The under-appreciated joy of making a meat loaf

[cave76]

This is a recipe (and blog) by a woman who had a heart attack and survived, in spite of doctors in the ER telling her she 'just had indigestion'.

She's now a speaker and blogger and has won awards. The emphasis is for women but not exclusively.

Her newest article is

The under-appreciated joy of making a meat loaf | Heart Sisters

I have permission to post this, but it may be too long. But the last paragraph is funny and I'll put that here:


" YET ANOTHER NOTE FROM CAROLYN to my vegetarian/animal-loving friends: Please do NOT send me any tofu/nut/seed/soy/lentil alternative recipes for your I-Can’t Believe-It’s-Not-Meat-Loaf. When I feel nostalgic for my mother’s meat loaf, I am NOT craving anything but the real thing. Thank you."

 

[PrincessFiona60]

LOL!!!! That is funny and how I feel about MY food and MY health issues.

I signed up for her blog...Thanks for sharing her with us.

 

[Carolyn Thomas]

Thanks!

Thank you Cave for posting this link to my "meat loaf" post/recipe from HEART SISTERS today.

There seems to be a real affection and nostalgia for our mothers' homemade meat loaf memories in the kitchen - I'm loving my reader comments so far!

cheers,
C.

 

[cave76]

Thank you Cave for posting this link to my "meat loaf" post/recipe from HEART SISTERS today.

There seems to be a real affection and nostalgia for our mothers' homemade meat loaf memories in the kitchen - I'm loving my reader comments so far!

cheers,
C.

Carolyn! You found me!!!! Any members here that have had a heart attack or know of someone who has-----especially if a woman----- do not miss Carolyn web site. Another one, not related to the heart is one I thoroughly enjoy and I think others will also.

It's title is The Ethical Nag
"Marketing Ethics for the Easily Swayed"

The Ethical Nag | Marketing Ethics for the Easily Swayed

It will open naive eyes as to how the public is 'easily swayed'. My eyes weren't naive----- but to have examples put out there is refreshing.

Enjoy. Carolyn will always respond to your comments.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Hello Carolyn!!!

I had my heart attack Jan 9, 2011. I'm not convinced it was my diet that caused my MI, but from going from an active job to a sit down job...floor nurse to desk nurse.

 

[cave76]

This video is on the web site of Carolyn Thomas Heart Sisters

But I'll give the one from YouTube because it's easier to find.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=just+a+little+heart+attack

That video shows how women can ignore symptoms, esp. those who are involved in taking care of others. (PF?) It might be considered funny if it weren't too sad and too true.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

This video is on the web site of Carolyn Thomas Heart Sisters

But I'll give the one from YouTube because it's easier to find.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=just+a+little+heart+attack

That video shows how women can ignore symptoms, esp. those who are involved in taking care of others. (PF?) It might be considered funny if it weren't too sad and too true.

That is very true, Cave. Turns out I had been having little heart attacks all day the day before and had three that woke me up during the night. The day of, I was sitting at the laptop looking up symptoms. Used the Web MD symptom checker and it came up with 3 possible reasons for my symptoms:
1. medication reaction
2. Panic attack
3. Heart attack

Told Shrek he better take me to the ER, we got dressed and he drove me. The Tech had just removed the EKG and was going out the door when I told him if they wanted to see what I was feeling it was happening again. That was the one that didn't stop and I could see Shrek in the corner crying, I kept trying to tell the nurse to take care of him and help him...when I woke up the Doc told, "Well young lady, you had a heart attack." When I woke up again I was in a room for the next 5 hours, for observation and make sure the angioplasty site was not bleeding.

Shrek and I stopped at the store to pick up dinner and I went to work the next day.

My symptoms were all on the right side of my body and were not classic chest pain.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Here is the whole video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JI487DlgTA

 

[Carolyn Thomas]

Princess, your MI story is quite the adventure. And you went to work the next day. Love that!

FYI, interesting study on women in health care who do shift work (incl nurses, of course) found that 3/4 of those who have done shift work for more than 15 years have significantly higher risk for cardiovascular disease. More at: Why female shift workers may be at risk for heart disease | Heart Sisters

Other risk culprits are sleep disorders, pregnancy complications - and many many risk factors most of us are not familiar with.

