January 2012. I slowly started to run during my morning walks, until I got to where I was mostly running instead of walking. I have increased time, pace and distance to 4 miles a day at 14 minutes a mile.

So yesterday on October 15, 2011 I ran my first ever 5K race (run) for the Heart Association. It was for fun, and to raise money of course (which I did raise a little bit). But the most important thing was my participation. As I walked around the event before the race, I was in awe of what I was witnessing. Just 11 short months prior I was lying in a hospital bed (dying of a blocked artery). Now here I was standing amidst people who had suffered the same disease as me and those that were there to support us for defeating/surviving that disease; as we got ready to walk/run for surviving/defeating it. It was an awesome sight and feeling.

Praise be to God that he allowed my Doctor the time to get to me and fix it. I thank God for the kick in the butt He gave me that day to get up off my butt, to quit smoking, to start to eat healthy and to enjoy my life from that moment on.

My friends Jennifer & Michael came with me to support and walk with me. I can not express how much that meant to me.

As we were getting ready to start this run, I was getting nervous and excited, the adrenaline was pumping and I was feeling it. It was not a race to win, but it was a run to get me prepared for the 1/2 marathon to come. We were at the front of the pack at the start. They called for us to go and I took off. Jennifer was pushing me to get me ahead of the pack. Michael was beside me jogging with me (what awesome support and friends). I was flustered and not sure what was going on at the time. I was going to fast and couldn't breathe properly. Then I stopped in my mind. I said to myself "Robin, you can do this, you run 4 miles a day, and you have been running a 3k for over a month now daily. Calm down and do your thing".
So I took a deep breath, I slowed down my pace to even it out, I caught my breath and I started to jog/run correctly.

Then I hit the first hill, now the hills I run everyday are easy, slight angles I have to "push" myself to run up, but not bad. The hills on this run felt like going up a mountain, I was not prepared. But I DID NOT give up, I just pushed through. I did have to walk some, but I was good enough on my pace that my time did not drop dramatically when I walked. I also kept a fast pace on my walking. Now I have a smart phone, which I have a running app that keeps up with my pace, distance and time. I call her "Buffy" as I run; Buffy tells me at certain intervals how far I have gone and the time. So all through the race I knew where I was and how far I had gone and what my time was. I like this app because I know when I am about done. Buffy had given me my cue that I had .25 miles to go to the end. I was almost done, the race was about to be won, by me, I had accomplished something that in my wildest dreams I never thought I would WANT to do. As I rounded the corner to the finish I was so happy I had accomplished a running race for the first time in my life. It was a great day.

Heart Attack at 40 years old

Thursday November 18, 2010 started as any normal Thursday, I got up... wait it really didn't. I was feeling rushed because I had waited to the last minute to get the new computer ready for our Santa Portrait shoot of the year (we help local animal rescues raise money for their animals). Things were not really going well, I couldn't get the computer or the monitor to cooperate with each other, and then Windows wanted to be difficult. Jim, my Santa and partner in the shoot, came by to help. He stayed for a bit then left. I was making enough progress that the computer would do what I needed it to do for the shoot.

At about 5:30pm I had my last cigarette. I felt horrible, like I was getting sick. I decided I didn't need to smoke anymore that evening so I was pretty much done with everything for the day. Then about 7:30pm my chest and back started to feel compressed with pressure. I had pressure across the front of my chest along the top of my breast area. The pressure in my back was at the bottom of my rib cage and it felt like it was under my ribs. I also had a pressure in my left shoulder. I thought, well, here I have talked myself into feeling like I am having a heart attack due to the stress of the computer malfunction and photo shoot. Also a friend from high school had passed away not a week before from a heart attack, so I just thought I was over reacting. At about 8:00pm I decided to go to bed, I lay there for an hour. About 9:00pm I could feel the pressure decrease so I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning at 3:00am I woke up and was surprised and a bit upset that the pressure was still there. Now I was starting to worry. I got out of bed and went to the kitchen to get ready for the day. As I was making coffee and unloading the dishwasher, the pressure intensified. I needed to talk to someone who had experienced a panic-attack; I needed to talk to my brother, so I waited until 4:00am to call him. I called his house phone, but no one answered so I left a message, not knowing if they had a “real” answering machine or voicemail. I waited and called back, still no answer. I called his cell phone, because he kept it beside his bed as an alarm clock, but I knew he was having issues with it so I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t answer. So I called his wife’s cell phone, knowing again that she kept it beside her as an alarm clock. I thought to myself if she doesn’t answer I am calling my Mom. Now some of you might ask, why not call my Mom first, because I didn’t want to upset or scare her if this pressure turned out to be nothing.

So Melanie answered her phone, I asked to speak to Andy, she handed the phone to him. I asked him about his panic-attacks and what did they feel like? He told me the symptoms he had experienced were not what was going on with me. I then started to cry and said I think I am having a heart attack. Well actually I said “Oh, Crap!” Andy said “What is wrong?” I said “I think I am having a heart attack.”

