September 9, 2021 • 20 mins
This week is a little different. As some of you might know, I also run a couple of other podcasts - one, as a host, and the other as a co-host. Today, I want to share an episode from the podcast I co-host, Mental Health and Us.
It originally started out as a solo hosted show by my wife, Jaclyn, and was called Mental Health and me. It shared self-care and wellness tips to help other mental health sufferers and their loved ones cope.
Jaclyn uses her 20 year battle with both depression and anxiety to share what's worked for her, and how that could maybe help you. I personally suffer from mental health issues too, and it's an important topic, and one that I see more of in the podcasting space, both from a podcaster and a listener perspective.
In this episode, Jaclyn shares how a major health scare made her fear the worst, and why it's important to understand how your physical health is important to your mental health.
The Mental Health and Us podcast will be relaunching early October, and you can catch up with other episodes over at mentalhealthpodcast.ca
Next week we'll be back to the usual Podcaster Stories programming - thank you for letting me share this special episode with you.
Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Danny (00:01):
This week's a little different.
As some of you might know, I also runa couple of other podcasts, one as
a host, and the other as a cohost.
Today.
I want to share an episode from thepodcast I co-host, Mental Health and Us.
It originally started out as a solohosted show by my wife, Jaclyn, and
was called Mental health and Me.
It shared self-care and wellnesstips to help other mental health
(00:22):
sufferers and their loved ones cope.
Jaclyn uses her 20 years battlewith both depression and anxiety
to share what worked for her, andhow that could maybe help you.
I personally suffer from mental healthissues too, and it's an important
topic and one I see more of inthe podcasting space, both from a
podcaster and a listener perspective.
(00:43):
In this episode, Jaclyn shares howa major health scare made her fear
the worst, and why it's important tounderstand how your physical health
is important to your mental health.
The Mental Health and Us podcast willbe relaunching early October, and
you can catch up with other episodesover at mentalhealthpodcast.ca.
Next week,
we'll be back to the usualPodcaster Stories programming.
(01:03):
Thank you for letting me share thisspecial episode with you, and I hope
you check out the podcast and joinin when it relaunches next month.
Until next time, take care and stay safe.
Jaclyn (01:13):
Hi, I'm Jaclyn Brown and you're listening to Mental Health and Me.
I have anxiety and depression, andI've been suffering from these two
illnesses for years through this podcast.
I am sharing my journey along withpractical self-care and wellness
tips to help other mental healthsuffers and their loved ones cope.
I hope you'll join me.
(01:34):
Welcome to the mentalhealth and me podcast.
In today's episode, I'm goingto talk about my health scare.
And the last episode, if you didn'thear it, go listen to it because
I talked a wonderfully long timeabout the eight week challenge
and how I I challenged myself to.
You know, follow healthy habitsand make good choices and lose
(01:54):
some weight in the process.
And I lost over 30 poundsand and I said, okay.
So I started that challenge February18th and I finished at eight weeks later.
So it was the beginningof beginning of April.
So now.
I'm going to talk about what happenedwhen that pretty much the day after
that finished, because it was immediate.
(02:17):
So I finished my week challenge,went out for dinner with the family
and and then the next day I w I tooka break now I didn't, I didn't, I
still followed my healthy habits.
I still ate, drank my three liters ofwater and I made healthy choices and I
drank my smoothies and all that was good.
But I didn't do my exercise.
And and then.
(02:38):
Then that night, the Monday night, theTuesday morning at about at about, I
don't know, just after midnight, I wokeup with a what felt like a heart attack.
And I've had this before, so Iknow that it's it's bad, but.
The first time I had, it wasa little less than a year ago.
I had this heart scare and Ididn't know what was going on.
(03:00):
And I had chest painsand I couldn't breathe.
And but I could feel it likeright, right around my heart.
And and I also have asthma andI've had this my whole life.
So I naturally think, okay,well maybe it's my life.
And I take my inhalers and that doesn'twork and the pain is getting progressively
worse and I can't get comfortable.
(03:20):
I try lying down that doesn't work.
I try lying, like I'm talking to onthe floor so that I could, you know,
flat back, no pillows, no cushions.
And that was worse.
And then I tried sitting up and thatwas worse and that, you know, like every
single position I tried, it was worse.
And so I finally called the EMS.
And and, and, you know,was taken to the hospital.
(03:41):
And last year when that happened, Ispent, I think, 36 hours in the hospital
and they fixed they took away the pain.
I, I'm not gonna say they fixed, butthey took away the pain and I was fine.
What felt like fine.
After.
Maybe 10 hours, but I spent thenext, you know, 26 hours in the
hospital being monitored because theywanted to find out what happened.
And then after that, the the 36 hoursin the hospital I was released was
(04:04):
told to relax a bit, not too much.
