Sunday Salon-A Cautionary Tale

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A Cautionary Tale About Heart Disease

The Party

Last Saturday I attended a family gathering to celebrate the first birthday of my nephew's daughter.  I began to feel a burning in my chest. Not acute, gripping, pain, but a nagging burn that I shrugged off.  I'm writing my recent story, to offer you life-saving wisdom that I have read often enough, but  never expected  in a million years I would have to experience any of these symptoms first hand. I even have a chart on the inside of my medicine cabinet, close at hand but of little concern.

Stress at these functions is the norm for me. You would think family parties would be stress-free. Not so for me, but that's another more private tale. I'm sure you have all experienced the angst of attending some of your own family gatherings. So as I finished the last bite of birthday cake, which by the way was absolutely delicious the burning persisted. I was concerned, but not alarmed and attributed the discomfort to a combination of nerves and too much picnic food.

Does anyone bake  from scratch anymore?  The demise of the home-made cake took place during my generation. First the convenient cake box mix appeared on the supermarket shelves. Thanks to Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines, everyone could now become a baker. Maybe you remember having an ice-cream cake that came from a local store. That was the best of both worlds, cake and ice-cream together.  What could be better?  Perhaps you remember the appearance of the ubiquitous and often silly cakes that donned a photograph sure to embarrass the recipient. Shortly followed by warehouse food sheet cakes that afforded convenience, customization, and for a reasonable cost.  To answer my original question, my sister makes the best cakes from scratch. Her recipes are on index cards,  a book and now frequently off the Internet.  She is a temptress of confection. She uses no cake mix, no canned frosting, just the basic ingredients that she blends together altering in some way with her own spin to make the most delicious desserts. Her cake at this party was one of those, a cake to die for.  No, I probably shouldn't say that under these circumstances, but each forkful was a yummy treasured treat I savored, since more than not I deprive myself of cakes and other sweets.

As the burn persisted, I realized, I was in trouble. I needed to leave. I felt so sick. Somewhat dizzy, but the burn radiating from my chest unsettled me.  This was not a gripping pain, it didn't  shoot down my arm.  There was nothing else bothering me but the burn in my chest. No jaw pain, no numbness.  It was a burn that was centralized in my chest and it would last about five to ten minutes. I thought if I could just get to my car and rest. I quickly said my goodbyes family members, but realized I would not be able to find everyone. Then, as I got to my car to drive the 45 minutes back to my house, the pain stopped. Great, I thought, I'm safe in my car and I can get home to rest. Trust me, the idea of a heart problem never crossed my mind.

To be continued.....

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/
http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011].