Extra emotional stress during the holidays is a dangerous health risk, especially between buying gifts on a budget, sending cards to everyone you know and attending one social gathering after another.
It may be that the season for "giving" can give you a holiday headache or something much more severe like a heart attack.
For Tuleta Spellman, 60 the holidays, end of the year exams for her 4th grade class, and her first grandchild's impending birth added to the pressure of her day to day life.
"It was just stuff, just everyday stuff," said Spellman.
That's why last Saturday, she didn't think twice about what she thought was indigestion instead she took some Tums and went about her day.
"All of a sudden, wham! I mean the pain was sudden and intense, and right in the middle of my chest," said Spellman.
The intense pain got Spellman's attention and got her thinking about the family genes. Both her father and brother had died relatively young as a result of sudden heart attacks.
"I had started to sweat and I had remembered from my brother that was one of the symptoms," said Spellman.
EMS workers arrived within five minutes of her call to 9-1-1. She received an aspirin and was hooked up to an EKG monitor.
"They had done an EKG and it was not quite normal, it wasn't way abnormal - it was just a little bit of a blip," said Spellman.
That blip was a heart attack.
Spellman was rushed to St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital where a cardiac catheterization teams got to work unblocking her artery.
"Time is heart muscle, the longer that you wait the longer time there is before blood gets back into the heart - the more damage there is," said Dr. Pranav Loyalka with the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital.
Doctor Loyalka oversaw the process, which not only saved Spellman's life but also allowed her to walk away from the heart attack damage free.
"The MRI was clear, the echo cardiogram was clear. So, I am probably the luckiest human being on the planet," said Spellman.
It may be that the season for "giving" can give you a holiday headache or something much more severe like a heart attack.
For Tuleta Spellman, 60 the holidays, end of the year exams for her 4th grade class, and her first grandchild's impending birth added to the pressure of her day to day life.
"It was just stuff, just everyday stuff," said Spellman.
That's why last Saturday, she didn't think twice about what she thought was indigestion instead she took some Tums and went about her day.
"All of a sudden, wham! I mean the pain was sudden and intense, and right in the middle of my chest," said Spellman.
The intense pain got Spellman's attention and got her thinking about the family genes. Both her father and brother had died relatively young as a result of sudden heart attacks.
"I had started to sweat and I had remembered from my brother that was one of the symptoms," said Spellman.
EMS workers arrived within five minutes of her call to 9-1-1. She received an aspirin and was hooked up to an EKG monitor.
"They had done an EKG and it was not quite normal, it wasn't way abnormal - it was just a little bit of a blip," said Spellman.
That blip was a heart attack.
Spellman was rushed to St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital where a cardiac catheterization teams got to work unblocking her artery.
"Time is heart muscle, the longer that you wait the longer time there is before blood gets back into the heart - the more damage there is," said Dr. Pranav Loyalka with the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital.
Doctor Loyalka oversaw the process, which not only saved Spellman's life but also allowed her to walk away from the heart attack damage free.
"The MRI was clear, the echo cardiogram was clear. So, I am probably the luckiest human being on the planet," said Spellman.
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