| What others are saying | Visual Heart Attack Signs | Healthy Links | Thoughts & TV Clip | Pictures |
|
|
|
Lois Trader is represented by:
&
Member of Professional Speakers Guild
Supposedly 500,000 women die a year from heart disease...
I read it once, but didn’t believe it.
Then I died on June 6, 2003.
With radiating pain in my upper back, I went to the emergency room. My intuition told me something very unusual was happening. Abnormal EKG's, nitroglycerin administered under my tongue, a lot of blood drawn, tears running down my face, it didn't seem good. About two hours later a cardiologist opened the curtain separating me from the man getting stitches, "You're young and a woman, probably indigestion; you’ll rest better at home." With that I was discharged. A few hours later at home I had a massive coronary and died.
It wasn’t indigestion.
I have missed a lot since then...
- My oldest daughter and her husband had a baby boy, two years later they had a baby girl.
- My other two daughters graduated college. One got married.
- They had two baby girls.
- I had always planned on being a cool grandma.
- My youngest daughter has been teaching for three years. I knew she'd accomplish this. I'm sorry she doesn't know how extremely proud of her I am.
- My brother committed suicide when he was 26 years old, he had a baby girl named Danielle, only one year old at the time of his death. We lost touch with her mother after my brother's death.
- My mom was reunited with Danielle, after thirty years. A miracle I had dreamed of most of my life.
- I missed my anniversary – 32 years of marriage.
- My mom outlived me. Something that no parent should experience - in my mom's case twice.
- Three reminder cards came in the mail to have a mammogram. The Women’s Breast Cancer center wasn’t notified.
- Oprah ran a special on women’s heart disease. I liked Oprah, I would have missed it, I worked full time.
Real version: Barely conscious I was taken to emergency room the next day.
I needed surgery; I have been given another chance at life.
I am your sister, your mother, your neighbor, the lady you see panting on the treadmill, and yes that is me you see grocery shopping on Saturday morning.
I am Lois Trader, a woman living with heart disease. I care that I was hours away from being one of the 500,000.