Jenny Michael, WELCA churchwide president, placed that tag line on me when I became out of sorts recently. Jenny said I’d get my groove back. I hope she’s right!
It all started with an incident of syncope back in April. Syncope, or unexplained fainting, occurs when your body reacts to certain triggers. Apparently in this incident my trigger was a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure. Who knew? I certainly didn’t! My diligent local physician’s assistant insisted there is a reason for this occurrence, and I thought “well sure, we are a family of fainters but we’ve never check out each occurrence.”
Turns out she has my best heart health as her main priority. I love this lady! She asked me to wear a 48-hour heart monitor which was no big deal. The results almost made me faint. (Ha ha.) There were many times in that 48- hour period when my heart rate didn’t exceed 50 beats per minute (normal is about 73 beats give or take) and the lowest was 36 which happened several times.
Now I’m beginning to get serious about my heart health. My father has given his children a legacy of heart issues that keeps cardiologists in business. Heart disease can be a silent killer among women because the symptoms women often experience are unlike those of men.
Yes, my groove was off! This is how I’m going to get my groove back. I have scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist, I’ve written down symptoms unlike me for the last few months (no energy, sleepy, memory bank a little more off than usual), I’ve been a little more careful with my movements, I’ve thought about questions to ask and have done a little research so that the cardiologist’s questions may not surprise me. I’m going into this with a proactive attitude.
I also reacquainted myself with the WELCA resource, Our Journey to Wellness, and rediscovered great information about why all this matters. I hope everyone looks again to this helpful resource about the vitality of being healthy physically, emotionally and spiritually. I have many friends and family supporting me (although I resisted and pushed back for a few weeks) in many ways while awaiting my results. It’s not such a scary medical world with a support network. Knowledge is power.
Everyone wants this Stella to get her groove back but no one more than me! I am worthy of this effort!
Syd Brinkman is serving a second term on the churchwide executive board. She’s living her heart-healthy life in Allison, Iowa.