Wear Red

"Your heart is racing so fast I can't distinguish an actual heart beat," my dad told me after I finished dancing at our homecoming football game's half-time in Fall 2007. "Um, yeah, Dad... I just finished dancing," I responded. "Still," he said, "that's not normal. You need to have that checked out."

Typically, I'm the hypocondriac and my parents are ignoring me when I'm trying to prove to them that my migranes could really mean I have a brain tumor. This time, however, I was ignoring my dad's nervous questioning. To give him a piece of mind, I casually brought it up at the end of my annual physical that December and waited for my physician to look at me like I was a complete idiot. She suggested an EKG, so I went along with it. "Well, it's a good thing we checked it out because it's definitely not normal," she said as she entered the room.

Well, that's just great, I thought. And so my journey began. A trip to a Cardiologist to have numerous tests conducted left me with a heart monitor attached to my hip. I looked like I was carrying around a pager... the 5 electroids stuck to my chest and stomach, basically forcing me to dress like a nun from the waist up, didn't help either. But, that's beyond the point. I was told I had to wear the monitor for a month. After 2 weeks, the Doctor had all the information he needed to make a diagnosis and said I could stop wearing the monitor. He recalled the recording of an afternoon where my heart beat reached 214 as I bent over to put on my shoe (a normal heart rate ranges from 60-100 bpm), and the late night standing against a wall at a friends house chatting when my heart beat reached 170.

Wolff Parkinson White syndrome was the diagnosis. I had a Cathetar Ablation a month later (Feb 2008) to get rid of the problem. I've noticed a big difference since then and am glad my dad forced me to get it checked out. (Thanks, Dad!)

So, I love February. American Heart Month. More specifically, I love National Wear Red Day. I think that heart health needs to be discussed more and needs more overall support. So, on February 5, I'll be wearing red. And in February, I'll be amping up my exercise habits and trying to eat better... because I kind of sucked at the exercise part in January.

I encourage you to also wear red on Friday and to spread the word to those around you to do the same. Heart disease and stroke are the #1 killers of American women today and we need to change that. By wearing red on Friday, you'll be standing up and speaking out against heart disease.