Cause I was, I felt fine, butbut it was just take it easy.
And then a week after that Iwas given a heart monitor that
I had to wear for 48 hours.
Then I saw a heart specialist, acardiologist and and they took the
results from the heart monitor.
And said, basically they found nothing.
They found no reason why this happened.
(04:26):
They're going to write itoff as a, not an anomaly.
And should this happen again?
Follow the same procedure,call the ambulance, go to the
hospital and get checked out,but they kind of made it sound.
It was like a one-time occurrence.
Given my age, it wasn't a heartattack, felt like a heart attack,
but it wasn't a heart attack.
And and they, they treat it like a heartattack when you're in the hospital.
(04:48):
But when you leave the hospital,they're like, no, it actually,
wasn't a ha wasn't a heart attack.
So then you know, Beginning of April when,the day after I finished my eight week
challenge, this is just a coincidence, butit feels like a really big coincidence.
The day after I finished, I complete myeight week challenge and stop exercising.
I ended up waking up in the middle ofthe night with these chest pains and
(05:10):
because I have asthma once again, I think.
Okay.
Maybe it's my, yeah.
Weird cause I was sleeping and it's notlike I was doing any sort of extend EWAS
training or, you know so what happened?
I take my inhalers naturally.
They don't work.
It's not a lung issue.
And then I think, wellmaybe it's heartburn.
I have indigestion, so let's takesome Tums and and see if that helps.
(05:30):
I don't know why I would thinkthis because it's not like I was
eating any food at that time.
So but I take the Tumsand they don't work.
And then and then I getmore and more uncomfortable.
I try to go back to sleep,but I wake up in more pain.
So I wake up at like, let's sayquarter after 12 with these symptoms.
And then I try to do all these things.
They don't work and I go back tosleep thinking, just sleep it off.
(05:50):
And then.
About two in the morning to two30 in the, in between that time,
I I couldn't take it anymore.
I was in so much pain and I knew thatit was a bigger problem than I was You
know, I just knew it was a big problemand worse off is that I went to the
bathroom and I saw my, my face and Icould see that my skin color was gray.
(06:11):
I was pretty much like, youknow, translucent, like you could
see right through me and that.
The big indicator for me, becausethat had happened the first time.
And they said like, you're, you're gray.
You have no blood pressure.
You need to call the ambulance.
And I said, okay, I don't know why Ididn't do this before I'm doing it now.
And I also remember that they told me totake baby aspirin to chew baby aspirin.
(06:36):
Right.
So you have to take two babyaspirins, put them in your mouth
and chew and it tastes awful.
But there's no point in swallowing them.
It's not going to help you need to chewit and then swallow the chewed pill.
And fortunately for me, myhusband takes baby aspirin every
single day for his cholesterol orwhatever it is he takes it for.
So we always have babyaspirin in the house.
(06:58):
I knew this time where to go to get it.
So I went and yeah.
You know, chewed these pills.
And then I called 9 1 1, and I waslike, I'm having these problems.
I had them last year, theytold me to call the ambulance.
And then, you know, I've chewed, babyaspirin I've even swallowed baby aspirin
because I thought, you know, just incase the chewing ones don't work maybe.
And then that's when they said no, thatyou can swallow as many pills as you want.
(07:18):
It's not going to help you.
You have to chew them.
And you've already done that.
So now you just wait for the ambulance.
And I remember like, you know, my face is.
And the paramedics show up.
And I'm going to pause here to like,talk about how much I love paramedics.
They are incredible.
They're there and they have a whatdo you call that bedside manner?
They have that in spades wheresometimes the emergency room
(07:40):
doctors, they don't have that.
And I'll talk about thatwhen I get there, but.
But yeah, the paramedics are just amazingand and, you know, shout out to them.
And every time I meet a paramedic,whether it's, you know, they've helped
me or not, I just talk about how muchI love them and I love what they do.
So shout out paramedics.
You're awesome.
So anyways, so the paramedicsshow up and apparently the police
officers showed up and fire.
(08:03):
Truck and fighters showed up as well.
I don't remember this because at thatpoint I was just like, out of it, I
was so gray and so low blood pressure.
I couldn't even open my eyes.
I was sitting on the stairs and I, andI just knew I was like waiting for help.
And my husband was beside me.
And he was communicating with thepeople that had come to help me.
(08:25):
I was able to walk myself outto the gurney and so I didn't,
we didn't need the firefighters.
I think the police.
The policemen was talking to, to myhusband and I, I don't, I don't remember
that, but I remember looking up andseeing his face and going, oh, you
know, it looks like this guy named Mike,the guy that worked on your stairs.
And then, and then the next day,when I was talking to my husband,
I was like, wasn't there a mic?
