The Heart Attack That Wasn't

My family (on my father's side) has a history of heart attacks. His grandmother died when she was 47 of one, and he had one last year at the age of 48. I can happily say that my father is fine, and healthier now than he was before, but it was definitely the scariest thing my family has ever experienced. While my dad was in the hospital, his doctor told my brother and I that we both needed to get ourselves checked out just to be safe, seeing that this type of thing runs in our family. You're never too young to prevent. Naturally, I didn't take his advice. I'm only 23 for Heaven's sake!

Sunday night as we were laying down watching TV before bed, I noticed that my vision started blurring. Everything that I tried focusing on was a blur yet I could see everything to the sides of said thing just fine. I chalked it up to watching too much TV over the rainy weekend. After closing my eyes and vowing to stop looking at the TV, I explained my issue to Raymond and sure enough, while I was looking at him, his mouth and nose were blurry. At that point I insisted that I just needed sleep. So with the beginning stages of a small headache I took some Ibuprofen and drifted off to dreamland.

Just short of an hour later, I woke up with a splitting migraine on the right side of my head that lead into my jaw, neck, and shoulder. Growing up I was used to getting migraines, but I have been lucky enough to not have one in almost a decade. That being said, this pain I was having was not how I remembered a migraine to be, and immediately thought something was a little off. Shortly after, I started feeling shortness of breath, dizziness, and nausea. Once again, something just wasn't right.

After a few trips to the medicine cabinet, I gave up and tried to go back to sleep. The pain on my right side just got worse, and I started to notice a tingling in my fingertips. Within minutes, my entire left hand and arm were numb and that's when I freaked out. After googling heart attack symptoms in women with one eye closed and a noodle-like arm (not easy by the way), I woke Raymond up in tears, sure that I was having a heart attack. He assured me that I wasn't and sat there patiently with me rubbing my arm, and finally calmed me down enough to convince me to take a hot shower. After a long 30 minutes, I had feeling in my arm back and was calm enough to lay down again. Finally around 2 AM I was able to drift off to sleep.

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Monday morning I called my dad to inform him and get his expert opinion (dad's know all, duh) on the situation, and in the end we concluded that I indeed did not have a heart attack, and it was just an anxiety attack. Apparently my mom started getting anxiety attacks when she was the age that I am now, and my dad also gets them from time to time. Just another thing to thank the 'rents for passing down to me! Thanks, mom and dad!

But really, I am thankful that I am ok, and that I wasn't having a heart attack. Now I need to go make myself an appointment to actually get checked out. And if you read all the way to this point, thank you and I'm sorry.

Random Recap

My weekend was completely random and almost completely boring thanks to being unable to move around too much...

Raymond went out Sunday morning to pick up breakfast and brought back tacos... and an extra one just for Guero. I cannot get over how spoiled rotten he is!


Big head, Sitting on daddy's lap, Nap time


Being forced to sit still and move with caution really makes me realize how much just walking to the car can do for a person. I Cannot wait to heal and get back to our usual weekend water volleyball games and working out. I'm weighing the options of canceling my gym membership. I really want to get into running (seriously) again and I don't feel like I can do it on a treadmill. I want to invest in some DVDs such as Brazilian butt lift and some yoga videos.


Taking care of mama while daddy works


I ended up making a sprinkle cake for our friends' going away party the other week. It actually turned out pretty cute but my crappy cell phone picture just doesn't do it justice. I will say that the entire thing got wolfed down before the other gourmet cake that was there. Homemade for the win!

Here in Austin there are a few bridges that are known for housing bats. A lot of people will go stand on/under the bridges and wait for them to fly out. There are so so many bats all at once and it really is a pretty neat thing to see.We went to dinner with some friends on Friday evening where we sat outside on the patio. The restaurant is close to one of the bridges (old McNeil and I35 for you locals) and we just so happened to catch all of the bats. I just wanted a picture and wasn't expecting anything good because it was on my cell phone, but I ended up with this really amazing picture of R throwing up the Horns.

Obviously I've been having to take pictures with my cell phone and it's because my digital just blows these days, and am in the market for a new one. I don't want anything big and fancy but something that will still take quality pictures without breaking the bank. I would love any recommendations!

Saturday night I was actually able to get out of the house again for a few hours and it was to wish my BFF a happy birthday. She's an old lady now (29) so I had to make sure I could be at her party in support of her last year as a 20-something. Happy birthday again, Val! Love you, ya old hag! ;)

PS My aunt is having foot surgery today, so any prayers and well wishes sent her way would be greatly appreciated!

Today, we're cookin' with butter, y'all!

Sweet ol' Paula Deen has Type 2 Diabetes. Shocker, right??

This morning as I was getting ready for work in the gym locker room while I was watching GMA. The guest was Paula Deen. By absolutely no means do I think it's funny or am satisfied that she's been diagnosed with such a crappy disease. Seriously, diabetes is not a joking matter and takes lives all the time.

In 2011 alone, 1.9 million people aged 20 and over, were diagnosed, bringing the grand total to 18.8 people ever diagnosed. You can view more stats here.

Now what really gets my butter churnin' (pun intended), is that PD was diagnosed 3 years ago. She wanted to keep her condition private because she "had to figure things out in my own head...I had nothing to give with my fellow friends out there."

Give me a break, woman! Okay, I get it... you're struggling to figure out what the next step in life is and how you're going to handle it. Let me help you out, DON'T continue to endorse eating the WORST foods possible. Don't tell people to use 8 sticks (exaggeration) of butter in a lasagna. It's ridiculous!

And yes, I know, butter is not the only thing that causes diabetes. I just feel like people that are put in the spot light should know that they are being watched by millions of people. Don't they want to help people, or is everything just about making a buck these days?

It frustrates me beyond belief that now she is saying I've always said "in moderation". "Honey, I'm your cook, not your doctor... you are going to have to be responsible for yourself." No, YOU listen honey, I'm pretty sure she didn't develop this disease by eating moderatly and these meals being only 30 out of 365 that she eats. She needs to get over herself, stop back peddling and just own up to it. Yep, you eat like crap, you're gonna look and feel like crap. She should use her fame and new-found disease to change the way people eat and prepare their meals. Duh.

While she is right that everyone is responsible for their own self, she needs to realize that includes HER too. Basically, she wants everyone to feel sorry for her for being unhealthy, but she still wants to make millions off of her unhealthy recipes. Get ovah yourself, lady!

I thought her wake-up call would have been being smacked in the face with a turkey. Guess not.

Okay, rant over with.

What do you think about PD's disease news?



Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or nutritionist, these thoughts and opinions are my own. Also, this post is in no way meant to be personal, and is strictly good-hearted, and meant to be helpful.