Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Our guest is Karen Sammer and It's that time of the year when Valentine's Day is upon us where we turn our attention to affairs of the heart, February is also American Heart Month, a time when all people can focus on their cardiovascular health.
Come as you are with the courage to speak up and tell a better story. A raw and real podcast from two courageous women making an impact in their communities by helping guests share their unique stories.
Your hosts Jenny and Sarah are soul sisters with a passion for creating a space for authentic storytelling. Their guests will make you laugh, cry, and leave you with all-the-feels while you learn from thought leaders like entrepreneurs, influencers, coaches, real estate moguls, speakers, reality stars, and creative geniuses.
Jenny: Oh, welcome to the
girls who do stuff podcast.
I am Jenny Midgley.
I am Sarah Madras.
And this is a show where you come
as you are with the courage to
speak up and tell a better story.
Sarah: On
Jenny: Today's episode, we have a lovely
lady named Karen Sammer and she's going
to tell us all about her advocacy work
and why she got into the advocacy that
she does, but I'm really excited to
have her here and to highlight this
super-duper important women's issue.
So when
Sarah: I read it on Calendly, I was
like, did Jenny do this on purpose?
Jenny: They're all intentional
Sarah: I was like, is she
trying to freak me out and get
me to go to the doctor sooner?
What is happening here?
Jenny: Not go to the doctor every year.
Sarah: For my thyroid, not for my
Jenny: heart, but that's
part of your physical.
Now.
I don't get a physical, you
Sarah: fucking kidding me.
I go to my thyroid doctor and
Jenny: you need to go to
a, get a complete physical
Sarah: you listening.
Are you hearing the shaming?
She is shaming me for
not, I just turned 40.
Okay.
Just turn.
Jenny: But that means that you
didn't go last year and you didn't
go the year before that never gone.
I only get a physical we're going
to talk about the importance of
Sarah: doing that.
Yes.
I got to cry at the quarter.
Jenny: I don't, I'm not
trying to shame you.
It's more out of concern for
your health and wellbeing.
Oh, Hey,
Sarah: let's go.
Come on.
And are you sure?
Yes,
Jenny: I'll just sit here and cry.
I don't cry.
I met Karen through the organization
believe inspire grow, which is a
international women's empowerment
and networking as secondary
kind of group at which I'm the
co-leader for the Southeast region.
Yep.
Yeah.
That's a going to say, of course.
Yes, of course I am.
I know Liz were silly, wore me down, Liz.
I know you're going to listen to this.
So and I'm really happy
to be a part of it.
To meet some really
amazing women like Karen.
So Karen, tell us about that.
Karen: Thank you so much
for saying that about me.
My name is Karen Sammer and I have
a business called your power, your
health, nutrition, and health coaching.
And I primarily work with women who
live with, or are at risk for developing
chronic illness, like heart disease or
diabetes or obesity, cancer, anything that
can be managed to lifestyle and nutrition.
But I'm also a WomenHeart
champion community educator.
So that's where I go into the community.
And I talk about women in our unique
challenges around part health.
Like what the symptoms are, what
our risk factors are, what to
do to prevent heart disease.
Cause 80% of heart diseases preventable
through lifestyle and nutrition, surprise,
and also how to advocate for yourself.
If you find yourself in the medical
system and they're not taking you serious.
Because sometimes if you show up in the
ER, having a cardiac event and you don't
fit a profile of someone, they expect
to be having a cardiac event, you may be
sent home medicated for something like
anxiety or stress or something like that.
And often, much to your detriment, you
can go home and die from that event
because it doesn't always register right
away when they start doing the testing.
And so they don't keep you around long
enough and you don't fit the profile
and they are not really looking for.
You may be misdiagnosed
or completely undiagnosed.
It's really a, yeah, there was a whole
Sarah: episode on Grey's anatomy.
Exactly.
That they tried to send her home there.
Karen: Yes.
Sarah: Much to my dismay.
Just let it die.
Like the whole hospital
explode and I'll be
Karen: relieved that
it's over, but why do you
Jenny: still watch it?
That's another conversation
in front of their episode.
Karen, tell us about why and
how you got into the community
education for women's herd health.
Karen: So I, myself, I had a heart attack.
I, so I started this journey back when
I had breast cancer back in 2009 and
I completely changed my own life and
lost 135 pounds and took on health and
wellness for myself, and then decided
I wanted to help other people with it.
