The Empty Nest Kitchen

My Heart Attack Story: The Importance of Heart Health Awareness for the Mid-Life Woman

• Christine Van Bloem • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Christine Van Bloem's journey from surviving a heart attack to thriving today shows resilience and the power of awareness. Through her story, she not only raises awareness about the often overlooked symptoms of heart attacks in women but also underscores the importance of listening to one's body and advocating for proper medical attention. 

Despite the challenges faced, Christine emerged from the ordeal stronger and more determined than ever. She discusses how her perspective on life and health has shifted post-heart attack, inspiring her to advocate for greater awareness and education surrounding women's heart health.

Tune in to this episode to gain invaluable insights into women's heart health and the importance of proactive self-care.



Well, happy to day and thanks so much for joining me today. Today is a little different. It's so funny. I keep thinking about,, back in the eighties, when they would say it's a very special episode of, and insert the sit-com name there. That is how I feel today because I wanted to talk to you in a very special episode. About, my heart attack story. 2020. Wasn't great. Any of us, right. We were dealing with a pandemic and everybody had so much stress. It was a lot for everyone. But in July of 2020. I had started playing pickleball and I am not an athletic girly, but I loved it. Up until the day that I broke my ankle playing pickleball. And that was in the middle of July of 2020. Then in the middle of August of 2020, my husband had a stroke. It really came out of nowhere. We were shocked by the whole thing. Taking care of him. At the end of August of 2020, I had to shut the doors. To my beloved cooking school that I had had for 15 years. And. It would not be an understatement to say that I felt completely unmoored. I felt lost. I was so stressed. And I've got, a birthday in the middle of September and less than a week later, I had a heart attack. It was a two month period. Literally, I think it was July 18th to September 18th. I might be off by a day or two, but it was right in there that all of this stuff happened. And. I was so busy taking care of everyone else that I kind of forgot to take care of myself. I remember checking. My blood pressure because. Since my husband had the stroke, we were checking his and I had a machine and I had been checking it for a little while. And I just remember thinking, and I kid you not. Thinking that the machine was broken because I have always had fantastic blood pressure. It has always been so good. And it was reading really high. So I didn't think anything of it because I truly thought the machine was just acting up. I mean, hindsight, I know how ridiculous this is. But. I had gone to physical therapy, right? All this stuff had happened. Oh, my dog had torn his doggy ACL or whatever that was. So I'm carrying the slightly chunky dog around doing the thing. And I remember I went to physical therapy for my ankle because after you break an ankle, it takes a while for you to get the movement back in it. And I was at physical therapy and I have a physical therapist that I really just adore. She's amazing. And I said, could you just check my blood pressure for me? And she said, yeah, sure. You not feeling great. And I said, yeah, You know, if you could just check it, I've been checking it at home, but I'd appreciate it. If we could do it here and she's like, sure, no problem. She takes my blood pressure and she goes, your blood pressure is so high. We can't do a physical therapy session on you today. So, what did I think? Gee, my blood pressure's high. I should get that checked out. No, of course not. What I thought was, yes. I don't have to go to physical therapy today. Can you imagine? And again, hindsight, I'm just going. Wow. That was. Not a great decision. That was a Thursday. I thought nothing of it. I really, truly just didn't even think about it. I was dealing with so many other things. So the next day, Friday. My husband's starting to come out of it. I'm able to leave the house. Now, remember things had not opened up yet. It's it's not a great time. And one of the things that I had started to do was go on these angry walks. I would wait until it was the hottest part of the day, like around four o'clock in the afternoon. And I would put on my little skort from playing pickle ball and some sneakers, and I would basically stomp around the neighborhood. I'm, I'm not somebody who loves it when it's hot out, but it almost felt cathartic. If that makes sense. I think of it kind of like hot yoga, right. So it would be really warm and I would just start. Going, I would walk, I would have an air pod in and I would start walking. And I live near our hospital. Uh, thank goodness. And I was doing a walk around their parking garage. And just through the whole neighborhood, I would go, I don't know, for 45 minutes or something. And as I hit their parking garage, I started to get this odd sensation in the roof of my mouth. It was really weird. I'd never felt it before. But what was my very first thought? Right. Oh, great. I have COVID. It made no sense. It made no sense, but thinking about it here was something odd. I had never felt it before COVID was all, anyone could talk about. And I was certain that this somehow was COVID related. So I kept stomping and I stopped at. I stopped. And I walked, I ran into a neighbor once I got really close back to the house. He asked how my husband was doing. I talked to him for a few minutes. And by then the pain and the roof of my mouth had gone away. Come back in. Turn the AC on, right? I've got the fan going. And one of the things that happened when John, my husband had his stroke. I was a lot of people ended up