Main Street: Listening to your body brings bonus days
Although February is Heart Health Month, January is always a reminder to me. In 2008 I was emceeing the Post Falls Chamber's Annual Awards Banquet. During the evening I felt a bit clammy, muddleheaded and short of breath on the microphone, but finished the event.
Afterwards I told Bert that I was feeling "odd" and didn't want to go home, I wanted to go to the emergency room at Kootenai Health. That decision saved my life.
At the ER within minutes the doctor told me the bad news was that I was having a heart attack but the good news was that I was at the hospital. Within 30 minutes I was receiving two coronary stents. I was 55 years old. Today I'm 69 (and 50 lbs lighter!) and since 2008 I've enjoyed 5,484 bonus days. Every day is a blessing for real.
While symptoms of a heart attack are often subtle, especially with women, here’s what I know. You’ll know when something just doesn’t feel right. Trust yourself to know and don’t hesitate to seek help. Listen to your body and take action. The bonus days are sweet. www.heart.org
I maybe watch a handful of NFL games during the regular season but this weekend I was a post-season football fan without a dog in the fight, just enjoyed watching the best of the best in the lead up to the Super Bowl. I watched all four play-off games this weekend and holy cow!
I’m sure Mark Nelke and Steve Cameron have the bonafides to recap more knowledgeably on the sports pages but from where I sat in my living room that was some of the most exciting final minutes in each of the games most fans will ever see.
In the fourth and final play-off game on Sunday the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs said figuratively, hold my beer, and managed to play a game’s worth of feats in the final two minutes. The OT was a bit of a let down, unless you’re a Chiefs fan, but I’m thinking that the Super Bowl itself will be a bit of a let down after all of the excitement over the weekend. Unless of course the NFL embraces a viral meme following the Chiefs/Bills game ...”Breaking: The NFL cancels the rest of the playoffs, will make the Super Bowl a Best of 7 series between the Chiefs and the Bills.”
Happy birthday today to Christa Hazel, Rosemary Goodlander (60!), Kali Snider, Jeff Hall, Linda Hall, Austin Chadderdon, Nicholle Sheppard, David Townsend, Julie Kirking, Russell Larson and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Jeff and Candace Smith have no excuse for missing each other’s birthday since they share the date. Mike Hendricks, Alex Jimenez, and Khloe Peacock will celebrate tomorrow. Jenni Grimmett, Valerie Wilcox, Hope Newman, Lauren Adair, John Andres and Chad Oakland will wear their party hats on Friday. Fern Glass (92!), Rachel Riggs, Cindy Peugh, Allen Hildebrant, Don Waddell and David Gerzina, Sr. will blow out their candles on Saturday. Jim Custer, Shannon Damiano, Mel Palmer, Sierra Graham, Brylee Dresser and Helen Sargent hear the birthday song on Sunday. Jennifer Alexander, Robert Brown, Cassidy Peacock, Sandy Scarlett, Erik Salvador, Linda Wolff, Mary Bell and Bernadette Myers start the week with Monday birthdays. On the first day of February my first born Alyssa Stromberg shares the date with Laura Little, Colleen Provost, Leslie Tibbs, Tonya Myers, Kristi Rietze, Susan Cook, Deedie Beard, James Ownbey, Jesse Anglen and Jamie Benner.
Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email [email protected].