My Mom recently had a heart attack, which took me by surprise.Her left descending artery (the 'widow-maker' artery) was 95-99% blocked and a stent was able to be placed in it. It had seemed just a short while ago (6-7 yrs ago) that she had a cardiac catheterization done and was diagnosed with clear arteries.So with her daily exercise walks and reasonably good diet (maybe a tad bit too much of fats), I had put the possibility of a heart attack occurring as nil. After reading this book
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| This book has a lot of good/important information that is easy to understand. |
I am now aware just how lucky I was to see this loving, vibrant, healthy face just days after her attack.
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| Yes, this pic was taken the evening that she got out of the hospital--just 2 days after the attack! |
Since we were so fortunate, I want to spread some (what I think is vital) information that I learned from this book.In a nutshell this book explains the common and not as common symptoms of an attack. Mom's symptom was discomfort/pain in the back, which is reported by only about 13-14% of heart attack victims. Also, the symptom may be just discomfort, not always described as pain. The need to be able to recognize all these possible symptoms (and combinations of) is necessary in order to realize that action needs to be taken right away!!The need to call your Dr. or get to a hospital as fast as you can is heavily emphasized because close to HALF of heart attacks end up with death....many occurring before they even arrive to the hospital.For those who survive, the amount of damage to their heart is reduced if they are able to get treatment quickly.
This book even has cards in the back to keep with you as a quick reminder of what to watch out for (especially good for people like me with a so-so memory :-)
Since Mom/we were incredibly lucky to have survived the attack with a minimal amount of damage to the heart, we (Martha-sister, William-brother, and Alice-Sister-in-law) were able to fully enjoy and appreciate our time together. The rest of the blog is of my week there and our 'family fun'.
We had a beautiful day for an outing to Whitefish Dunes State Park and Cave's Point.
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| Whitefish Dunes State Park |
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| Mom, William, Alice, and Milo at Cave Point |
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| William checking out how far underneath the ledge the water goes. |
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| We enjoyed watching this one couple's special day. |
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| A very fun day |
The Dr. had given Mom the go ahead to start off with 1 mile walks.
On the first walk we started in this direction, which had some very small hills.
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| 1/2 mile turn around point |
Heading back and there is a good view of the larger hill if we had started off in that direction,
Mom decided to keep going and test out that hill....probably NOT what the Dr. had in mind! Made it up the hill with no problems and felt better than all the other times she did it during the summer.
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| top of the hill! |
Pretty and interesting scenes along our walks.
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| Always fun to see what the next 'good thoughts' is going to be. |
At the library, we checked out the new maze they had built. Earlier this summer Mom had only done the first part...just going to the center .
This time, there was enough energy to want to turn around and do all the twists and turns to get back out :-)
One afternoon Alice and I had a very pleasant outing. We checked out a gift store that also had some pretty gardens.
Then we went to an exotic gift store that has items from all around the world... that was fun to browse thru.
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| To the left of Alice is a wall fountain....not sure what the price was, assuming very expensive! |
Mom and I went to Northport and Isle View.
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| The beach here is made up of shells. |
But, the most treasured time this week was just the visiting :-)
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| Alice and Mom taking in the view at Garrett Bay. |
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| Alice and Milo |
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| Mom and Martha |
And of course the random hugs and kisses!!!
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