Today I am doing a blog takeover from my wonderful GBGV’s and it will also be a wordy Wednesday as it is a special day for me. Why post about me on the dogs’ blog? Because of Bailie who is the reason I am here to blog with my hounds.
On this day, July 22nd, 2021, I ran with Madison and Olivia for four miles and was taking Bailie for a three mile walk after the run, something I do all the time. On this day, as we got into our walk, I felt weird and then I started to lose my energy and I was really tired. I thought we would take a different route and get home sooner because I was really tired.
Walking along the creek on the walking path, I decided to lie down and rest, something I would never do. Bailie did not like that idea and would not leave me to nap. She got me up and walking but then I tried to lie down again and she refused to let me do that. My cousin who lives close by was out of town, so I didn’t know who to call early in the morning. My decision was to keep walking but I could not help but to keep lying down. Bailie was very frustrated with me and refused to let me take a quick nap.
Finally, I realized I was out of energy and too tired to walk the half mile or so home. Something was very wrong. I called a neighbor and asked her if she would pick me up and take me and Bailie home. She said she would be there soon. I was lying in the grass on the side of a busier road with Bailie still bothering me. Not one person stopped to ask if I was alright. That still is so troubling to me.
My neighbor picked us up and brought us home. She said she would take me to urgent care as I wanted to go there. While she went home to grab some things, I laid down with Bailie in her dog bed but she wasn’t having it.
On the drive to urgent care, I said I could not take it anymore, I felt so weird and uncomfortable, I could not sit still. Finally, I gave in and we called 911. We pulled over on a side street, the ambulance was there in a few minutes. I walked over and got into the ambulance, and within minutes they told my neighbor she needed to leave as we were going immediately with lights and siren to the hospital about 18 miles away as I was having a massive heart attack, “widow maker”. Had we gone to urgent care, I would not have survived as they would not have been equipped to help me.
A team of doctors met us on arrival, they put in a stent, and I was feeling fine again. My surgeon said the only reason I survived so long was because of being fit, most people would have not made it. I credit my life with Bailie keeping me going. If I had laid down and gone to sleep, the surgeon said I would never have woken up. Dogs know when something is wrong and we need to pay good attention to them as we are not as “smart” a lot of times. He said heart attacks sometimes happen during exercise like running but more often, they happen just after, as in my case.
Five years ago, I wondered if I would still be here as 43% of women don’t survive the first five years after a heart attack. 23% don’t make it past the first year. I’m so happy to still be here. Without my neighbor and Bailie there would be no today for me.
Most likely my heart attack was caused by an auto immune disease I had recently been dealing with which caused me a huge and I mean huge amount of stress. Stress puts strain on the heart and that causes plaque to get loose and block arteries, thus a heart attack. My main artery was completely blocked. Because of the blockage my brain wasn’t getting oxygen, thus the reason I wasn’t thinking straight like thinking lying down on the side of a trail was a good idea.
It is still hard for me to believe this all happened to me but it is proof it can happen to anyone. Listen to your body and your dog, don’t think you don’t really need to go to the emergency room because you are not that bad off. It’s best to go and have them tell you that you are fine rather than dying because you don’t think anything is really wrong.
Bailie is my hero and I just wish she could understand how important what she did was to my life and still having a life. Being alive is something to celebrate. I do a lot of things others don’t because I learned life can end suddenly. Enjoy the time you have on this planet, do the things you want and love to do regardless of what others think. The dogs will have their blog back tomorrow. I just really want to honor Bailie for making sure I kept going and knowing something was very wrong.
My GBGV Life is joining Comedy Plus for some Wordless Wednesday fun.