Archive for April, 2010
So, I did my first charity event two weeks ago with my husband, Chris. It was the 3 mile Heart Walk for the American Heart Association. We raised $200, not as much as I would have liked but it was something. We were the only ones on our team and we walked the whole way, it felt great. I’m ready to do more.
I also went to the initial volunteer training for the Make-A-Wish foundation. I am so excited to get started with this foundation. I really want to go through training to be a Wish Granter. I would be able to meet kiddos that are terminally ill and their family to find out what it is that would be their greatest wish. Once that wish is established, I would get to help make it happen: the planning, timing, reservations, everything. Oh, I think it would be such a great opportunity and another way to make a difference in the life of the living.
I still need to make phone calls to the Literacy Council and the Boys and Girls Club to set up some volunteer activities with them. This new position is keeping me a lot busier then I ever thought it would. Not that this is a bad thing. I love what I am doing; it is more rewarding then I already knew it would be. I have been going to meetings with the local hospitals, teaching new nurses and nursing students about donation (I really love that part) as well as being on call and being prepared to be at the hospital at any waking moment. This really is the most incredible career I could have ever walked into.
The next team event I am captain of is the March for Babies that I have spoken about in previous posts. I have the support of 5 other walkers and we have raised about 1/5 of our goal. This is a cause that hits very close to home for me; it reaches out to women that fall in the high risk category of pregnancy and those babies that are born premature. I do not have children yet but I am considered high risk and it is great to have a charity out there that would help me if I needed it and I feel I need to give back. Pay it Forward. To help support babies and their mother’s please visit: http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1375745.
So I’ve been talking, rather hounding, my husband about eating better and being more active. I would like to have a life partner not one I lose at a very young age. You see he is slightly overweight with high cholesterol and high blood pressure and he turns 30 this year. He also has a family history of diabetes and he is not very active. He scares me. I have seen 35 year old men come into the emergency room with a severe heart attack or stroke and die within hours. These men come in with the same physical history as my husband.
I have signed up to be a speaker for the American Heart Association to spread the word about heart healthy living. This goes hand in hand with donation. The difference is, my patients are those people that chose not to live a healthy life. Now I have a husband that is at risk, dare I say, of being an organ donor from a cholesterol clot moving to his brain and causing a stroke. Not only that risk but high blood pressure causes your heart to work harder and eventually slow down causing blood to be stagnant and form a clot. That clot then becomes dislodged and moves to the brain, guess what, causing a stroke. Ugh, it is really not that hard to take care of yourself people.
Risk factors for heart attack and stroke are essentially the same. There are those you can’t control: increasing age, sex, race, previous heart attack or stroke, and family history. There are factors that you have complete control over: high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, high blood cholesterol, sedentary lifestyle, obesity and diabetes. What people aren’t thinking about is that all of these factors are also increasing your risk for becoming brain dead and your family having to make a decision to donate your organs. Some very sick person will thank you for your inability to save yourself from yourself but your loved ones, I’m afraid, are not going to be so grateful.
Everyone needs to get it out of their head that fad dieting and extreme exercise is the answer to all their health and weight loss problems. Yes I agree that being at a healthy weight for your body and being active is one of the
most important things you can do for yourself but there are right and wrong ways of going about it.
Please visit the American Heart Association site and learn what you can do to save yourself and enjoy your life and family for as long as possible. Don’t be the one that couldn’t prevent themselves from dying young.
I apologize if I am being harsh. Feel free to contact me with any questions.