giving us like door dash or grub hub. Gift cards. And just as an aside, If you know, somebody that has medical stuff, that's going on. Especially if you're not comfortable cooking, a lot of people don't like to cook for me, even though I'm the easiest person in the world to cook for. Um, those things saved me so much. Oh my gosh. They were such a big help. And I remember we ordered dinner from a local place that was delicious. Something healthy. And we're sitting on the couch watching Ted lasso. It had just been released. And we're sitting there eating the dinner and we're at the end of the show and all of the sudden. I just don't feel well. I. I am having a hard time breathing. Um, I'm not really having. Chest pain, but I just am having some generalized pain and I started sweating. I just, I really didn't feel well. All of the sudden. So I went in the bathroom and I remember my husband was a little annoyed because he really liked the show we were in the last four minutes. And I was leaning up against the sink. And I said, John, I don't feel good. And he kind of looked at me and I think that's when he realized we might have a problem. I came out of the bathroom. And immediately went down on the floor on all fours. Just feeling kind of a pressure now in my chest. Um, Having some difficulty with breathing, sweating. All of those things. So what do we do to we call 9 1 1. Do we have an ambulance come? No, no, of course not. Because I don't want to bother anyone. Right. I don't, I don't want to make a fuss out of it. I don't want all the neighbors to come out who wants that? So, what do I do? I call one of my friends. I call my friend, Jim. Who was a paramedic and is someone that I really trust. And it just so happens that he and his incredible wife. We're just five minutes from our house. They actually live about 20 minutes away, but they were in town for something else. And he said I'm on my way. Now John thinks. Perhaps we should call an ambulance and I say, no, Jim's on his way. And I'm just there and he walks in. And he goes, oh no, this isn't good. I'm like, oh, okay. And he and his wife again, she's amazing. Go to get me into their truck. And he says to me, I want you to know that the only reason that we're not calling 9 1 1 is because you are so close to the hospital. And the two of them get me in the truck. They drive the two blocks to the hospital. Get me to the emergency room entrance. Where, because he knows the lingo. Right? I come in. And. They immediately take me back because I'm something is clearly going on. They start, it goes very, very quickly. They pull my shirt up. I'm wearing a sports bra and you could tell Jim was like, oh, okay. All right. Turning to go back. And they start putting, you know, monitors on me and taking blood and doing all sorts of things. And I remember the nurse saying to me, uh, and she was an older nurse and she said, oh, I think it's probably just indigestion. Which made me feel awful because all I could think of was, oh my gosh, I'm bothering all of these people. And I just ate my dinner too quickly. So they do all these things. They're like, you are not having a heart attack. We're going to put you in a bay, as we figure out what to do with you. So I go back into a bay and this, it all happened. I don't know, around five 30 or something that evening. I go back in and I'm just in there. I'm just waiting. And, you know, they would come in and they would take some blood or they would do something there. They're looking for something called troponins. Which I believe are an enzyme and your blood that increase when you are having, um, a heart attack or we could even call it a heart event. And apparently mine weren't going anywhere. So after a little while, I think it's maybe 9 30, 10 o'clock. The PA comes in and she was incredible. I just, I wish I knew her name. And she said to me, all right, here's the deal? There's this five point scale that we use to assess whether we should admit you for heart event or not. And at three, you get admitted. But you're at too. So, I'm not sure what to do with you, because I could just send you home. And I was kind of like fine if I've bothered everybody and I'm not really having a heart attack, then that's where I want to go. But she said, what I want to do is keep you for observation. And I didn't understand what that meant. I mean, essentially they handed me a pamphlet. That said insurance may not cover you going into observation. So thinking that. I may end up having to pay for this out of pocket. I'm not sure what to do. I still don't feel great, but the PA was like, I really think you should go to observation. So I do it. Takes a little while and they wheel me up and observation at that point. Was located in the old children's ward. So there are cartoons on the wall, things like that. You have a roommate it's, you know, it's just a thing. It was miserable. So they put me into a room. And I'm in there and you had to keep your mask on the whole time at this point. So don't feel good. I've got the mask on. I just want to go to sleep. Just want to forget all of this is happening. And I start to feel a little uncomfortable. I start to get a pain at the top of my left shoulder. And the pain starts growing and it's a sharp pain. And it's going across my back and I can feel. It searing into me and it just isn't great. My breathing starts to get a little more difficult. And then all of the sudden. Um, the most popular person in that Ord. I remember several people coming in. I remember. Being moved. I think somebody put something in an Ivy they had to, and then I remember getting some morphine, which was delicious because it just put me out. The next morning, it's a Saturday morning, a gorgeous Saturday morning and September. They come in and they start talking to me and they say, You're going to be going to the cath lab. We don't