We’re lawyers. We’re stubborn, driven, and convinced that whatever we’re working on is more urgent than…well, anything else. We don’t have time for distractions, minor inconveniences, or—apparently—basic warning signs from our own bodies. (Some of us also don’t have time to admit when we’re wrong. I will not be elaborating.)
Case in point: a 34-year-old senior associate named Josh who spent two full weeks ignoring chest tightness, shortness of breath, left arm pain…you know, all the subtle, easily-missed hints that something might be very, very wrong.
Eventually—credit where it’s due—Josh went to the doctor. Where he learned he’d had a heart attack and needed a stent to fix a nearly 100% blockage.
Not really the type of thing you expect to do before you are constitutionally eligible to be President.
I’d love to say that experience instantly transformed me into the kind of person who drinks green juice, meditates daily, and thinks CrossFit is “fun.” That would be a lie. But over the next eight years, I did get more serious about my health: regular workouts, less alcohol, actually showing up to cardiology appointments. By March 2025, my cardiologist told me that if she didn’t know my history, she never would have guessed I’d had a heart attack.
Great news, right?
And then—because life enjoys irony—on my 43rd birthday, while watching Taskmaster New Zealand (if you're between seasons of UK Taskmaster, what else is there to do?), I felt that same chest tightening and dull pain in my left arm. I briefly considered ignoring it again. After all, it was Sunday and my birthday.
But this time, I went to the hospital.
When my Troponin levels came back—normal being 0–19 ng/L, mine clocking in at a nice 1,172—it became clear I would not, in fact, be going home that night. Another stent later, and thankfully everything else checked out.
So here we are. Comeback tour: ongoing.
The point is this: we live stressful lives, and we don’t get to control how our bodies respond to that stress. What we can control is whether we pay attention—and whether we act.
In 2017, I didn’t. For two weeks. Looking back, it’s honestly hard to believe I let it go that long.
In 2025, I did. Immediately.
That difference matters.
I’m running the Lawyers Have Heart 5K to support the American Heart Association and the work they do to educate people so they don’t make the same mistake I did the first time—and so they do make the decision I made the second time.