Like didn't did Mike come?
(08:46):
And he's like, no, that was the policemen.
And he looked kind of like Mike.
So I thought that was funny thatI didn't remember a police officer
being there, but I remember seeingMike, the guy that did my stairs.
So.
Anyways at paramedics gave me crapcrap for waiting two hours before
calling them because apparently Imade their job more difficult and
I put myself in a worse condition.
(09:07):
So they said, you know,should this happen again?
When you feel it, you call you don't wait.
And it's so hard for me to, I mean,I can say, yeah, you're right.
Okay.
I will call I'm sorry, but.
You know, it's hard to go.
Do I need an ambulance right now?
Am I going to call 9 1 1?
Because they send all threeof those services, police,
fire, truck, and ambulance out.
(09:27):
When you call 9 1 1 is it, Idon't want to waste their time.
Like what, what if it is heartburn?
And I can just take Tumsand be relieved, right?
Like this is what I'm thinking.
What if it is asthma?
I know I can take myinhaler and feel fine.
How do I know that it's an emergency thatI actually need to call these people.
And I had a conversation with mymom about it, and my mom said, you
(09:49):
call, so now I'm passing this advicefrom mom to you, you call 9 1 1.
And when they get to you and you starthaving a conversation with them and
you feel okay, you can send them off.
You don't need to get in the ambulance,but it is much better to have those
people in your house and takingcare of you if you need it than to
need it and not have them there.
So if you're in a situation whereyou think, just think that you might
(10:14):
need help you call there's my advice.
There's my mom's advice.
Just take it.
It's smart.
So.
That happened.
And then I was I wasambulanced to the hospital.
They they were, theparamedics were really good.
They, whatever it was that they triedon me in in, and because, you know, my,
my my, my blood pressure was so low.
(10:34):
It makes them, it makes it difficultto find veins, you know, wherever
they put in the IV, it makes itdifficult for them to find it.
And I, I have You know, a hard time.
They, they have a hard time.
I should say, finding that anyways.
And then when my blood pressure is low,it just makes it almost impossible.
So I get like poked a lot whilethey're looking for these things.
I don't care.
Like I don't, I'm not Ihave a high pain tolerance.
(10:57):
Like it doesn't, it doesn't affectme if they need to poke me in
various places, as long as theyfind what they're looking for.
So that part is fine, but, andthen they tried some medicine.
I wish I knew, but I was, like I said,it was out of it, but they were laughing.
And I remember seeing the look on thetwo paramedics faces before we even
left my driveway while we were in theambulance, they had tried something and
then we're checking my heart rate andwhatever it was that they tried on me.
(11:19):
It, it started to work.
And my, my heart ratestarted to go up in my blood.
Started to increase again.
And so I was no longer in that scary zone.
I still I'm still out of it, but, butfrom their perspective and from a health
perspective, I guess I had, you know,I had shown signs of improvement and
they were laughing because I think it'stheir job to try this method first.
(11:43):
But.
Apparently it's never worked before.
So every single person that theyhave tried it on, it doesn't work.
And then they go to step two,whatever their step two method is.
First step is easier.
Doesn't work, try the second step.
But for me, the first step worked.
So they were like, so impressed withthat, that they told they're like, I
just want you to know that I've beenin this business for X amount of years
(12:04):
and I've done this X amount of times.
It has never worked,but for you, it works.
He's going to remember me and I'mcertainly going to remember him.
And I think that's amazing.
So it worked and I started to feel better.
I started to feel cold, so it was likeall the blood was there, but but I
was just not circulating it properly.
And I remember feeling like I was inhypothermic shock to the point where I
(12:26):
had like, I think six different blanketsput on me now I'm in the hospital,
they're adding more blankets to me.
They gave me heated blankets.
They gave me a heat pack for me tohold on to yeah, it was, it was like,
they were treating me for hypothermiaat that point, but eventually.
When we also, and I, another thing thatI remember about being in the hospital
was when they said, how do you feel?
(12:47):
And I said, I feel really cold.
And so they gave me more and theysaid, okay, but are you in pain?
Nope, I'm just cold.
And they said, that's good.
Like, we can deal with cold.
And I said, I can deal with cold to it.
And it was like, I was smiling.
Sure.
I might be in hypothermicshock, but I'm smiling.
And so that you know, it was good.
And then and then I was I don'tknow how long I was in the hospital.
I was released the next day.
(13:08):
It was not, it was less than 24hours that I was in the hospital.
At that point, I was noteven transferred to a room.
I just stayed in like the emergencysection until my mom came to pick me.
And then I was off andrecuperating for for three days.
I wasn't, I mean, like for morethan three days, I think it was
probably like closer to 10 dayswhere before I felt back to normal.