know if that's going to happen today. It could happen on Monday. We're not sure. We're just going to wait and see when we can get everyone in here. I was like, okay, no problem. And then they said, would you like to speak with a pastor? Now if that's your vibe. That's awesome, but it's not my vibe. And I said, no, thank you. I don't need to do that right now. I really appreciate it. And they said, no, no, we're going to have a pastor come in. So. I remember thinking. I'm not feeling great. But I don't want to upset anyone. So of course I will speak to the pastor, even though I don't want to, I don't want to get anybody mad or make anybody feel bad. So just to, just to, you know, go back to that. I'm clearly having an issue. And my concern is not making the pastor feel bad. That's a little warped. So the pastor comes in and my roommate is very excited that the pastor has come in to talk to me because she would like to get a little pastor action on around. Now she's getting sent home and I'm getting sent to the cath lab. And I remember talking to her, I don't know why this sticks out. She was a lovely woman. She was little older than me, and she kept telling me she wasn't wearing underpants. And it had to have. Had something to do with what, you know, she was in observation. I don't know. I, that is what I remember. I remembered that. And a lot of praising the Lord with the pastor while I just sat there trying not to make anybody else feel as uncomfortable as I felt. Next thing I know handsome fella comes in and he has some paperwork for me. And he explains we're just going to go into the cath lab. We got it figured out. We're going to get in there right away. We need you to sign some papers. So I start reading the papers and that's your first mistake, right? I'm reading the papers and there are all sorts of things on there. And it keeps saying death in a couple of different places. Maybe I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed at all times. But I, I was a little concerned reading that and I said, this seems like this is a thing he said, we really think you need to go into the cath lab. I was like, okay. So I signed the paper. And they start moving me to a gurney to move me into the cath lab and they start attaching pads to me. And I don't realize what they're for. Like, again, things aren't firing. It's only now I swear in the past couple of months that I realized those were, if they had to shock me when I was in the cath lab. I didn't think anything of it then, because I was fully awake for this whole procedure. They wheel me back to the cath lab and back then, because we were in the early days of COVID. My COVID test had not come back yet. So everybody was masked. We were in. it's almost a bubble that they had it in so that there wasn't any air circulation. They had to wait until they found out what my test was before they would be able to turn that on. So it was hot. I was uncomfortable. I believe there was a drape. I don't really remember, but they went. In through my wrist, to the cath lab. To normally they used to do it always from your thought, from your inner thigh, from your groin. To go up into your heart that way, but now they can go in through your wrist, which actually is pretty cool. At one point, I hear it's negative. And the ventilation turns on and it's almost a whoosh. As the air start circulating and you could feel. The tenor of the room change and become much more relaxed. I remember no vaccine at that point, everything was super, super scary. So I tried to crack a joke to the one guy. And apparently you're not supposed to crack jokes when you're in the cat. And they just looked at me. I was like, oh, okay. I'm just going to be. And next thing I know, I hear there it is. And I'll be honest, it's all kind of a blur. That's what I heard. I didn't know anything that was happening. They put what was like the world's tightest, bangle bracelet. On my wrist. And move me in to the ICU. I had to stay flat on my back the entire time that I was in the ICU, which was 24 hours. And when I say the world's tightest bangle bracelet, I'm not joking around that sucker was tight. And the whole reason was because they had gone in through my wrist. Right. It was to prevent any bleeding because I had been shot so full of blood thinners at that point that it was really essential. And I just want to say that those ladies in the cardiac ICU. For Frederick health hospital are pretty dang incredible, and they were so sweet and so nice. And I just laid there. I mean, you can't get up to go to the bathroom. You can't do anything. And they brought my cell phone because of course I brought it to the hospital and I remember watching Hamilton on the cell phone, in the ICU. That is my one core memory. Nope. I have another one. They asked what colored nail Polish I was wearing because I never wear nail Polish. And I had a really cute color. The day. And that's all I remembered there. So the next day they move me into a room. And I'm just in the room. There's I haven't spoken to anybody. I don't really know what has happened. I just know that I have this. Bracelet on this, this pressure dressing. And they're going to keep me for another day. I try to be really like the star patient when I go anywhere. Right. I want them to say, oh my gosh, she was amazing. Right? It's so it's such vanity, but my mom was an RN. And I think it's super important to be kind and to be nice, even if you're feeling rotten. Right. So I was there and nobody could come to the hospital because of the COVID protocols. My husband is not recovered yet. Somebody has had to come up to stay with him while I'm unavailable. I was there by myself. I had to do it all by myself. And I think that's the way that I prefer it. In my head. But not having anybody there to. Talk to me or comfort me or love me. Was really, really hard. It