At that point he told me to call 911, then he told Melanie to call 911, then I was so hysterical I couldn’t talk to him, I had to hang up. EMS tried to call me but they have an unpublished number, so my phone had an app on it that would pick up the call then hang up on the unknown number. This happened twice, by the time I got the app turned off, the police showed up to my house.

I had the dogs blocked off in the living room, and I had the side door open waiting on the EMS. The police officer came into the house, I sat down.

He asked “Are you OK?”

“NO!"

“Are you being held against your will?”

“No?”

“Are you alone in the house?”

“Yes”

The whole time he is checking out the house. Then he asks why I didn’t answer my phone when EMS called me. I told him about the app on my phone. As I was explaining that, Fire Rescue/EMS pulled up to my house. The officer then yelled out to them “She wasn’t hanging up on you on purpose, it was her phone.” Someone yelled back “Yeah, there is an app for that”.

Then all 5 (which seemed like 25) EMS/Fire Rescue people came in my house, asking questions, writing down my meds, taking vitals; it was a mad house, the whole time the dogs are barking. Then the EMS lady hooked me up to an EKG machine to measure my heart and as she was doing that, she was trying to calm the dogs. “It’s OK puppies we are here to help, shhhsssshhh”, but they kept on barking. I said in a loud voice “OK, that’s enough!” They stopped and all the people turned and looked at me, I said “That’s right, they know.”

Then the EMS lady said “I am showing that you are not having a heart attack, but because of the pressure you need to go to the hospital to have it checked out.”

I said “So you show I am not having a heart attack, but you want me to go to the hospital to have my chest pressure checked?”

“Yes”

“OK, I will go, but I will have my brother take me, he is on his way now.”

“Uh, I don’t think that is a good idea, we should take you”

“According to your instrument, am I having a Heart Attack?”

“No”

“Then I will have my brother take me.”

Andy and Melanie arrived moments later, the EMS lady told them I needed to go to the hospital and all the EMS people left.

Andy put me in my car and off we went. As he pulled in front of the Emergency Room I got out and went inside I told them I might be having a heart attack, but I thought is was a panic-attack. They rushed me into the back and got me on another EKG; it was normal again. Now they were waiting to get blood and have the doctor talk to me, so they put me in a cubicle.

The on-call doctor said they were going to run some tests and then have the cardiologist come talk to me. They gave me 3 nitro pills (oh the pain of the headache) and took blood.

The on-call doctor said that my blood work showed some abnormalities but they didn’t think it was a heart attack. But they wanted to be safe so the cardiologist was coming to talk to me.

By this time we called Mom and let her know what was going on. She immediately came to the hospital. Mom had arrived by the time the cardiologist came to talk to us. He said that he thought it was indigestion and muscle fatigue (because I had worked out the day before). He gave me an indigestion cocktail and the pressure went away.

I thought, oh yeah, I am going home today.

Then he came in and said they wanted to keep me for observation and run some more blood work, so they moved me upstairs and drew blood.

So after the blood was drawn and I was moved, the cardiologist came in and shut the door and dropped his head, I knew I was in trouble then.

I thought, Oh Crap.

As it turned out, indeed there was a problem with my heart and they wanted to go in and see that problem. They would start with a Cardiac Catheterization to go in and view the heart, if the problem was small then they would put in a stent, if it was bigger than a stent then they would put in a balloon. If the problem was bigger than a balloon, then they would do bypass surgery. But they had to first get in and see what was going on.

So as I lay there contemplating my future and whether I actually had one, I started to pray.

Was I scared? Of course I was. Did I trust my Lord and Savior? Why yes I did! How did I feel about whatever the outcome would be of this procedure? I was accepting of the two outcomes it was going to be. One, I would go on to be with my Savior and my loved ones (My Grandma and Grandpa). Two, I would live to see another day. If it was the latter, things were going to change. One, I would change, two, eating habits would change and, three, exercise would be done everyday.

As I lay on the table and the cardiologist put the catheter into my leg then my heart. They discovered 35% blockage, but it was blockage in my main artery on the front of my heart, the best place for a blockage to be, so they inserted a stent. Done and done… wait not done, as the stent was being put in place, they knocked some plaque lose and it went down a side artery causing me to have a second more painful (fire feeling) heart attack. It was not good, at that point anything bad that was causing me to go through this pain was on a list to be removed from my life. I never want to go back to the hospital to deal with that kind of pain or trauma again.

I've done it again.

Ok, I bided my time, the Eris worked for an intermediate solution but could not continue on. It was too slow and was not picking up phone calls or allowing me to make calls.

So I have gone to the Motorola Droid X.

Now I am fast on the fly and everything works the way it should, and I don't feel like I am stuck a years behind everyone else.