(13:31):
And even to this day, I haven't doneany exercise because I'm a little
afraid of what might happen to my heart.
So I've just been taking it easy.
I started walking again,but not running and yeah.
And I'm taking it slow.
I feel okay.
I feel like everything's okay.
I'm just trying to be cautious.
(13:51):
And and yeah, and they're still,they still don't know exactly.
What's what is wrong with myheart, but I do, I have gone two
more times back to the hospitalwithout scares just for them to do.
And the CT scans and whatever else.
So, so they're, they'recontinuing to check.
I have another appointment next week totalk to the doctor about what's happened.
So it's it, they'reconstantly looking at it.
(14:14):
They're not going to let it go.
I do hope that I am given some sortof proactive measure, whether it's
you know include this in your diet or.
Medicine, like, you know, if it'smedicine, whatever it is, I hope they
give me some sort of proactive attemptsbecause waiting to handle this as a
reactive measure is literally killing me.
Like it hurts it, that thepain that I have to go through.
(14:38):
It hurts and sure.
It's like once every 10 months, butI would rather it not happen at all.
So that has, that was what I went throughafter my eight week challenge and why
it's been a little bit more difficultto get back into the swing of things.
And then of course, after my heartfeels okay, and I'm sort of getting
back into the rhythm of things.
(14:59):
I then get a cold from my day.
And I don't mind because you know, whenthe kids give you cold, so you just
take it and it's better you than them.
So it's fine.
But it was just the app here.
I am sick again.
So that's, that's how it's been.
And one of the, another, one of thethings that my mom said in her with
her words of wisdom, was it, you know,it's pretty funny that coincidentally,
(15:21):
as soon as I stopped my eight leadchannel, And I say, I'm going to have
like an unhealthy meal or I don't careif I cheat and have a chocolate bar.
I mean, you know, and I w I was still goodabout it, but I just didn't care about
those like little cheats as reward system.
So having a chocolate was fine.
You know, and I, I didn't doit every day and it was okay.
My mom said, the minute you startedputting crap in your body, crap happens.
(15:43):
Now I'm going to say, mymom said it was swears.
I'm not going to swear.
You put crap in crap happens.
And I think that that's brilliant.
And if I had have said, if I hadhave, instead of said, Hey, this is
going to be an eight week challenge.
And at the end of eight weeks,I'm going to do whatever I want.
If I should have said, I'mgoing to start with eight weeks.
Not take a cheat day, thendo another eight weeks.
(16:04):
And Hey, guess what?
I just created a lifestyle change and notjust a silly little challenge for myself.
Maybe I wouldn't have endedup in the hospital with what
felt like a heart attack.
Maybe not.
Maybe I have this heart conditionthat I can't get rid of anyways.
But I just, you know,the timing is everything.
I ate a really bad meal.
(16:25):
I don't, I shouldn't say that, butanyways, it felt like I took some
cheats and I ate some bad stuff.
And then all of a sudden I'm backin the hospital with heart problems.
So.
It's just a coincidence or maybe it'snot, but I'm going to heed once more.
My mother's brilliant advice.
Don't put crap in the body.
And so there's that.
And the other thing, and I will, I willwrap this up shortly, but I will say that
(16:49):
since I haven't been able to exercise,but I still am able to watch what I eat.
I have not put any more pounds back onnow, when I, when I eat pork, You know,
if I have a bad meal, I might notice adifference on the scale by like a pound.
But I don't eat poorly every day.
(17:10):
I don't make poor choices.
Every meal, I have a littlecheat here and there, and then I
really watch my intake of food.
Excuse me.
That is my asthma catching up.
So I watch what I eat and I'mvery good about moderation and.
(17:30):
I'm very aware of everythingthat I put inside of me.
So even though I haven't been able todo my cardio exercise, excuse me again,
I should have a cup of water here.
So yeah, even though I am notable to do my cardio exercise,
but I am able to go for walks.
I've managed to, to tokeep the weight off.
(17:53):
And to me.
I haven't been able to lose anymore, but I have been able to
maintain the weight that I achieved.
And I'm really proud of that.
And I think that's important toknow, like for those people that
really don't want to exercise, itturns out you don't really need to.
And I will talk about that inthe Q and a future posts as well.
You don't need to exercise.
You do need to move, but walking is okay.
(18:13):
So so yeah, like, I, I don't, as much asI loved that cardio workout and I will
like, if anyone wants to know that cardioworkout, I will for sure give it, and
I will talk about, you know, that greatteacher, great detail, if anyone wants to
know, but but it's not, you don't need it.
You really need to the food,all the food that you put in
(18:33):
your body that is important.
And and I.
Walk a little bit and move a little bit.
