Four years ago, Roslyn Harvey, now 62, was taken by surprise.
A registered nurse and busy person, who considered herself to be generally healthy, began feeling sick one Friday night after work.
But she had a program she was giving at church the next day and still had to finish up preparations. She sat down at the table to work and felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. “What’s that all about?” she wondered to herself, but shrugged it off.
During the night, she had some discomfort in her back, and woke up with what she thought was indigestion. She turned to her standby mixture of baking soda and water, and went back to bed.
The next morning added nausea and vomiting to the list. But she brushed them off and convinced herself that she was on the mend. She was still feeling a little ill, yet was able to continue going about her day. She got dressed and went to her event, where she gave a 45-minute presentation.
“People told me later, that while I was speaking, I kept touching my chest, though I didn’t realize it,” Harvey said.
At different times throughout the morning, she had diarrhea and more vomiting. She felt weak and was sweating (even though it was 2 degrees outside). She didn’t tell anyone what she was feeling, and as soon as the event was over, she drove herself home and laid down.
After a while, she realized she had to do something. She lived alone, and was afraid something would happen and nobody would know. She called her brother, who told her to call 9-1-1. She insisted he come and get her, which he did. They entered the emergency room at a local hospital at 11:35 a.m., and soon found out she was having a heart attack. By 3:35 p.m., she had two stents and was in the Intensive Care Unit. By Monday, she was home. And two weeks later, back at work.
“I had one completely blocked artery and another one that was partially blocked,” Harvey said. “The doctor put a stent in each one.”
In hindsight, Harvey said she had been short of breath going up steps in recent months, but had attributed it to that pesky 15 or 20 pounds she wanted to lose.
“And I could walk a long way without being out of breath, so I never considered that I was in bad health – and certainly never thought about it being heart-related,” she said.
She had also been a little tired when she got home from work at night, but she had recently started a new job with longer hours. There again, it was easy to assign another cause.
She does have some family history of heart disease, though she never previously thought she was affected.
Since her heart attack, Harvey has lost 20 pounds and does cardio workouts at least three times per week. She has become an advocate of talking about heart disease – especially to women.
“I talk about healthy eating, and the importance of knowing your family’s history of heart disease,” Harvey said. “And I tell them my story. People are amazed at what happened. Symptoms of a heart attack in women can be very different than you expect. They can be very atypical, like mine were.”
Reading food labels has also become very important for Harvey, and she said when she goes out to eat, she is very conscious of what is in (and on) the food she orders.
“I always order any sauce or salad dressing on the side, I avoid fried foods most of the time, and I control portions,” she said. “That’s the key – moderation. You can have some of your favorite foods occasionally, as a treat.
“I eat because I live; I don’t live to eat,” she said.
She said the American Heart Association helped her tremendously through her recovery process, with things like educational resources, eating guidelines and soul food recipes.
Harvey is a registered nurse, and the assistant vice president of Health Center Operations at Affinia Healthcare in St. Louis. She is now on four different medications, sees her cardiologist annually and stresses the fact that if you feel anything out of the ordinary, you should pay attention and have it checked out with your doctor.
