You Can't Control How You Die....But You Can Control How You Live!

Just an update to let you know that so far my heart is looking good. A tiny bulge in the atrial septum (which could be something I was born with), which is the reason for the "bubble test". I can tell you that as a nurse, you are taught to NEVER push air through a patients veins intentionally....so to watch a nurse (even a seasoned cardiac nurse) push saline/air 3 times in your body while watching for bubbles in the heart is a strange experience!! I still haven't figured out what keeps you from having an embolism! I Will find out the results of that test hopefully Monday (which tells me that if there is a hole, if so, it must not be huge since they let me go home last night)!





But other than that, I seem to be heart healthy!! The EKG was not totally normal, but seems to be an age related change. All in all, it was a scary 24 hours, but I feel certain that I have been checked out well!! Vanderbilt Heart did not let me down (other than when the intake nurse told me to remove my "training bra" and shared that the kind of stress test I was having was the "big one before the heart cath!)!! They took good care of me, and put up with me asking a million questions and wanting to see every picture they were taking! Apparently I nailed the treadmill test! They told me that if I was flying within the next 3 days the radioactive material would show up on the detectors at the airport, so I would need a note! Very comforting that all that work I have done to DETOX my body has now been messed up with radioactive isotopes! Looks like I am back on the DETOX Monday!





Lessons learned:





1. DON'T wait until you think your are having a heart attack (or stroke etc) to find out your family history! It may just be too late to do anything about it at that point. You can't fight genetics!!


2. You ARE what you eat!!! So don't be on your way to the hospital thinking about all of the years you ate processed, fast, not REAL food and wondering if the damage done is too much to reverse!!


3. If you are reading this (doesn't matter how old you are).....MAKE lifestyle changes NOW and take your life back! I am a poster child for believing I am bullet proof and famous for too many years of burning the candle at both ends and thriving on more, more, more!! It will kill, kill, kill you!! I promise!


4. Get out an move!!! Even if you are only walking 10 minutes at a time, do that 2-3 times at least 3-5 days a week and start pumping some blood through your veins!!!


5. Realize that no matter what, ultimately we are not in control of when or where we might take our last breathe! But it IS in our control to live the best, cleanest, most pure life we can while we are given the GIFT of life (and yes, it is a GIFT)!! Kiss/hug/ your kids and anyone your love daily...because you don't know that when you leave the house that morning that you will be returning that evening! (and yes Jackson, I am preaching on death again!)


6. You can't control how you die....but you can control how you LIVE!!!


7. Breathe!!!





I have been telling my patients daily to pick up Dr. Josh Axes new cookbook called : The Real Food Diet ! It is loaded with EDUCATION and amazing REAL FOOD recipes! If you are not familiar with Dr. Axe, I would highly recommend that you find his Facebook page and also sign up for his newsletter! He is a chiropractor in town that is a genius in my opinion on nutrition and living a CLEAN lifestyle. He sends us patients weekly as I do him! Check him out! You won't be sorry! I am making his famous Kale chips today!





Thanks guys for the prayers, calls, texts, emails.....I am doing well! But, you can bet that this encounter with my mortality has opened my eyes and my heart to what it really means to LIVE LIFE....and I intend to do a better job it it......starting NOW!





~Peace,


Dani