Each Day Already is a Challenge

Another Monday

Time passes and another Monday has arrived. Hubby and I only watched a bit of the Superbowl now and then in between watching other shows. We didn't see any of the commercials. It amazes me that they showed pieces of those commercials on the news shows all morning. When did commercials become news???

There's quite a bit of talk about women and heart health problems lately. That's why Feb. 2 was Wear Red Day - for a reminder about how many women die from heart attacks and have heart problems now.

Back in 2003, I had some heart pains and ended up in the hospital. I had a heart catheterization and was doped up and ready for angioplasty when my cardiologist discovered that my problem was actually spastic veins and arteries. They blamed my fibromyalgia for that. With fibro any muscles - including organ muscles - can and do spasm. That's when I learned how important it is to have specialists, as well as the regular docs, who understand fibromyalgia.

While I thought I had heart problems, though, I did a bunch of studying and discovered that women experience different signs of heart attack than men. The "experts" have known this for a while, but it's only been in the last few years that they decided to share the information. Figures, doesn't it? It's no wonder women have died from heart attacks...when they didn't know the symptoms they experienced might be heart problems.

With heart problems, in addition to chest pains, women also experience:

Shortness of breath
Naseau or vomiting
Profuse sweating or cold sweats
Dizziness
Neck, shoulder, upper back, jaw or abdominal pain
Extreme fatigue

For years, doctors and women patients didn't consider testing the heart when these problems arose. After all, many of them could be from menopause. For years, if a woman arrived at the hospital having chest pains, she was not whisked away for tests of her heart, especially if she was also having some of the above symptoms as well. Now the medical community, and hopefully women themselves, are beginning to understand that the importance of testing a women's heart when she's having chest pains.

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As I've said before, our pastor and our small groups are focusing on evangelism with the study, Just Walk Across the Room. On Sunday, our pastor asked each one of us to write out our story in just 100 words, including information about ourselves before and after we really met God.

Boy, am I going to have trouble with that. It's not that I don't have a story (or two or seven!) to tell. But if you've read anything of mine - including this entry , you know that I have trouble being that concise.

It is a good idea to have a story like that prepared, though, so that it's easier to share.

Of course, the pastor wants our stories by Wednesday...

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Hubby is dropping off my computer at our repair guru tonight after work. Hopefully the fixin' won't be long or costly.

Until next time.

God's blessings,
Kenzie