Monthly Archives: February 2010

Today is a Good Day

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I’m STILL feeling great!  Lots of energy and no pain.  I fight the urge to ask why… I’m just so happy to feel comfortable in my own body.

I wake up every morning and I’m so thankful, and I lie there and think to myself:  wow, this is what it is like to feel ‘normal‘!  This is what it is like to have a healthy body, to wake up every morning where it isn’t a question as to what you will be able to physically do today.  It’s amazing because I always wonder how that feels.  I forget the beautiful sensation to feel comfortable after weeks and weeks buried under bone crushing pain and exhaustion.  No meds, no painkillers, it’s just me.

I can feel my body healing.  All of the hard work (very hard work) I put in over these past couple of years (physically and mentally) seems to be taking hold.  I am so happy I could cry.  I want this to last forever.  Today is a good day.

Steady

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Been feeling well the past couple of days.

On the days I have energy I try to fit TONS of stuff in.  Errands, fun, friends, house work, arranging bills and talking on the phone with hospitals (exhausting)… everything.  Sure, I push myself to the limits doing this but I never know how long these “good” stretches will last so I want to use every single minute.  My body doesn’t ache, I am not short of breath, I’m gonna keep riding this wave…  (and I won’t sit here and wonder why!)

Weeeeeee

The Heart Truth – Awareness

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The Red Dress show was exciting and full of happy energy.  Any efforts made to raise awareness for heart disease are a great thing in my opinion.  You had all the ingredients for a buzzworthy event: celebrities, beautiful dresses by top designers, press, and bags filled with fun stuff for the guests.

I do wish I could have enjoyed the show itself a little more.  By the time the show started I had been standing for almost two hours in line.  I did not anticipate this, and I was exhausted.  It’s really hard for me to stand for long periods of time and I had to keep sitting down to rest so I lost my place in line each time I took a breather.  Thankfully I got a seat for the show because I was meant to be in the standing section.  I couldn’t help but wonder about any other heart patients that were invited.  I found it a little ironic considering that I was invited based on this blog, yet no considerations were made for women like myself.

It’s quite a challenge to explain your limitations to others especially in very public situations.  I find it difficult because I look “normal”.  You couldn’t upon first meeting me tell that I have a metal box (pacemaker defibrillator) in my chest and that I can’t even climb stairs on most days.

If I am invited again next year I’ll make sure I won’t have to stand in line for a long period of time (and having an assigned seat would be nice too).  My heart simply couldn’t take the strain and I felt exhausted that night into the next day.

Watch the Red Dress Collection show live

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Today is the day of the Red Dress Collection fashion show!

You can watch the show LIVE, it will be streaming from this link.  Maybe you’ll even catch a glimpse of me.  It starts at 7 pm (est) tonight.

I’ll be taking plenty of pics.

Currently Reading: The Tao of Wu

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Currently Reading:

The Tao of Wu by The Rza

I love stories about people who take themselves from very bad situations and rise like a pheonix. Or stories where you’re born in the projects of Brooklyn, grow up in the projects of Staten Island, and despite many obstacles become a successful business man, rapper, producer, and music composer (just to name a few) like the Rza.  He used every phase of his life as a lesson and acted accordingly. He studied under a Shaolin Monk which brings us to this book where The Rza shares his code in his seven pillars of wisdom.

I am obsessed with this magical quality that humans possess deep inside where some can turn things around for themselves.  It’s something only a certain type of person taps into.  When I read books like this one I wonder, what is the difference between these “certain” types and the ones who cannot go inside to dig deep and find it within themselves to live? Really live?  To find a path to happiness and self love?

I read story after story about men and women who have cured and healed themselves hoping to find the answer to my questions.

I want to live many different chapters of my life while I’m on this planet. I cannot wait for the time when we look back and all of this medical stuff seems so far away that I can’t remember feeling sick or what it’s like to be scared of your body.  I know it will happen, I just get impatient sometimes.

Biofeedback Therapy

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I have plans to look further into therapies like Biofeedback Therapy to manage my chronic pain as opposed to painkillers and meds. I can’t go one like this forever –in pain and exhausted for about 70% of my life.

It’s been on my mind for a while now to give it a try. I found this article interesting.  I am always amazed at how slow the “medical community” is on the mind body connection.  It was only in very recent history that this has become an acceptable thought in the medical world.

They are finally acknowledging legitemate treatments like acupuncture, cognitive behavior therapy and bio feedback therapy as medicine!  Great news. I look back and wonder what took so long?  Another twenty years from now this “lag”  will seem ridiculous to everyone, not just some of us.

Wiped

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Couldn’t do anything today.

As per last week’s visit to my heart failure doc I have to take some water pills to flush out some fluid that seems to be hanging around my heart/lung area.  It’s important to catch this right away and it’s most likely what was causing me to feel sluggish and short of breath.  These pills completely drain you once you have taken one and I have gone to the bathroom to pee 1000 times today.

I’m struggling with eating a NO SALT diet.  I thought I was for a long time now … how did I get a fluid traffic jam in my chest?

Red Dress Collection Fashion Show 2010

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I’ve been waiting until I received my invite to talk about this exciting news… and it came today!

I have been asked to attend the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show this Thursday at the launch of Fashion Week in NYC.

I will be representing Wellsphere, an online health community where my blog is featured in the “heart health” section.  Wellsphere has kindly asked me to attend and cover the event on SaveLaurensHeart! Of course, I said yes.  I support what Wellsphere represents, as well as the reason for the Red Dress Collection: Awareness.

“The Heart Truth created and introduced The Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to deliver an urgent wake-up call to American women. The Red Dress reminds women of the need to protect their heart health and inspires them to take action. Each February since its launch, The Red Dress symbol has come to life on the runway with the support of the fashion industry and celebrity models at the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show.”

This is very real for me for my own personal reasons (obviously) as well as recent news that at the young age of 50 my mother has PAD, a buildup of plaque in her arteries which, if she does not change her lifestyle could lead to serious heart disease.  That makes two parents with artery gunk.  Awareness, paying attention to your bodies, and taking care of yourselves is so incredibly important –especially for all you fabulous ladies out there.  We run ourselves down and forget that without our health we have nothing (yea I’m talking to you mom).

I can’t wait to show you pictures and tell you all about it!