Today is my anniversary. Not my wedding anniversary, but the anniversary of my first, and last, heart attack.
I will celebrate my life each and every day.
One year ago today, I waited for Dennis to come home and drive me to the emergency room. After a long day of first feeling completely run down and then feeling like I couldn’t move and finally feeling the worst pain I have ever before felt in my chest, neck and jaw, I came to the realization that something was very, very wrong. I was having a
heart attack.
As I look back over the past year, I look back with celebration and gratitude.
I am grateful that I am alive.
I am thankful that I was lucky to end up at a great hospital with fantastic doctors and nurses that kept me alive. I will be forever indebted to the people who figured out how to implant a stent into my artery and for the surgeon who dedicated his practice to this procedure. I am appreciative of the medications that I take that have lowered my blood
pressure and cholesterol numbers to healthy levels.
I celebrate my life style changes.
I enjoy cooking and eating healthy. I have always loved fresh vegetables and am learning to love fresh fruit as well. On Sundays, I make steel-cut oats for the week. On Saturdays I visit the farmers market and purchase a weeks supply of whatever vegetables are in season. I eat fish at least once a week and my goal for the coming year is to raise my fish consumption to twice a week. I make the best Thai turkey burgers and am beginning to play with tofu as a meat substitute.
I love my daily walks. In the evening I walk through my neighborhood meeting new neighbors and viewing the changes in nature. During the workday, I walk with a coworker and we laugh, share stories and coach each other to release the worries of the day.
On Saturdays or Sunday mornings, I walk with a client or my sister around one of Minneapolis’s great lakes or in a park. On Mondays, Dennis and I walk in the neighborhood patrol, serving our community as we exercise.
I rejoice in the turn around of the ways I deal with stress. I am adopting new habits for managing the stress that comes with living. I look forward to opportunities to practice my patience with others. I listen to people with an open heart and look for the commonalities in our beliefs. When someone is frustrated with me, I am thankful for the feedback they are giving me and find new ways that I can improve.
Today, as I celebrate my anniversary, I will set new goals for the coming year. I will write action plans to meet those goals. I will work with my coaches, friends and family to keep me on track. I will celebrate small and large successes and be grateful for mistakes that allow me to learn and grow.
By: Ann Osterhus, Noetic Coach
- 10 years ago
Today I celebrate my life after also after one year of heart attack. If I didn’t tell my doctor that I am not okay and I am constantly feeling pain after numerous negative test result including EKG, blood test, protein test, Monitoring over night and finally stress test the next day to finally for Doctor to say that something may be wrong and operated on which shows 98% blockage in my main artery. I wouldn’t be alive today. So, if you feel the sign, don’t say it is okay, tell them to do more test and more test and keep forcing them down so that they will see. If you haven’t felt that pain before which you would know it is the worst pain ever, then let the hospital that you know that you are in dire situation in life and death situation and don’t stop until you are certain that you will live to see another day.
I am thankful that I did.
SY