But then in 2017, I had a harder time.
And fortunately I did fit a
profile because I was old enough.
They did take me seriously and
they took me in and what they found
with me though, is that I didn't
have my arteries weren't clogged.
And they were it's an anomaly that's
in my body that causes heart attack.
It's very rare, I became friends
with my cardiologist came, became
friendly with my cardiologist and she
thought I would be a good candidate
to become a women heart champion.
So she sent me to the
Mayo clinic to be treated.
To go in and I had, could have taken
one of two paths that could have
become a support group facilitator,
which really isn't my bag, or I
could become a community educator.
So I decided I wanted to go
out and community educated.
So I go out and I talk about
this to anybody who will listen.
I'm always looking for opportunities.
Do a presentation on women
and heart health, because
it's really quite startling.
Some of the information that I bring
forth, a lot of people don't know it.
And it's important to know.
Sarah: What's one thing that
you think what men must know.
Like it's if I got off this show and I
didn't share this, I'd be kicking myself.
What's the thing they have to
Karen: know.
that heart disease kills more women
than all forms of cancer combined.
And one in three women will be affected
by heart disease in her lifetime.
And one in four will die from it.
Wow.
25% of women will die from heart disease.
So that's pretty astounding.
And a lot of it is preventable, as I
said but are we are as at high rate,
especially now as our society has changed
and women are in the workforce and we
become very, we have very stressful jobs.
Outside of the home.
And then we come home and we have
another full-time job very often
because we have families to take
care of our risk for heart disease
has really increased over time.
And so we are as at risk as men are, and
the older we get and the less estrogen
we have in our bodies to protect us,
as we become menopausal perimenopausal,
menopausal post-menopausal,
then our risk even increased.
So it's really important to know
the symptoms that we have, the risk
factors that we might be subjected to.
when you're feeling something in your body
that you're not quite sure what it is.
It's very often, or not very often.
I shouldn't say that it very
possibly could be a cardiac event
and it looks like something else.
Sarah: What did it take us back to
that, to your experience and walk us
through that, of what it looked like.
Karen: So I was sitting in a
Toastmasters meeting, fortunately
in my local hospital, it was in
the auditorium in my local hospital
Jenny: talking about serendipity.
, Karen: no, it was actually,
it was very timely for me.
So I sat down after giving him.
Two minute table copy gets called if
you're familiar with that, those masters.
So I did my table topic.
I sat down and I started to feel this
burning in the middle of my chest that I
just thought I might've pulled a muscle
because they'd ran up the stairs and
I might've done something, whatever.
And but I felt this burning and I tried
to squirm it out and it wasn't going away.
And it started to radiate
to the tops of my arms.
And once that started happening, I
knew that there might be something.
So I asked the person across the aisle
for me to walk out with me because if it
was something and I ended up passing out
in the hallway, I didn't want to die.
So he took me to the hospital employee.
They took me over to the ER and at the
ER, they hooked me up to an EKG and I
was in the middle of a heart attack.
So then they took me to the cath lab and
that's when they found out that I had a
spontaneous coronary artery dissection.
And that is where one of
the arteries in your head.
Dissects or splits, splits
the layers split apart.
And the inner most layer came
down, formed a blockage, and
that's what caused my heart attack.
But I didn't, I, my arteries
were not full of plaque.
As one might expect for someone my age.
And it wasn't, that's not what caused it.
It was this SCAD is what
this event is called.
And very often this is an event
or this particular phenomenon
happens to a lot of young ones.
And it's not.
And a lot of doctors don't
know about it are not familiar
with it, what it looks like.
So a young woman can show up in the ER
with this happening and it can be fatal.
Unfortunately, fortunately for me,
it was not, it was an small part of a
small artery in my art, in my heart.
So it wasn't a major event because some
people have it in the Widowmaker or.
Jenny: You had 97% blockage in 96%
blockage between the two, like the branch
or it was, but yeah, that's what, yeah.
And then a cardiologist came out from
the cath, from the procedure and was
like, I don't think he understands
like the gravity of the situation.
And we were like, Nope,
he doesn't it's okay.
Because apparently he was asking him,
all the questions about do I have
to take a blood thinner every day?
Can I take it every other day?
Is there anything homeopathic
that I can do instead, because.
