Heartland Hospice serving North Central Indiana recently coordinated a blood drive with their neighbor, Senior Helpers. My story is the same story as too many other women and it IS costing us our lives.” We definitely have to advocate for ourselves, too. As women, and especially for myself as a mother, we tend to get so busy taking care of others that we don’t always recognize when we need cared for. I’m doing this for every woman who was ever told her life-threatening heart condition was stress, anxiety, her weight or all in her head. When I saw the statistic that women are seven times more likely to be misdiagnosed when having a heart attack, I had this urgency to share everything I went through. To me, it is very important to share my story, especially with other women. We were lucky enough to have meals delivered to our porch from our friends and church family.
I returned home a few days later after surgery where my husband, son and family took care of me. A good friend of ours is a runner and he would run laps around the hospital and wave to me through my window as he passed by. They came in my room to visit and pass along their support and prayers. I was very fortunate to have many staff members who had heard my story through mutual friends. But I spent the rest of my hospital stay without any friends and family.
My husband could come in for one hour before the surgery and got to wait for updates during surgery. I waited two days in the hospital alone for my open heart surgery. Unfortunately, this all happened in April 2020 and COVID-19 restrictions were very heavy. They did a cardiac catheterization and not only confirmed I had a heart attack, but that I had multiple arteries that would require bypasses. My EKG was normal, but when they drew cardiac indicators, my troponin was elevated which pointed them to the suspicion of a heart attack. Three days after I was released from the hospital with no real answer to my symptoms, I was back in the ER with excruciating neck and jaw pain. They did end up finding a kidney stone, so I was sent to a urologist who said he didn’t know what was going on with my symptoms but that it wasn’t a kidney stone. I thought I was having a gallbladder attack, but imaging showed my gallbladder looked fine. “I went to the ER for nausea, vomiting and pain between my shoulder blades. Mia Albert, account liaison for Heartland Hospice serving North Central Indiana, shares her story to help educate women on risk and what to look for in case of a heart attack: Hearing survival stories from women living with heart disease make the facts and figures we read come to life. Sharing a story from the heart is powerful. Books may be borrowed for any length of time needed and patrons are asked to return the book to the library once they are finished reading it so that it may also benefit others. The grief resource library is available to any interested parties and can be found at 1151 S. For more information on this valuable resource, visit the website. The ProMedica Hospice Memorial Fund enables grant-making to Heartland Hospice patients and families in the amount of $500-$1,500 to seven potential categories, including funding bereavement resources such grief libraries, end-of-life wish fulfillment, grief camps for children, community memorial services, caregiver transition expenses, educational events, and supporting patients and families in financial distress. These materials were supported by a grant from the ProMedica Hospice Memorial Fund, a financial resource that is generously supported by grateful patients and their families as well as donations in memory of individuals who have passed away.
This library contains numerous books on a variety of grief-related topics, both specific to memory loss and of a more general nature.
MYTIME PROMEDICA INSTALL
Because of this progression of grief, Norene and her team partnered with their local Alzheimer’s/Dementia Services of Northern Indiana to install a free grief resources lending library. Often referred to as “The Long Goodbye”, individuals suffering from memory disorders, as well as their families and caregivers, often experience grief and loss throughout the progression of illness as abilities are lost, as well as upon the individual’s passing. She sensed a need within her local community for greater and more accessible resources, especially amongst individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related memory disorders. As a volunteer coordinator at Heartland Hospice serving North Central Indiana, Norene frequently provides her team with resources to support patients and their families through the grieving process. Norene Smith is the proud recipient of a grant from the ProMedica Hospice Memorial Fund to purchase grief and bereavement materials for a free grief resource library in her local community.
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