And yes, Cave - I found you! My blog's stats page listed DiscussCooking as one of the top referring sites this morning so I thought I'd pop in and see what goes on over here!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Makes a difference if it's an electrical or plumbing problem, with a stent, I felt better than I had for a long time immediately after the event. Also which part of the blood supply is blocked makes a difference, mine was the Circumflex and I have a 40% occlusion of the Left Coronary Artery.

Just read your Blog on shift workers, I was working bakeries before nursing and then went into night shift nursing. I worked night shift for 11.5 years then went to my current day shift position, spent mostly at a desk. I had my heart attack about 6 months after starting the day shift.

 

[Addie]

I had a quint bypass. So I thought everything was just fine. But I kept getting pains on the right side of my back. And my left arm ached and wouldn't stop. When I started to have trouble breathing, I dialed 911. Heart attack didn't even enter my mind. I thought it was the COPED kicking in. In the ambulance the medics gave me oxygen in my home and I started to feel better. I was beginning to think I overreacted. I apologized for being such a bother. I was unaware of the shot of morphine that they put in the IV. All the pain went away. The medics told me that when I got to the hospital I was going to be rushed into a room with a lot of people. I thought that was unusual. Still had no idea that it might be a heart attack. After they were through with me I went upstairs. Immediately I was hooked up to the monitor. I asked why. "You had a rather major heart attack." That came as a shock.

The second one happened in the ER. I knew something was wrong, but none of the signs from the first one. I felt very weak and was losing my voice. The Pirate was here at the time. He dialed 911 for me. When I got to the ER, I had to go to the bathroom. It was across the room. When I got back to my bed, the "big" one hit. Scared The Pirate to Hell. He started crying. The doctor assigned to me, was across the room, and just looked at me and then went back to what he was doing on the computer. Thank God for nurses!!! My nurse saw the doctor's reaction and immediately pulled up the heparin. Right there, flashing in bright red was ALERT to heparin. The doctor overrode the computer and ordered it anyway. The Pirate mentioned it loud enough for the whole room to hear. "Aren't you allergic to heparin?" All hell broke loose. The heparin came down fast and I was on my way the cath lab. That is the last thing I remember. But that one heart attack change the way meds are now dispensed across the country. The computer program company was notified and now you cannot order any medicine if it flashes red. They changed the program for the meds. And they sent the new program to every customer that had it installed in their computers. The doctor who ignored me, was in deep trouble and the president of BMC became involved. He was at the hearing that was held. That was one heart attack that could have killed me if it had not been for the nurse. She didn't wait for the doctor to give the order. She took it upon herself to get me to the cath lab as fast as she could. She is the one who removed the heparin without any order from the doctor. God BLESS NURSES!!! And for the nurses that serve us so faithfully.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Thanks, Addie!

 

[cave76]

PF----- You sound like some of the posts/women on Carolyn's blog! I'm glad this thread is continuing because it might help some members in the awful event that they may have unrecognized heart problems. Even though this is a cooking forum.

One of the best things I take away from Carolyn's blogs is that having an EKG in the ER that's is pronounced "O.K." shouldn't be taken as written in stone if there are symptoms. Be informed and ask questions.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

One of the best things I take away from Carolyn's blogs is that having an EKG in the ER that's is pronounced "O.K." shouldn't be taken as written in stone if there are symptoms. Be informed and ask questions.

I don't understand why they don't leave someone with heart history on the EKG or on Telemetry, some things are very transient. What brings someone into the ER may not happen at that moment in time they are hooked to the machine.

I was in the ER a couple weeks ago with tachycardia (over 120 bpm at rest, 146 just walking) half a minute reading on the EKG, and they didn't see anything. They eventually got me down to 92 bpm with IV Metoprolol and sent me home. Currently I am between 87 and 95 at rest...guess I have to stroke out before anyone takes it seriously and gets me some rate control.

And I wonder why I'm tired all the time.

 

[Addie]

Thanks, Addie!

You're welcome. My major complaint that forced the 911 call was, "something is wrong. I don't feel right." Hardly a complaint of the heart. It's a good thing the medics listened to me and my other descriptions of what I was feeling. We have very good medics manning our ambulances.