Sadly my Dad passed away at 61 years of age from a massive heart attack. I always thought that I would be just like him and wouldn't make it past 61 years old. My family always would have our Christmas at my Moms house and I'll never forget that morning I was the first to arrive that Christmas morning to find our Mom having a heart attack and my sister arrived right after me. It was a traumatic experience. The ambulance was called & she was hospitalized but in January at a hospice facility my Mom passed away.
Now to "My own Story" that started in 2016 while working for Georgia Power when the lower part of both my legs swelled up and I had pooling of blood that came to the surface of my lower legs. I didn't know what kind of doctor to see about it so I called my cousin’s wife, Evelyn Redding who is a nurse, and she advised me to seek out a cardiologist so I did. At this point I contacted Erin Michelle Smith who was an Airvac Nurse to see if she could recommend a Carrollton Cardiologist and she recommended Dr. Khawaja (who is super hard to get an appointment to see). Amazingly I got an appointment with him when I called. When he saw me he immediately recognized and told me I was having an adverse reaction to my blood pressure medication. I've always had a heart murmur my whole life that has never caused any major issues but due to some other symptoms I was having he ordered a Nuclear stress test and ultrasound. After having an abnormal stress test due to a condition called Trigeminy my cardiologist also did an ultrasound of my Carotid Arteries on both sides of my neck. Afterwards I made a decision to make an appointment to see a Vascular Surgeon, Dr. Peter H'Doubler (who's name come up in a conversation at work months earlier when I had no clue I would ever need to see him). I'll never forget what Dr. H'Doubler told me on my first appointment and I quote "It's all about Preventation"!!! Basically I was on the verge of having a stroke and wouldn't have ever known it had it not been for having an adverse reaction to amlodipine (blood pressure medication). Dr. H'Doubler at Emory St. Joseph performed a angioplasty and to me that my Coratid artery was severely blocked so he performed Coratid Artery Surgery on my left Coratid Artery. After my surgery he told my sister that I was the worse case he had ever performed surgery on. He cleaned out my Carotid artery all the way to my skull. I had some complications and had to learn how to swallow and talk again with therapy afterwards. Immediately after surgery I had to take Plavix and now on a low dose aspirin for the rest of my life. Now almost 6 years later after having Coratid Artery Surgery I am doing well by the "Grace of God" who I believe orchestrated everything including who the doctors were that I went to (another story for another day). Now I carry several prescription bottles of Nitroglycerin with me because I’m high risk for a heart attack due to results from a CT Calcium Scoring Test and a PET Cardiac Stress heart scan.
I do believe I'm so Blessed to be Alive!!! So I will say please everyone go to see your Doctors and have your bloodwork done yearly. Listen and pay attention to your body! Exercise and Eat right!! And I will quote my vascular surgeon "It's all about Preventation"!!!
I raise money for the Heart Walk for the American Heart Association in honor of my Dad, Mom and my other Family members who have had heart attacks at young ages!!!