If y'all listen to the parents
episode, you'll understand that
it's very unbrand for David.
Sarah: So question for you when it comes
to the signs and symptoms and stuff.
I remember when I was in college, very
high stress was putting myself through
school and working and trying to keep
up with a full caseload is bananas.
It was a very stressful time and I
thought I was having a heart attack.
Like I was.
Something is very wrong I went
and they hooked me up and they
just said it was a panic attack.
And so how, what is the difference
so that people can know.
Karen: So very often something
like an anxiety attack or a panic
attack will mimic a cardiac event.
So if you are somebody who gets
those severe symptoms, absolutely.
Err, on the side of caution, And go to
the hospital because you never know if
the next time is actually a cardiac event.
So never feel like you
should be embarrassed if
you show up in the hospital.
And it turns out to be something
other than what you think it is.
And don't allow anybody to diminish
you for coming into the hospital with
those symptoms, don't allow anybody
to be dismissive because you don't
know, you don't know, and they don't
know until they do this test on you.
So that is often the difference
is indistinguishable.
If you have those those simple.
And you don't know, especially if they're
very severe, because some people get that
crushing feeling on their chest when they
have those types of events in their life.
So never, ever tried to brush it
off, unless it's something that,
if it doesn't go away, let's just
say that if it happens for a minute
and it goes away and everything's
fine, then you're probably okay.
But if it doesn't go away or if it persist
or it changes, it gets worse, it moves.
Always go and get it checked out.
Never dismiss something like that.
Cause that's what we
Jenny: do a lot.
Yeah.
And I think, yes we are.
We totally just, and as women,
especially, we dismiss it.
We're like and men are guilty of this
too, so we don't want a single elderly,
we don't want to leave them out of
this conversation, but right now we're
talking about women's heart health.
But like I, and also like you have to
pay attention to things like, what is
your body do when you're dehydrated?
What does it do when you've
had too much caffeine?
What does it do when you're experiencing,
high levels of emotional stress?
What does it do when it's, experiencing
situational stress, like things like
school and juggling all the calendars
and all those things and paying attention
to how your body responds to that.
Because there is a period of time
when I thought I was having like
ongoing panic attacks and I was
dehydrated because my body was
responding with a rapid heart rate.
And my, my doctor was like, No.
It's I appreciate that.
You think you're anxious,
but you're not right.
Which was nice for once.
But but I think that
it's really important.
Like the takeaway is learn the signs that
your body gives you and pay attention
to that you can find the patterns in
your helping the providers, because what
happens is you're helping your health
providers because they're not in your.
And they can only do so much and
it's based on what you tell them.
So if you track what happens and you
understand what maybe it's hormone
related, maybe it's, there's other
things that, can impact how your
body's reacting and then it helps them.
It's called differential diagnosis.
So there it's helping them go
through the weeds and figure out
what it is that's really happening.
Having a heart attack, because
you can say, I'm not dehydrated.
I'm not anxious.
I haven't had too much caffeine.
I'm not, I'm not in a, in the
midst of a population cycle.
I'm not hormonal, whatever it is.
So can you test for these
other things that it could be?
Karen: but very often a
woman will be dismissed as.
Hormonal or being emotional
or being something dramatic.
Dramatic.
Yes.
So it's really important to to be in, if
the doctor that you're being seen by is
not taking you seriously, astronaut a doc.
Sarah: I didn't know that there
was training that they send
you to at the Mayo clinic.
I had no idea that even existed.
Can you speak more
Karen: on that please?
the people in this organization,
women, heart all of us are
volunteers and we are all.
They have, we had some sort of a
cardiac thing happened where some
sort of, or some sort of heart issue.
And many of the people that I went,
I was trained with, it's amazing that
they're still on this planet and they
were women that were sent, went to
the ER multiple times and sent home
saying there's nothing wrong with.
And by the time they're actually
seeing there, their hearts
are practically in shreds.
So the fact that they're still here,
it just speaks to the resilience,
but you have to be chosen.
You have to be asked to go.
You're sponsored usually by a hospital.
Not always, but usually by hospital.
And so I was sponsored by not the
one that I had the heart attack
in, but another the hospital that
I actually use for my cardiac care.
And and so this, we had this
intense symposium that we
went to and we learned how to.
