These days, I like to ask women in my heart health presentation audiences what they imagine I would have done had it been my daughter Larissa suffering the same heart attack symptoms that I’d been doing my best to ignore while on that cross-country flight from Ottawa.
Would I have patted her nicely on the head and urged her to just hang in there for a few more hours? No, my heart sisters, you can rest assured that I would have been screaming blue murder to get immediate help for her. Yes, even if it meant turning the damned airplane around for a medical emergency.
I was lucky. I managed to survive a heart attack that night – despite my very foolish determination to “not make a fuss”. Ever since, I’ve been trying my best to bonk women on the head with reminders to put themselves first on their priority lists, and to be their own best health advocates. But this is an uphill battle that is being waged throughout all levels of women’s health care. Apparently, not even surviving a cardiac crisis is enough to convince some women that they need to start carving out “me-time” every day for the sake of their physical and mental health. (more…)
the comments