My Health Part 2: I have Heart Disease

The summer of 2025 was laid back and a typical summer. Nick and I went to the beach in June with friends and were planning our trip to Disney World we would be taking in December. Everything was good. Then, the morning of July 11 came around. It was a normal slow Saturday morning eating breakfast and drinking coffee. Nick and I were getting ready to go see the new Superman movie that had just come out in theaters. I was putting on makeup when I felt a strange sensation in my chest. I wasn’t alarmed at first, but as the feeling grew, became more painful and radiated further out from my chest and down my left arm- panic set in. I told Nick something was wrong and I think I’m having a heart attack. The paramedics showed up and started asking lots of questions. I was asked numerous times if I have anxiety or panic attacks. I don’t. They asked about any drugs I may have taken. Just my insulin. By the time we were heading down to the ambulance, the pain was gone and aside from feeling worn out, I felt fine. They hooked me up to the EKG machine. They said we weren’t going to go lights and sirens, but something on the EKG changed their minds and off we went up highway to the hospital.

I walked into the emergency room and had blood work taken. Before results came back, I was asked multiple times about anxiety and panic attacks and told they can have the same symptoms as a heart attack. Nope. Still don’t have those issues. Then finally the blood work came back and showed troponin in my blood. Troponin is an enzyme the heart gives off when under extreme stress, like a heart attack. My number was low, but over the next few hours continued to go up, thus admitting me in the hospital. The doctors were puzzled. I was a 35-year-old woman who does Crossfit and no prior heart issues. My troponin levels reached about 60 then went down. People who have heart attacks have troponin levels in the hundreds to thousands, but I still had them, and they went up over the course of 12-24 hours before going down. So what was causing this to be in my blood? It wasn’t normal.

While in the hospital, I had a CT scan done that showed a smaller than normal artery that had some small blockages. Blockages are normal and everyone walks around with them. The doctors weren’t concerned about them and an echo of my heart showed that things were working normally. I was set to be released and follow up with a cardiologist in 3 months. It’s frustrating not having answers so we asked to see the doctors to talk about what to do. One resident doctor looked at me and said it’s probably Gerd and just really bad heart burn and to take an antiacid if it happens again…. I’ve had heart many times before. Whatever was going was not heart burn and I knew it. Heart burn also doesn’t cause abnormal bloodwork.

I went home and had to wait for that 3 month follow up with cardiology, but two weeks later I had another episode while getting ready for work. I went back to the hospital, had troponin in my blood and passed every test including a stress test. Again, no answers and to follow up with cardiology after being in the hospital for a few days. They gave me nitro in case any other episodes happened and that if I had to take more than 3 nitro to come back to the hospital.

Luckily, I was able to get a much sooner appointment than having to wait 3 months, but small episodes continued to happen nearly every morning. The cardiologist reassured me it was a heart issue and not heart burn. She scheduled a heart catheterization for the next week. I continued to have episodes including an episode the morning of the heart cath.

The cardiologist who did the heart cath thought everything looked good but decided to do a stress test on 2 areas. The first area failed the test and he put a stent in. The second area passed. I was moved to recovery and waited for room to be admitted for the night for observation. While in recovery another episode happened. By the time the nurses got the EKG machine on me and running, the episode was over and everything looked normal. Talk about feeling deflated, exhausted and scared. At the time the doctor decided not to do anything but wait. I’d had a procedure on my heart, and it could take some time for the heart to recover.

After going home from the heart cath, I continued to have episodes. I had a follow up appointment with a nurse and told her what was going on. I was still taking nitro when having an episode sometimes multiple episodes a night. The nurse’s demeanor changed, and she immediately messaged the doctor. He called in Ranexa that is a drug used for arrhythmia. No pharmacy in the area had it so I had to wait until the next week to get it.

This is when everything changed. That very night after the follow-up appointment, I had another extremely bad episode at around 2 AM. I did the usual and took a nitro, but suddenly felt nauseous. I stood up to go to the bathroom, got to the end of the bed and went down. I blacked out. When I came to, Nick was on the phone with 911. He had to give me CPR to keep my heart beating while getting 911 on the phone. Once the paramedics got there, they checked for a pulse, but it was so weak they couldn’t feel it. They got me to the ambulance and could see my heart rhythm was off, but it wasn’t totally clear what was going on. Once in the emergency room I had multiple episodes, but every time they couldn’t get the EKG on fast enough to get a full picture, but whatever they were seeing they were very concerned about. They put crash pads on me and kept a crash cart in the room in case they needed to shock my heart back into a normal rhythm. I also had to have a CT scan of my head since I had a pretty nasty bloody gash from falling to the floor. Luckily, it was just a really bad rug burn.

Rug burn on my head and nose

It was decided to start a nitro drip to prevent any episodes from happening and move me to ICU. I don’t remember a whole lot of that time. Eventually when I woke up I was stable and they took me off the nitro drip. Not too long after I had another episode and once again, they couldn’t get the EKG to my room and on me fast enough. It was decided that Monday morning they would do another heart cath to see what was going on. Sometime later another episode started and this time they were able to get the EKG they needed. They also had multiple nurses and doctors rush into the room, prepared for things to take a much darker turn.

The EKG showed Ventricular Tachycardia which is an abnormal heart rhythm where the lower chamber of the heart isn’t pumping correctly. This is an incredibly dangerous condition, and it was decided I needed an emergency heart cath that night. I don’t really remember any of it. This time the doctor tested that second spot in an artery (the one that passed the test the first heart cath) and it failed. He put another stent in.

I was kept in ICU for a few more days and put on several new anti-arrhythmia medications. Once they determined it was safe to go home, they fitted me with a Lifevest. This vest was a portable and wearable defibrillator that tracked my heart’s beats and rhythm and would shock me if needed in an emergency. I wore it for about 3 months and then was able to send it back. Thank goodness, because that thing was so annoying!

Wearing my LifeVest

I’ve slowly been weaned off some of the medications. I went through cardiac rehab. I was the youngest there by several years, but everyone was kind and nice. They helped track to make sure my heart was doing what it’s supposed to when working out and helped me get confidence back. Keep in mind that I’m a Crossfit coach who hasn’t been allowed to workout hardly at since July. That was incredibly difficult to deal with, especially because it came with a lot of weight gain. I will say though that my health and making sure I was safe was more important. I’m currently fully cleared. My cardiologist said if I want to do an Ironman to go for it. That won’t happen, but getting back to the gym and working out will be part of the plan.

I haven’t had an episode since the last one. My cardiologist did some blood work on me to see if there’s a genetic component. The test is a newer one that is being looked at to help explain why heart attacks are happening at young ages. While it doesn’t provide a total explanation, I had very high numbers indicating that it is genetic. The blockages I have shouldn’t have caused issues and most likely wouldn’t have caused issues if the artery wasn’t smaller than normal. We still don’t have all the answers, but I’m on the road to better things.

My biggest take away is to fight for your health and listen to what your body is telling you. I saw that resident doctor again when I was in the ICU. The one who told me to take an antacid. She didn’t say a word haha.