Don't just stay still, but you don'tneed to do any sort of lifting weights.
You don't need to doa core cardio workout.
You can maintain a healthy weight wjust by, by eating the right foods.
(18:54):
So that's how I'm goingto wrap this one up.
I hope you enjoyed this podcastand we'll see you again soon.
Thanks for listening toMental Health and Me.
If you enjoyed this episode,please be sure to subscribe.
And if you feel it can helpsomeone please share with them.
We don't have to struggle alone.
Break the stigmasurrounding mental health.
Let's talk about it.
This week's a little different.
As some of you might know, I also runa couple of other podcasts, one as
a host, and the other as a cohost.
Today.
I want to share an episode from thepodcast I co-host, Mental Health and Us.
It originally started out as a solohosted show by my wife, Jaclyn, and
was called Mental health and Me.
It shared self-care and wellnesstips to help other mental health
(00:22):
sufferers and their loved ones cope.
Jaclyn uses her 20 years battlewith both depression and anxiety
to share what worked for her, andhow that could maybe help you.
I personally suffer from mental healthissues too, and it's an important
topic and one I see more of inthe podcasting space, both from a
podcaster and a listener perspective.
(00:43):
In this episode, Jaclyn shares howa major health scare made her fear
the worst, and why it's important tounderstand how your physical health
is important to your mental health.
The Mental Health and Us podcast willbe relaunching early October, and
you can catch up with other episodesover at mentalhealthpodcast.ca.
Next week,
we'll be back to the usualPodcaster Stories programming.
(01:03):
Thank you for letting me share thisspecial episode with you, and I hope
you check out the podcast and joinin when it relaunches next month.
Until next time, take care and stay safe.
Jaclyn (01:13):
Hi, I'm Jaclyn Brown and you're listening to Mental Health and Me.
I have anxiety and depression, andI've been suffering from these two
illnesses for years through this podcast.
I am sharing my journey along withpractical self-care and wellness
tips to help other mental healthsuffers and their loved ones cope.
I hope you'll join me.
(01:34):
Welcome to the mentalhealth and me podcast.
In today's episode, I'm goingto talk about my health scare.
And the last episode, if you didn'thear it, go listen to it because
I talked a wonderfully long timeabout the eight week challenge
and how I I challenged myself to.
You know, follow healthy habitsand make good choices and lose
(01:54):
some weight in the process.
And I lost over 30 poundsand and I said, okay.
So I started that challenge February18th and I finished at eight weeks later.
So it was the beginningof beginning of April.
So now.
I'm going to talk about what happenedwhen that pretty much the day after
that finished, because it was immediate.
(02:17):
So I finished my week challenge,went out for dinner with the family
and and then the next day I w I tooka break now I didn't, I didn't, I
still followed my healthy habits.
I still ate, drank my three liters ofwater and I made healthy choices and I
drank my smoothies and all that was good.
But I didn't do my exercise.
And and then.
(02:38):
Then that night, the Monday night, theTuesday morning at about at about, I
don't know, just after midnight, I wokeup with a what felt like a heart attack.
And I've had this before, so Iknow that it's it's bad, but.
The first time I had, it wasa little less than a year ago.
I had this heart scare and Ididn't know what was going on.
(03:00):
And I had chest painsand I couldn't breathe.
And but I could feel it likeright, right around my heart.
And and I also have asthma andI've had this my whole life.
So I naturally think, okay,well maybe it's my life.
And I take my inhalers and that doesn'twork and the pain is getting progressively
worse and I can't get comfortable.
(03:20):
I try lying down that doesn't work.
I try lying, like I'm talking to onthe floor so that I could, you know,
flat back, no pillows, no cushions.
And that was worse.
And then I tried sitting up and thatwas worse and that, you know, like every
single position I tried, it was worse.
And so I finally called the EMS.
And and, and, you know,was taken to the hospital.
(03:41):
And last year when that happened, Ispent, I think, 36 hours in the hospital
and they fixed they took away the pain.
I, I'm not gonna say they fixed, butthey took away the pain and I was fine.
What felt like fine.
After.
Maybe 10 hours, but I spent thenext, you know, 26 hours in the
hospital being monitored because theywanted to find out what happened.
And then after that, the the 36 hoursin the hospital I was released was
(04:04):
told to relax a bit, not too much.
Cause I was, I felt fine, butbut it was just take it easy.
And then a week after that Iwas given a heart monitor that
I had to wear for 48 hours.
Then I saw a heart specialist, acardiologist and and they took the
results from the heart monitor.
And said, basically they found nothing.
They found no reason why this happened.
(04:26):
They're going to write itoff as a, not an anomaly.
And should this happen again?
Follow the same procedure,call the ambulance, go to the
hospital and get checked out,but they kind of made it sound.
