PLATTSBURGH — Friday, Nov. 17, 2017.
Bridgette Arthur was young, active and experiencing classic heart-attack symptoms — tight chest, pain radiating down her left arm and slowly moving to her right side.
Her body was cold.
The pain lasted about 20 minutes, and she attributed her physical sensations to over extending herself at the gym.
IN DENIAL
The next morning, she went to teach water aerobics classes at the Wellness Center.
Though the pain returned to her chest and arms, she powered through the two classes before seeking medical evaluation.
Tests revealed her troponins levels were over 10, which signaled a heart attack to the cardiac team at the University of Vermont Health Network, Champlain Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh.
Dr. Joel M. Wolkowicz told her she had a spontaneous coronary artery dissection, an emergency condition that occurs when a tear forms in a blood vessel in the heart.
“I looked him and said, 'OK. Why?'”
“He said, 'I don't know,” she said. “'But stress is never a good thing.'”
Arthur was admitted and received a catherization.
This is not what her focus was when she shared her survivor story at the recent Stepping Out For Your Heart sponsored by The Foundation of CVPH.
'EMERALD CITY'
Arthur shared her journey of recovery with the gala's attendees that packed the West Side Ballroom.
“Now this whole time I've always been told that any questions you have will be answered in Cardiac Rehab,” said Arthur, who is 39.
“I felt it was like Oz and going to the Emerald City. It's not far off because when you enter that Cardiac Rehab lab, things are in color and there is a different energy.”
Pam Ryan, a certified clinical exercise physiologist, met with her, went through her medications, explained that the reason Arthur was there was so that they could monitor her while she exercised.
If there was a problem, she was at the hospital and the doctors were just upstairs.
Arthur was briefed that all different types of people, various ages with different stories would use the lab.
There, they could share or not share their stories.
YOGA EPIPHANY
The next day, a stress management workshop was offered.
Ryan and Arthur's mother thought it would be a good idea for her to attend.
“Because as part of Cardiac Rehab, they do encourage your family members to take part,” Arthur said.
“They have just as many questions, and their lives changed just as much as ours did, and I thanked them for it.”
She went to the workshop, sat there and pondered how she used to do yoga and enjoy it, but then she stopped.
She realized she had to make a change.
NEW BEGINNING
Her first official day in the lab fell on the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday in 2018.
“So for all of you who have never been to Cardiac Rehab, when you first walk in, Pam and Shirley (Doolen, a nurse) greet you and they hook you up with these three-stitch probes,” Arthur said.
“I'm sure there is a medical term, but that's how I look at them.”
They noted her resting heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels.
“And then, they would say, 'Go!'” Arthur said.
“We would exercise. First, we had to stretch. They always had to remind us of that — I think it was because we were a too little excited to start exercising.”
The clinic was equipped with treadmills, ellipticals, Aerodyne bikes, rollers and weights.
As she worked out, her heart rate was monitored, and she was asked what her perceived rate of exertion was.
“As things seemed to get a little easier, they encouraged us to go a little faster, to work a little harder,” Arthur said.
NUTRITION FACTOR
After about two weeks in cardiac rehab, she was asked if she wanted to attend Stepping Out for Your Heart.
“I said yes,” Arthur said.
“And while I was just sitting over there last year, two major things happened. Dr. Slim gave a presentation on estrogen, women and the heart.
“My doctor told me I had to get off birth control. Let's just say I was a little angry about that, but I realized I had to get over that anger and work with my doctors.”
When she first entered cardiac rehab, her focus getting back to doing the things she was doing. She had put nutrition on the back burner because she didn't have time to deal with it but needed to.
The next week, she sampled green smoothies.
“If you had told me I'd be eating green smoothies or drinking green smoothies, I would have looked at you and said, 'You're crazy,” Arthur said.
“I like them. I drink them every day now. My family thinks I'm a little odd. My brother calls it my green sludge in the fridge.”
Email Robin Caudell:
Twitter:@RobinCaudell
This is Part 1 of a two-part series, "Too young for a heart attack: Bridgette Arthur's survivor story."
See Part 2 in next week's Health & Fitness section in the Press-Republican.
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