 I was a very active parent. I had small children. I worked in a high school with teenagers. After I had my heart attack, I didn't really have any choice. All of that had to change. One of the results of my heart attack is spending time with my family, my grandkids, my daughter. My sisters and I are still very close and we do a lot of things together. I started thinking, well, this could really happen to me. It's only been seven weeks and it's not reality yet. Heart disease is the number one killer of women in America. It can lead to heart attack, disabilities, even death. But what's really surprising is how few women are concerned about it. The heart truth is, anyone can have heart disease, even you. After I had my first heart attack, it occurred to me at that point that this was for real and that I really did have heart disease and that it wasn't going away. And I got real depressed and I thought, you know, if I live to be 40, I need to have a party and I don't want anything black, none of the over the hill. That was the plan. If I live to be 40, then I have this great party. I made it to 40. I had my party and then I had my second heart attack and I ended up having to have open heart surgery, which was a pretty scary prospect for both me and my family. And we really had to change just about everything we did. We're going whitewater rafting. Things have definitely been different. We try to make sure we eat dinner together every day. We just make the time they're spending together. As cardiologists, we see women far too late. They've already come in with their first heart attack or their first angioplasty. So we clearly need to identify these women early and treat their risk aggressively. The main risk factors that lead to heart disease are many. And when you start adding up your risk factors, of course your risk increases. One of the ones we can change is our genetic history, who our parents are. Our parents have had heart disease, especially at an early age that predisposes us to have heart disease. The things that we can work on and can change are very important. And first one, especially for women, is smoking. Women need to stop smoking, all smoking. The other risk factors include high blood pressure, diabetes, high bad cholesterol, low good cholesterol, inactivity and obesity. Many women have no idea that heart disease is their number one killer. When you start to have more than one risk factor, the risk of heart disease goes up tremendously. When I did take Joan to the hospital, and she said we were driving, coming back home, and she mentioned, hmm, I still have this pain in my shoulder. I should go to the hospital. And I said, you should and you will. I did smoke heavy, but I thought that the heart attack was for old men. And I knew I was too young to have a heart attack. I first started experiencing the muscle pull feeling about three days before. It was just in the shoulder. My doctor told me that if I have another heart attack, I may not make it through because my heart was damaged. Extensively. I had no choice but to change everything in my life. And although I thought I was healthy then, I've got a much broader concept of health now. I woke up at four in the morning with really bad heartburn. Took a couple of anacet tablets, but it got worse instead of better. And I went to work that morning. And I must have looked as bad as I felt because the co-worker came up to me and said, are you okay? You look really bad. I said, no, not okay, which is not something I easily admit. I have to feel pretty bad to say that. All right, I need an ambulance here. And it turned out that I had had a small heart attack. And I'm a little young for that, so it was a shock. When the doctor actually told me that I had a heart attack. Much more heart and muscle damage. It didn't sink in. I had a heart attack. What do you mean? I had a heart attack. It's not quite as scary. And there have been changes in my life. I hear my heart when I'm laying down to go to sleep at night. I hear my heart, and you will if you try it, but you don't realize it. The things that are on the peripheral have come in to focus, and I pay a lot more attention, walking a little bit more, not smoking. And what I eat, just really simple things that I never thought of before. Around the house, I've been kind of sneaking in more healthy food. And just behind her back, like, you know, making things more healthy for her, and just trying to get her to go and work out more and take care of herself better. My mom is very young to be having a heart attack at this age. And it really triggers something in my head that would make me think about it, and now I know that it's in my family. So I should be a lot more careful with myself than I have been. I think for women, especially when they hear breast cancer, that's just it. Breast cancer is the worst possible thing that could happen. And it is a horrible thing. We can't say that it's not or belittle it in any sense. It's very traumatic. But heart disease still remains the number one killer of women. I've been working with cardiac patients for 15 years. I kind of denied that this could possibly happen to me. And then when it happened to my mom, my uncle, my sister, I started saying, well, this could happen to me. It's genetic. That's really when I started waking up and saying I really have to do something to prevent having a heart attack. One of the risk factors that I had, and I think a lot of women have, is smoking. Smoking is something that if you do, you really should quit. And I walk in there and just lay down there. When my mom had her heart attack, she had a very small heart attack. And at the time the doctors told her she would recover fully and she really didn't expect her to have any problems. She wasn't really given a lot of education either about, you know, preventing more heart attacks or preventing any type of heart disease in the future. A year and a half later, she was back in the hospital having open heart surgery. My daughter Susan, she helped me a lot. Without her help, I don't think I would have made it. One of the things that women need to know is that you need to start from today. And that today is a new day and you need to look at losing weight and changing diet and being physically active as an important way to improve overall health and to certainly decrease their risk of heart attack. See your doctor, know your risks, and take steps to control them. Stop smoking, control diabetes, cholesterol, and blood pressure. Maintain a healthy weight. Stay active, follow a heart-healthy eating plan, and take all prescribed medications. When I first came home from the hospital and actually for some time after, I was very frightened. I was scared. It was really tough to go to bed at night because I wasn't sure I was going to wake up the next day. And I knew I needed to do something to find a new way to handle my own anxiety. And that's when I was able to start the support group at the hospital. And it really helped me sort of get back into that road to recovery and feel like there was life after a cardiac event. It is possible to make changes. It's hard, but it's possible. And it's possible to be healthy. I'm very proud of my mother now. If you have your family to support you, you can make it through anything. Staying healthy takes determination, knowledge, and action. The heart truth is, heart disease doesn't need to be the number one killer of women. It's up to you.