Tomorrow, February 6th is National Wear Red Day, a day set apart to raise awareness for heart disease in women.  http://www.goredforwomen.org/  Needless to say, I'll be all decked out in crimson.  How about you?

Obviously, this cause hits very close to home.  Not only am I a woman and a heart attack survivor, I was almost misdiagnosed, in my opinion, due to my age and gender. 

On the morning of January 1st, 2005, I experienced severe chest pain, shortness of breath and tingling in my left arm.  The ambulance came, took my vitals and asked me a few questions.  I was 2 weeks postpartum- had I been unusually stressed or anxious lately? (Yes)  Had I ever have a panic attack?  (Yes)  Did I think I might be having one right now?  (Possibly)  As I answered the paramedics, the tightness in my chest began to subside.  Finally, they asked me the most important questions of all.

Do you want to go to the hospital?  Do you think you need to?

Had I been a 50 year old man presenting with the same symptoms, I would have been on my way to the ER, no questions asked.  But because I was a 'healthy' young woman, it was assumed that my problem was probably psychological.   I was an overwhelmed Mommy with too much on my plate- there was no need to go to the hospital to diagnose that.

 Fortunately, I could feel the tightness in my chest beginning to return and I decided to get it checked out.  Something just didn't feel right.  Better to be safe than sorry, no?   Less than 4 hours later, they were sawing open my sternum in an attempt to repair my badly damaged heart.  Had I decided to wait it out at home, I would have died. 

Just today, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who has been experiencing shortness of breath.  It's probably nothing, she said, stating that she was embarrassed to go to the doctor if the problem was 'all in her head'.  Its a sentiment I hear echoed by many women I speak to.  Our ailments are often dismissed by the medical community and are attributed to stress, anxiety or our imagination.

So tomorrow, I'll be wearing my red V-neck sweater that shows off my very real surgical scar.  I wear red to remind myself and every woman in my life that it is we who know our bodies best and when our instincts tell us that something within us is going awry we deserve to be heard.