was really hard. And. Now. I look back at it. Differently. But then I took it as it is my duty and my job to not be a burden on anyone to not call for a nurse to. Not ask questions and I feel so foolish thinking about it now. The next day. Someone comes in. I think he was a doctor. And he says you have had. What we call a widow maker, heart attack. And I'm like, say what? Cause I've heard the phrase Widowmaker before, but I didn't know what it was. And it wouldn't make, or is when you have a blockage and your LAD lower anterior descending artery and your heart. It's a big one. And I had a 100% blockage in my lad. The only reason that I am alive today is because I had my heart attack in the hospital. Now apparently. The blockage can be in three locations. The top. And if the blockage is in the top of the lad, and this is a layman's understanding. Okay. But. If it's at the top. People tend not to survive. Those that tends to go very, very quickly. Mine was in the middle. And you can also have it in the bottom. But again, I had a 100% blockage. I was basically a ticking time. bomb They cleared it. Now I have a fancy little stent right in there to help keep it open. And one of the reasons that this happened is because I do have something, I think it's a pretty common. Genetic condition. It's called factor five Leiden and it's a blood clotting disorder. I had had, um, Pulmonary embolism. A bunch of years ago. And they discovered that I had this factor five Leiden. If you have this, you should not be on any hormonal birth control. And I was on hormonal birth control for decades, decades, and decades. Right. So the first time when I had the PEs. They said, if you have something else happen, if you get another PE or if you get another DVT, then you will be on blood thinners for the rest of your life. And I remember thinking. Well, we're not going to have that happen our way. Well, Guess who's on blood thinners for the rest of her life. I'm happy to report that three and a half years. Post heart attack. I'm doing great. I just had my. Annual echocardiogram done and was told whatever you're doing. Keep doing it. I'm riding my Peloton have miles and miles to nowhere. And when I'm doing it, I'm not thinking about weight loss for it. I'm thinking about. Hurt health for it. I'm feeling my heart get healthier with every mile that I ride. It's something I've really enjoyed these past couple of years. But what are the key takeaways from this other than just telling you, Hey, I had a heart attack. And this is what it was like. Women. Take care of other people before we take care of ourselves. It's true. Almost all women will do this and we need to be the priority. I'm pretty open about sharing my story because I think it can benefit other people. Right after I had my heart attack, I wrote about this. You can go to Empty Nest, Kitchen dot com and do a little search on there, and you will find my heart attack story written. If you want to give it a read. But because I did that and because I was open, I had several women reach out to me directly that I was really close with, or that I just kind of knew on the periphery. And I will tell you, I don't know, diddly squat about medical stuff. I am not the person to give you advice. But I can always recommend that you go see your doctor. And that's my heart attack story. And these three women that reached out to me. All three of them had high blood pressure that needed to be addressed with medicine. And they're all feeling much better. And truthfully, I'm feeling much better knowing that they got the help they needed. So, what I want to say to you is this. You deserve to put you first when it comes to your health? And if you are not feeling right. Then you need to go get that checked out. If your blood pressure and you should be, if you are over 50, I'm sorry. I just think you should be checking your blood pressure regularly. You know, you can go to the CVS and do the little automatic machine. Heck you can go to Walmart and do it. Do it just stay on top of it. You can order yourself a portable blood pressure cuff and check it at home. Trust it. If there's a problem with it. It's okay. If your doctor tells you that, okay, you don't have to go. Oh, I think it's just reading high, like some other dingbat, you know, who might be talking to a podcast right now? You need to take care of you. And if you have any symptoms that aren't feeling great to you. If you have a family history of high blood pressure or heart disease. Get yourself checked out. You matter. Yeah. I'm lucky enough now to be part of an organization called women heart. And I'm what is known as a women heart champion. And it's a crate organization. I get to help support other women with heart disease and give them resources that they can go to for questions, for anything medical. Because again, that is not who I am. Support system, no medical knowledge. But it's a fantastic organization. And I've been getting out and spreading the message. In fact, if your not too far for me, And you would like me to speak to your group about this. I'd be delighted. You can reach out to me and we can talk and maybe get a time where I can come and speak to your group. Remember heart disease is the number one killer of women. Here in the us and it's our job to take care of ourselves. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I know this is kind of a, a difficult topic sometimes, and I'm here to tell you whatever you want to know. Really. I'm an open book with this. You can reach out through the Facebook page, Empty Nest Kitchen. Or through Instagram, which is the Empty Nest Kitchen, or you can always approach me through Empty Nest, Kitchen dot com. And that's it. I hope you've learned a little something. I hope you're going to go check your blood pressure and I hope you have a great rest of your week. I'll see in the kitchen.