Go out and talk to people about
just bring awareness and bring
education to the general public about
what's going on in women's bodies.
And what's going on in the medical
system around women and heart health, and
it's gotten better, but it, everything
used to be based on the male body.
And we're not just men with uteruses.
We have a much different
physiology than men.
Sarah: You're laughing, but I
never thought of it that way.
What she's saying is like hitting
home for me because as men
Jenny: with uteruses, I love it.
Sarah: I didn't even put that together.
Either that the medical,
they only were studying male.
I didn't put that together until she just
Jenny: said that's where the word
hysterical, like I'm I'm sitting in
my privilege where I can be like,
I don't want to use certain words.
Because the word hysterical comes from.
The uterus.
So it's all about the, in a hysterectomy
removal of the uterus, and every, anytime
that a woman was emotional, right.
That hadn't did she expressed an emotion?
She was deemed to be hysterical
because it was coming from her uterus.
And that was what was
different than the man.
Like it's been Anna's right.
Sorry.
I started on the other things.
Like the other reasons that
they said women were hysterical
that has to do with orgasm.
It is literally like they would
stimulate the clutter is in these, these
doctor's evaluations and then say oh,
Sarah: Oh, my God, I can't right now.
Jenny: I can't like this
was medicine in the 18.
I can't in my it is it's
bananas, but like these, this
is what it's, to Karen's point.
That's what our healthcare now is based
on these antiquated notions about.
And then don't even get us started on
The challenges that persons of color and
marginalized populations face, because
the same thing I want to go back to
what you said, Karen, because it's super
important that our health care system here
in the U S is based on a series of codes.
And the ICD 10 codes and things are
supposed to fit in a certain way.
And they're supposed to be able to be
nice and neat and textbook and follow it,
follow a trail for the little insurance
companies for the insurance company.
So you can code for the right things and
get, get reimbursed for the right rate.
And that you can say because, and then
when it's an outlier, when something
presents different and you don't
fit in that box, then they say you
don't meet the diagnostic criteria
for further assessment or whatever.
And you're like, Okay.
So we're all sitting here.
None of us is actually a textbook, right?
We're all human we're made up
of organic matter and carbon
and cells and, just paper, not
just paper, a dang that's bound.
And I, and and we all are
gone, everyone is going to be
a little bit different, right?
Can you imagine if one of us was one of
those there are people that are born with
their organs flipped on the opposite side
of their body that nobody knows it until.
Something happens.
And they're being treated as this way.
And then it turns out they
need to be treated as that way.
It serves to illustrate the challenges,
just like the ordinary person might face.
If you otherwise would fit
in that little textbook.
What do you do when you have an
experience where you don't, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought that was really important
when she said that when you go to the
ER, they're expecting you to be one
thing and then when you're not, it
screws them, it screws with their heads
Karen: messes up.
Yeah.
It messes up their metrics.
But also a lot of times
women are left out of.
The clinical trials, because
hormonal differences are hormonal
fluctuation skew the results.
Yep.
But then a lot of times
that's part of that.
That is very much part of what
causes the stuff that they are
experiencing and, the illnesses or
the conditions that they're studying.
Are impacted by these hormonal
fluctuations very often, this, the thing
that happened to me, they have loosely
attributed it to hormonal possible
hormonal fluctuations and younger women.
I wasn't, that wasn't my story, but
But it, the women that have it very
often, it follows it's at postpartum.
Sometimes it's a postpartum event.
Sometimes it's a post-traumatic event.
Something is an emotional event.
Sometimes it's just post exercise or
just post sitting, watching television.
You don't know, you don't know what's,
like it could be anything, but but
so they left women out of this.
And, our bodies are smaller,
our organs are smaller.
Trials on medications.
They, they dose us like
men for medications.
They make the medical devices
based on the male body.
Their center of gravity is different.
Their musculature is there.
There are fat content is different.
There's a whole different, science
around male bodies versus female bodies.
And so they've gotten better.
They've started to bring in women of all
ages, when they first started the heart
work, they would bring in older women.
Post-menopausal.
Because they more resembled men because
they didn't have the hormonal flushing,
Jenny: Oh my God, Sarah, his mind
is literally blowing at their point.
Sarah: There's no words.
Go ahead.
I'm so sorry.
No worries,
Karen: but that's the thing.
That's what I mean this is
the kind of reaction I get.
