Saturday, February 11, 2012
Juanitaw
  • Juanitaw
  • Location: Salt Lake City, UT, United States
  • Gender: Female
  • Birthday: May 31, 1957
  • Send Message

HEALTH INTERESTS:

Diabetes Type 2,  High Cholesteral,  Heart Disease

DRUGS I AM TAKING:

Wellbutrin SR,  Lamictal,  Lunesta,  Klonopin,  Zocor,  Tricor,  Metoprolol Fish Oil,  Fiber,  Vitamins,  Aspirin

ABOUT ME:

Hi. I'm a 51 year old single white female. I've known I was prone to heart disease all my life. It is genetic. I didn't know when/if it would hit me. My siblings, except for one brother, have not been affected by it so far. I had a heart attack on December 31, 2008. I wouldn't recommend bringing in the New Year that way. It's no fun. I'd been having small "warning" heart attacks for about 5 months, but didn't realize it. It started the night before, but because I had a bycicle accident in July and injured my rotary cuff in my left arm, I didn't even consider a heart attack. The pain was in my back, because that's where the artery is located that had the clot. When I woke the next morning, the pain was still there, but not really any worse. I took some Ibuprofen and tylenol, but it didn't do anything for it. I had started a new medication the day before for hot flashes for menopause and called the pharmacist to find out if I could have been having a reaction to the new medciation. She told me no, but it did sound like I was having a heart attack. I went to "Instacare", (a less expensive alternative to the ER recommended by the insurance company). I told the doctor I was having left arm, shoulder and neck pain. He decided it was muscular and sent me home with muscle relaxers and a shot, which of course didn't help. I finally went to the ER later that evening when the pain had increased and affected my whole upper body. My chest felt like it was being squeezed and I wasn't breathing very well. When I told them Instacare did nothing, they were stunned. An EKG confirmed the heart attack. It was not beyond reparation, but if I'd waited any longer, I wouldn't be writing this. My heart was dying. They inserted two stints into the artery to open it back up and stopped the heart attack. Thank goodness, my heart was not damaged. Now, I'm trying to get my cholesterol and tryglicerides under control. I'm also Type 2 diabetic. Not on insulin and hoping to avoid that. But I need to lose weight, change my eating habits and get everything under control. This is a hard disease to deal with, especially when the people who are close to you, don't understand. I don't need people "disciplining me" about what I should be eating. They don't understand that I need support. It doesn't help when they have candy and goodies laying around and are always "eating out". But, I can't make them responsible for changing my lifestyle. Anyway, I joined this website to communicate with experts and other people who are struggling with high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, etc. My dr called me today and increased my cholesterol meds because my cholesterol is still too high. I decided I needed some assistance.

PHOTOS:

    Juanitaw has not shared any photos.

ROLES:

Living With It in Cholesterol

RECENT ACTIVITY Notify me when there are new posts