July 21, 2019
I am a healthy, 54 year old mother of three awesome adult kids (and one son-in-law), who has been married to the same great guy for 33 years, and is working as a piano teacher and a PT Admin Assistant. Two and a half years ago I had a total knee replacement and lost 50 pounds. Prior to that I had a lot of knee pain, and great difficulty with hiking and biking. After I lost the weight and recovered from my knee surgery, I had a new lease on life and was immensely enjoying biking, hiking, power walking, etc. I started joining my husband on long bike rides and loved my new-found freedom. Last summer I got a “bee in my bonnet” about doing a YWCA Triathlon here in Minneapolis as a victory celebration for my new season. Several months ago I signed up, and have been faithfully following their training manual. I am in better shape today than ever before. I ride my bike many places now instead of driving in the car. Its a blast! Then, three days ago my husband and I were relaxing, watching a movie at home after a short evening bike ride, when I started experiencing intense, gripping chest pain. Turns out it was a SCAD. Now I am on a beta blocker and other meds, can’t do ANY exercise for the next 4-6 weeks (especially no training for the tri, let alone participate in the tri, which is in three weeks). This has been a devastating blow to me and I have been reading everything I can find about SCAD. I’m typically pretty optimistic, but right now I’m struggling to be positive and look at the bright side. I never saw THIS coming! I would love to hear others’ stories.