Anytime I bring this information out.
they need to incorporate people of all
body types and all ages and both sexes,
and they just need to be, they need to be
all inclusive when they do these studies
and they're getting better with it.
There's been a lot of.
Sarah: I love what you said of
it's the science, it's not the
science like, oh, let's just say
the science of the human body.
No.
There are so vastly different that
we have to study the science of the
male body, this idea of the female
body of the, and so instead of being
Jenny: like, and then the younger
man post-menopausal right.
Everything.
Yeah.
And everything I think is becoming
more and more, highly specialized as.
As evidenced by there are I just did
the head shots for that organization
that does the certifications for
it's based in Raleigh, actually that
certifies all of the cardiologists and
anesthesiologists to do like echoes and
different EKG and all of those things.
And I was like, I went on their
website and I went down a rabbit hole.
When I was like, for 15 minutes,
I was looking at all the different
certifications and exams.
They administered to these physicians.
And I was like, that's super cool.
Because you want to see a physician
that's certified in all of these things
in those specializations are becoming
more and more relevant, not just for
doctors, but for nurses and for other
practitioners and things like that.
But
Sarah: what would that
specialization be though?
Karen, what do I need to be Googling
of what that specialization.
Karen: You need to find
yourself a good cardiologist.
Who's up on the up on the science,
because the science is always changing.
You have to, and I personally, I
would recommend a female cardiologist
because she, first of all, has
the same equipment as you do.
And is much more likely to be more
in tune with what's going on in.
Physiology than a man is.
They may know the science but she knows
what it feels like to be in a female body.
And so that's important, but also
when they get so specialized and so
niched and so pinpoint, expert, they
don't look at the rest of this stuff.
I think, I feel like there needs to
be somebody who puts the whole package
together, a more holistic approach.
And we don't have a lot of that anymore.
Sarah: It was like that show back in
the day, sorry to keep bringing up
shows, but that's how my brain works.
That show private practice.
Oh.
Where they all were together and
comprehensive and they all, but they
all have their own specialties, but
they all talked and communicated and
they worked on the cases together.
And that makes the most sense to me.
So you can have your niche
and be like, that's my jam.
I'm super smart in that.
But.
You're still, always communicating
with the people in the other
specialties on that same case,
not just oh this case is tough.
I'll reach out to a colleague you're
all from day one involved in that case.
Jenny: That's called it team conferences
Karen: from
Sarah: day one and everybody's involved.
Jenny: Yeah, they do have some
practices that are like that.
And it's a hospital basis.
It's like a hospital-based model
that you have, the team, all the
specialties that contribute to the right
Sarah: discussion.
Is that only happen once you're like
Jenny: Yes.
That's the key.
It doesn't happen on the outpatient side,
like prior to your event or injury then
happens that you have a treatment team.
After the fact, so it's not preventative
it's treatment and it can't be,
and it's not always curative.
Sarah: So Karen, can I give
you a a scenario and you help
advise of walking through tips?
Karen: As long as it's not medical,
I can't speak to specific medical
situations, but yes, I'll do what I can.
It's a hypothetical we'll play around with
Jenny: it and see how this goes.
Please speak to your physician before
taking any advice for us, correct?
Karen: Yes,
Sarah: absolutely.
So let's just say that a family history
is such that on both sides, heart
disease, triple bypasses A, and then, and
somebody says to you, okay, you are young.
And, but because this runs
so heavily in both sides.
And because there, the, on the other
side, on the maternal side, there was a
sudden death and, an undetected, heart
cardiac or hypertension or whatever.
And they're like, you need to get a stress
test and EKG and you need to monitor
what your blood pressure is to make sure.
Are you hypertensive?
Duh.
So in that scenario, what
would be, what, how would one
navigate that from the beginning?
Karen: So I don't think it's a bad
idea to have a baseline measure
of what's going on in your body.
You may not have any symptoms.
Now, if you're young and healthy and
don't have any necessarily outwardly
showing symptoms, I would definitely
get a baseline just to see where you are
to start where you're at your health.
And then you monitor that over a period
of time, whatever your doctor suggests.
I know once a year, once every
five years, whatever it is.
But if that is your family history,
first of all, you don't have to
be a slave to your dreams, your
genes, it certainly precludes, or it
predisposes you to a higher risk of
developing these particular conditions.