It was like a one-time occurrence.
Given my age, it wasn't a heartattack, felt like a heart attack,
but it wasn't a heart attack.
And and they, they treat it like a heartattack when you're in the hospital.
(04:48):
But when you leave the hospital,they're like, no, it actually,
wasn't a ha wasn't a heart attack.
So then you know, Beginning of April when,the day after I finished my eight week
challenge, this is just a coincidence, butit feels like a really big coincidence.
The day after I finished, I complete myeight week challenge and stop exercising.
I ended up waking up in the middle ofthe night with these chest pains and
(05:10):
because I have asthma once again, I think.
Okay.
Maybe it's my, yeah.
Weird cause I was sleeping and it's notlike I was doing any sort of extend EWAS
training or, you know so what happened?
I take my inhalers naturally.
They don't work.
It's not a lung issue.
And then I think, wellmaybe it's heartburn.
I have indigestion, so let's takesome Tums and and see if that helps.
(05:30):
I don't know why I would thinkthis because it's not like I was
eating any food at that time.
So but I take the Tumsand they don't work.
And then and then I getmore and more uncomfortable.
I try to go back to sleep,but I wake up in more pain.
So I wake up at like, let's sayquarter after 12 with these symptoms.
And then I try to do all these things.
They don't work and I go back tosleep thinking, just sleep it off.
(05:50):
And then.
About two in the morning to two30 in the, in between that time,
I I couldn't take it anymore.
I was in so much pain and I knew thatit was a bigger problem than I was You
know, I just knew it was a big problemand worse off is that I went to the
bathroom and I saw my, my face and Icould see that my skin color was gray.
(06:11):
I was pretty much like, youknow, translucent, like you could
see right through me and that.
The big indicator for me, becausethat had happened the first time.
And they said like, you're, you're gray.
You have no blood pressure.
You need to call the ambulance.
And I said, okay, I don't know why Ididn't do this before I'm doing it now.
And I also remember that they told me totake baby aspirin to chew baby aspirin.
(06:36):
Right.
So you have to take two babyaspirins, put them in your mouth
and chew and it tastes awful.
But there's no point in swallowing them.
It's not going to help you need to chewit and then swallow the chewed pill.
And fortunately for me, myhusband takes baby aspirin every
single day for his cholesterol orwhatever it is he takes it for.
So we always have babyaspirin in the house.
(06:58):
I knew this time where to go to get it.
So I went and yeah.
You know, chewed these pills.
And then I called 9 1 1, and I waslike, I'm having these problems.
I had them last year, theytold me to call the ambulance.
And then, you know, I've chewed, babyaspirin I've even swallowed baby aspirin
because I thought, you know, just incase the chewing ones don't work maybe.
And then that's when they said no, thatyou can swallow as many pills as you want.
(07:18):
It's not going to help you.
You have to chew them.
And you've already done that.
So now you just wait for the ambulance.
And I remember like, you know, my face is.
And the paramedics show up.
And I'm going to pause here to like,talk about how much I love paramedics.
They are incredible.
They're there and they have a whatdo you call that bedside manner?
They have that in spades wheresometimes the emergency room
(07:40):
doctors, they don't have that.
And I'll talk about thatwhen I get there, but.
But yeah, the paramedics are just amazingand and, you know, shout out to them.
And every time I meet a paramedic,whether it's, you know, they've helped
me or not, I just talk about how muchI love them and I love what they do.
So shout out paramedics.
You're awesome.
So anyways, so the paramedicsshow up and apparently the police
officers showed up and fire.
(08:03):
Truck and fighters showed up as well.
I don't remember this because at thatpoint I was just like, out of it, I
was so gray and so low blood pressure.
I couldn't even open my eyes.
I was sitting on the stairs and I, andI just knew I was like waiting for help.
And my husband was beside me.
And he was communicating with thepeople that had come to help me.
(08:25):
I was able to walk myself outto the gurney and so I didn't,
we didn't need the firefighters.
I think the police.
The policemen was talking to, to myhusband and I, I don't, I don't remember
that, but I remember looking up andseeing his face and going, oh, you
know, it looks like this guy named Mike,the guy that worked on your stairs.
And then, and then the next day,when I was talking to my husband,
I was like, wasn't there a mic?
Like didn't did Mike come?
(08:46):
And he's like, no, that was the policemen.
And he looked kind of like Mike.
So I thought that was funny thatI didn't remember a police officer
being there, but I remember seeingMike, the guy that did my stairs.
So.
Anyways at paramedics gave me crapcrap for waiting two hours before
calling them because apparently Imade their job more difficult and
I put myself in a worse condition.
(09:07):
So they said, you know,should this happen again?
When you feel it, you call you don't wait.
