Helping Hands for A Heart Attack Survivor:

Last week Tamie had a hysterectomy due to complications with her uterus. She has been in pain for quite a while waiting on her surgery date. During the waiting game, she and her family were thrown a lot of curve balls.

They were dealing with close family sickness, a daughter with an autoimmune disorder that was causing complications, the home they have rented for 17 years was suddenly put up for sale, their cat was attacked by a coyote and when taken to an emergency vet in the middle of the night, they had to put him down.

Tamie has run a home daycare for 24 years, she is very loved and respected as a caregiver. Her husband is an EA so summers are a little more of a struggle, they have always made it work. She has 3 "kids". They are 25, 20, and 18 and she cares for her 2 grandchildren. Her two younger kids live at home and they are all trying to come together to find a new home with the crazy rental prices. We all see the struggle. We all feel the struggle.

She and her family have been under immense stress with one thing after another.

It all seems to come crashing down Tuesday night. She and her son were the only ones home, he is usually in his room downstairs but thankfully he was in the living room upstairs. Tamie laid down to rest, having had the hysterectomy a week prior and being unable to close her daycare for more than 1 week, she enlisted the help of her husband to help keep it open. She can't do anything for 6 weeks. They were working together to make things work. When Tamie lay down, something happened. She instantly started having difficulty breathing, was badly convulsing, couldn't talk and was having difficulty moving. After some struggle, she was finally able to get her son's attention. He called her best friend to come quickly and bring her some Ativan as she thought it was anxiety. When the friend arrived, it was clear it was bad. 911 was called. Her husband raced home and took over. Attendants arrived very quickly and started helping her through it. They were all absolutely amazing. They said they thought it was a really bad anxiety attack and they recommended going to the hospital to get checked out, she did just have the hysterectomy and sometimes it is something internally wrong that is causing the panic attack. After many many tests, they determined she had a heart attack. This young, very healthy and active lady had a heart

She was put on blood thinners and other meds and a lot is a blur. She was sent to VGH Friday am for an angiogram. The heart looks good, with 50% blockage in one spot (not a concern) and she will follow up for more info in a few weeks.

While there, she was approached by the cardiac research team who wanted her as a part of their ongoing research on MINOCA which they diagnosed her with. (Interesting read for women, check it out). Bc she had no prior signs of an issue, no high blood pressure, perfect cholesterol and excellent blood work until now, they want to have women who experience this to be a part of the research to find ways to prevent or know more at least.

She was back to LMH that evening; but since the Wednesday she had been having some issues from the hysterectomy that had been pushed aside due to the heart issues. Thankfully on her return, two nurses advocated for her and got internal medicine to get a hold of Gyno. They were greatly concerned, sent to emergency CT, and found an infection and abscess. Quickly onto IV meds and back on monitors.

Her work is full-blown on hold and being self-employed we know what that means.

This family is so kind, and loving and always there to help when someone needs it.

I know we are all struggling and we all have stress but the amount of immense stress to one family all at once is just cruel. It doesn't seem to ever end.

If you are able to help in any way at all, even just a few dollars, it would help so so much. If you aren't in a position to help, we totally get it, this is a crazy time. All we ask is to please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you for reading and sharing.