But then a lot of that you
can manage through your own.
Lifestyle choices and your
own nutrition, choices, and
exercise and stress management.
All of these things go a really long way.
To making you healthy enough that you
will never have to face those situations.
But, I think monitoring is a really
good idea because a lot, like
they call blood pressure, high
blood pressure, the silent killer.
You don't know that you haven't until
you have a stroke sometimes, unless it's
really crazy, this is crazy high and.
You have symptoms because of that.
But cholesterol is another thing,
if you're hot, your cholesterol
so high in, in your, in the sticky
plaque is blocking your arteries.
A lot of times you have no knowledge
of that until you have an event, it
doesn't necessarily feel like anything.
You may get shortness of breath, but
you may attribute it to something else.
Jenny: Why it's important to go to your
Sarah: physician for an annual fee.
That's why, when she said baseline,
I'm like, I don't know what you mean by
Jenny: baseline as a baseline,
you go to your physician when
things are good, so that you have
what you've created a baseline.
They, what do you mean?
What are they doing?
Sarah: Y'all are looking
at me like I'm crazy.
I,
Jenny: do you take your
children for well visits?
Sarah: Yes, of course.
Because it
Jenny: me, but my question to that
so then my follow up question to
that is you love your children.
And so you want to care for
them and provide them like, to
make sure that they're healthy.
Sarah: I'm saying nobody is telling me,
Sarah, go for your and go they're telling
me, go for your annual GYN appointment.
So I do.
And then they tell me, go for
your annual thyroid appointment.
Cause that's the only
way you'll get your meds.
So I do that, but nobody's telling me,
go to a doctor and have once a year
for them to do what do they do in a.
I don't what are they doing?
Jenny: But they do a complete they
usually do some blood work that checks
Sarah: then wouldn't that
be what my thyroid does.
Boom.
I've already done that.
Jenny: You're putting
yourself in the shame spiral.
I have serious.
I have serious questions.
So like Joey, you go every year,
see Joe goes for his visit every
year and he's a 40 year old
man, which he should he'd once.
And anyway I think my visits would
be greatly different from yours.
Sarah: And like your S but I'm like
Karen, I don't know what that means.
So you have to start me,
like I'm a little child,
Jenny: so with the knee, so you get
the baseline functions and scores and
things, but it's like when you that's
the, they take an inventory, right?
So they're asking you questions, they're
looking for markers, but your primary
care doctor should really be acting
as like your primary case manager.
Just put it in.
Sarah: I go to my primary care
doctor when I have a cold and
it won't go away with over the
Jenny: counter medication.
I, yeah, I get that.
But I'm saying, but this is where
healthcare goes wrong in that people
think that they only need to go
to the doctor when they're sick.
We go for we take our children
for well visits every year until
they turn 18 until they turn 18.
And then it's their
responsibility to go to the doc.
But we have to PA like, why does it
all of a sudden stop when you're 18?
It doesn't, you still have to go to
the doctor every year for a Welsh.
And it's because your primary care doctor
will in the event of an illness or injury
act as your like primary case management.
So that
Sarah: was new information.
I didn't know you were yelling at her 18.
I was supposed to be doing that on my own.
Karen: So knowledge is power, right?
Jenny: Where it is knowledge, the more,
Sarah: what else do I need to do?
Karen: But if you go to your
primary care very often, they can
administer those tests for you.
And EKG is very simple.
Have you ever had one?
Sarah: When I thought I was having
the heart attack and then they'd
said, no, it's just a panic attack.
They just stick
Jenny: things on here.
Yeah.
Karen: It's a five minute thing,
but they can run a blood test or.
Prescribed the blood test to be run.
They can.
And what I would recommend you do
is have a conversation with your
primary care and say, look, this
is what's happened in my family.
I have all of this on my mom's side.
I have all this on my dad's side.
I'm 40 years old.
What do you recommend?
And maybe the doctor will recommend
that you wait until you're 45 or.
If you're feeling no symptoms, maybe
they'll have you do a baseline.
Like I suggested if it were me, I would
probably ask for them for the baseline
and the baseline would be an EKG.
You're just make sure your blood,
they typically will test your
blood, your check, your blood
pressure when you're there in.
If they do a blood draw, they're
going to do ask you for a fasting
blood so that they can do cholesterol.
So make sure that when you have
a blood test on fasting yeah.