And it's so hard for me to, I mean,I can say, yeah, you're right.
Okay.
I will call I'm sorry, but.
You know, it's hard to go.
Do I need an ambulance right now?
Am I going to call 9 1 1?
Because they send all threeof those services, police,
fire, truck, and ambulance out.
(09:27):
When you call 9 1 1 is it, Idon't want to waste their time.
Like what, what if it is heartburn?
And I can just take Tumsand be relieved, right?
Like this is what I'm thinking.
What if it is asthma?
I know I can take myinhaler and feel fine.
How do I know that it's an emergency thatI actually need to call these people.
And I had a conversation with mymom about it, and my mom said, you
(09:49):
call, so now I'm passing this advicefrom mom to you, you call 9 1 1.
And when they get to you and you starthaving a conversation with them and
you feel okay, you can send them off.
You don't need to get in the ambulance,but it is much better to have those
people in your house and takingcare of you if you need it than to
need it and not have them there.
So if you're in a situation whereyou think, just think that you might
(10:14):
need help you call there's my advice.
There's my mom's advice.
Just take it.
It's smart.
So.
That happened.
And then I was I wasambulanced to the hospital.
They they were, theparamedics were really good.
They, whatever it was that they triedon me in in, and because, you know, my,
my my, my blood pressure was so low.
(10:34):
It makes them, it makes it difficultto find veins, you know, wherever
they put in the IV, it makes itdifficult for them to find it.
And I, I have You know, a hard time.
They, they have a hard time.
I should say, finding that anyways.
And then when my blood pressure is low,it just makes it almost impossible.
So I get like poked a lot whilethey're looking for these things.
I don't care.
Like I don't, I'm not Ihave a high pain tolerance.
(10:57):
Like it doesn't, it doesn't affectme if they need to poke me in
various places, as long as theyfind what they're looking for.
So that part is fine, but, andthen they tried some medicine.
I wish I knew, but I was, like I said,it was out of it, but they were laughing.
And I remember seeing the look on thetwo paramedics faces before we even
left my driveway while we were in theambulance, they had tried something and
then we're checking my heart rate andwhatever it was that they tried on me.
(11:19):
It, it started to work.
And my, my heart ratestarted to go up in my blood.
Started to increase again.
And so I was no longer in that scary zone.
I still I'm still out of it, but, butfrom their perspective and from a health
perspective, I guess I had, you know,I had shown signs of improvement and
they were laughing because I think it'stheir job to try this method first.
(11:43):
But.
Apparently it's never worked before.
So every single person that theyhave tried it on, it doesn't work.
And then they go to step two,whatever their step two method is.
First step is easier.
Doesn't work, try the second step.
But for me, the first step worked.
So they were like, so impressed withthat, that they told they're like, I
just want you to know that I've beenin this business for X amount of years
(12:04):
and I've done this X amount of times.
It has never worked,but for you, it works.
He's going to remember me and I'mcertainly going to remember him.
And I think that's amazing.
So it worked and I started to feel better.
I started to feel cold, so it was likeall the blood was there, but but I
was just not circulating it properly.
And I remember feeling like I was inhypothermic shock to the point where I
(12:26):
had like, I think six different blanketsput on me now I'm in the hospital,
they're adding more blankets to me.
They gave me heated blankets.
They gave me a heat pack for me tohold on to yeah, it was, it was like,
they were treating me for hypothermiaat that point, but eventually.
When we also, and I, another thing thatI remember about being in the hospital
was when they said, how do you feel?
(12:47):
And I said, I feel really cold.
And so they gave me more and theysaid, okay, but are you in pain?
Nope, I'm just cold.
And they said, that's good.
Like, we can deal with cold.
And I said, I can deal with cold to it.
And it was like, I was smiling.
Sure.
I might be in hypothermicshock, but I'm smiling.
And so that you know, it was good.
And then and then I was I don'tknow how long I was in the hospital.
I was released the next day.
(13:08):
It was not, it was less than 24hours that I was in the hospital.
At that point, I was noteven transferred to a room.
I just stayed in like the emergencysection until my mom came to pick me.
And then I was off andrecuperating for for three days.
I wasn't, I mean, like for morethan three days, I think it was
probably like closer to 10 dayswhere before I felt back to normal.
(13:31):
And even to this day, I haven't doneany exercise because I'm a little
afraid of what might happen to my heart.
So I've just been taking it easy.
I started walking again,but not running and yeah.
And I'm taking it slow.
I feel okay.
I feel like everything's okay.
I'm just trying to be cautious.
(13:51):
And and yeah, and they're still,they still don't know exactly.
What's what is wrong with myheart, but I do, I have gone two
more times back to the hospitalwithout scares just for them to do.
And the CT scans and whatever else.
So, so they're, they'recontinuing to check.
I have another appointment next week totalk to the doctor about what's happened.
So it's it, they'reconstantly looking at it.
(14:14):
They're not going to let it go.
I do hope that I am given some sortof proactive measure, whether it's
you know include this in your diet or.
Medicine, like, you know, if it'smedicine, whatever it is, I hope they
give me some sort of proactive attemptsbecause waiting to handle this as a
reactive measure is literally killing me.
Like it hurts it, that thepain that I have to go through.
(14:38):
It hurts and sure.
It's like once every 10 months, butI would rather it not happen at all.
So that has, that was what I went throughafter my eight week challenge and why
it's been a little bit more difficultto get back into the swing of things.
And then of course, after my heartfeels okay, and I'm sort of getting
back into the rhythm of things.
(14:59):
I then get a cold from my day.
And I don't mind because you know, whenthe kids give you cold, so you just
take it and it's better you than them.
So it's fine.
But it was just the app here.
I am sick again.
So that's, that's how it's been.
And one of the, another, one of thethings that my mom said in her with
her words of wisdom, was it, you know,it's pretty funny that coincidentally,
(15:21):
as soon as I stopped my eight leadchannel, And I say, I'm going to have
like an unhealthy meal or I don't careif I cheat and have a chocolate bar.
I mean, you know, and I w I was still goodabout it, but I just didn't care about
those like little cheats as reward system.
So having a chocolate was fine.
You know, and I, I didn't doit every day and it was okay.
My mom said, the minute you startedputting crap in your body, crap happens.
(15:43):
Now I'm going to say, mymom said it was swears.
I'm not going to swear.
You put crap in crap happens.
And I think that that's brilliant.
And if I had have said, if I hadhave, instead of said, Hey, this is
going to be an eight week challenge.
And at the end of eight weeks,I'm going to do whatever I want.
If I should have said, I'mgoing to start with eight weeks.
Not take a cheat day, thendo another eight weeks.
(16:04):
And Hey, guess what?
I just created a lifestyle change and notjust a silly little challenge for myself.
Maybe I wouldn't have endedup in the hospital with what
felt like a heart attack.
Maybe not.
Maybe I have this heart conditionthat I can't get rid of anyways.
But I just, you know,the timing is everything.
I ate a really bad meal.
(16:25):
I don't, I shouldn't say that, butanyways, it felt like I took some
cheats and I ate some bad stuff.
And then all of a sudden I'm backin the hospital with heart problems.
So.
It's just a coincidence or maybe it'snot, but I'm going to heed once more.
My mother's brilliant advice.
Don't put crap in the body.
And so there's that.
And the other thing, and I will, I willwrap this up shortly, but I will say that
(16:49):
since I haven't been able to exercise,but I still am able to watch what I eat.
I have not put any more pounds back onnow, when I, when I eat pork, You know,
if I have a bad meal, I might notice adifference on the scale by like a pound.
But I don't eat poorly every day.
(17:10):
I don't make poor choices.
Every meal, I have a littlecheat here and there, and then I
really watch my intake of food.
Excuse me.
That is my asthma catching up.
So I watch what I eat and I'mvery good about moderation and.
(17:30):
I'm very aware of everythingthat I put inside of me.
So even though I haven't been able todo my cardio exercise, excuse me again,
I should have a cup of water here.
So yeah, even though I am notable to do my cardio exercise,
but I am able to go for walks.
I've managed to, to tokeep the weight off.
(17:53):
And to me.
I haven't been able to lose anymore, but I have been able to
maintain the weight that I achieved.
And I'm really proud of that.
And I think that's important toknow, like for those people that
really don't want to exercise, itturns out you don't really need to.
And I will talk about that inthe Q and a future posts as well.
You don't need to exercise.
You do need to move, but walking is okay.
(18:13):
So so yeah, like, I, I don't, as much asI loved that cardio workout and I will
like, if anyone wants to know that cardioworkout, I will for sure give it, and
I will talk about, you know, that greatteacher, great detail, if anyone wants to
know, but but it's not, you don't need it.
You really need to the food,all the food that you put in
(18:33):
your body that is important.
And and I.
Walk a little bit and move a little bit.
Don't just stay still, but you don'tneed to do any sort of lifting weights.
You don't need to doa core cardio workout.
You can maintain a healthy weight wjust by, by eating the right foods.
(18:54):
So that's how I'm goingto wrap this one up.
I hope you enjoyed this podcastand we'll see you again soon.
Thanks for listening toMental Health and Me.
If you enjoyed this episode,please be sure to subscribe.
And if you feel it can helpsomeone please share with them.
We don't have to struggle alone.
Break the stigmasurrounding mental health.
Let's talk about it.
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