It'll give you and blood glucose.
Yes.
That's another thing.
That's for your blood.
Your A1C.
So your A1C is your blood
sugar over time, this
Sarah: whole time.
Jenny: You can listen to the
Sarah: episode to everybody push
pause on the episode, running,
get your pencil and your paper,
Jenny: I'm really glad that Sarah is
saying I don't know all of these things
and she's being vulnerable in this
space because this is what I mean.
In hospitals for 20 years working
with patients on all these things.
So of course I was like, I would feel
something weird in my leg and I'd go
ask the doctor do you think I have Ms.
And she's no, Jenny, I don't think
I think that if this these are
the markers that would tell you.
I think you may be, are needing to
address your ergonomics at your desk.
Don't jump, that's the problem
Karen: wrong on it the
night before, right?
Jenny: Like you don't right.
Or like you wake up and your arms asleep.
You're not having a stroke
necessarily but there's a direct
link between hypertension,
diabetes and cardiac disease.
So it's really important to make sure
that you're monitoring yourself for.
The blood sugar as well
as the hypertension.
Karen: Okay.
Especially if diabetes is in your
family, but your endocrinologist
can take care of that.
It can, monitor your blood sugar and your
A1C your glucose, your blood glucose,
and A1C, because they're taking blood to
check your metabolic correct panel, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's, I don't think it's out of line
for you to ask your doctor for a baseline
evaluation based on your family history.
If so, you know where you are.
I was like,
Sarah: how'd, Karen that's totally.
Karen: Okay.
Then tell a
Jenny: hypothetical
family history.
How important is it to make
sure that you go get a baseline?
That's true.
Cause that's something that I don't know.
I know it was on the
papers, but I don't know.
Like I don't, I don't have anybody to
go to and be like, is this accurate?
So I just make sure that yeah.
There's some, I'm totally guilty
of the, working in health care
and ignoring all the things.
Karen: Like to a point
Jenny: I used to work with a nurse
practitioner that she'd be like, And
they're going to have to like, create
some nursing home for all of us just
to go to with that is staffed with
a hundred percent nurse ratchets.
Cause they're not going
to get anything from us.
And I'm like, that is true.
We're going to be the
worst elderly people ever.
It's true.
And I think it's, there's
two parts of it though.
And I think this is what we
deal with on the regular people.
Don't go to the doctor because they're
afraid of what they're going to hear.
And they're afraid they're going to be
challenged to change their lifestyle
and change is hard and we get that.
And the other side of it is people
who are willing to hear that and just.
Aren't afraid to go to the doctor
every year and it is, and it's one
that I do want to say to Sarah's
point, like she's going getting her
women's health visit every year.
Your GYN may be doing some of the
other things that a yearly physical
would do with a primary care for.
So it's good that you do go to
a doctor at least once a year.
We do want to validate that for you.
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
I could see you are still
feeling like a little bit shunt.
But but it is it's important to
recognize, if you're somebody who
fears going to the doctor, like
cool, there's thousands and millions
of people who were there with you.
It's better to head something off before
it starts and work on preventive care
and wellness rather than sick care.
Sarah: Yeah.
So Karen, last question, before we
get to rapid fire, is there, do you
have a memory of an experience with
either somebody that you met through
the work that you do, the training, but
their story and that story just stuck
out for you that you would want to
Karen: share?
Oh yeah, I have lots of them,
but one woman in particular.
I met at my WomenHeart training and she
is a, she's a, an African-American woman.
She's actually Haitian-American
and, but very dark skin.
She is a nurse, I think at
the time when this happened,
she was a nurse practitioner.
Now I believe she's got her
doctorate in nursing, so definitely
knows the medical system.
Yep.
She was pregnant with.
And at the very end of her pregnancy,
she was gaining weight like crazy.
Just like gaining pounds and pounds a day.
And she kept saying,
there's something wrong.
She was getting weaker and she was
just feeling really very big and weak.
And so she kept saying,
there's something wrong here.
There's something wrong.
And they said, oh no, you're fine.
You're having twins.
That's normal.
That type of thing.
By the time they finally diagnosed her
or figured out what was going on with
her, she was in her objection, fraction,
which is her heart's ability to pump.
Was not compatible with.
Oh, wow.
And so then it's like a
Sarah: miracle
Karen: it's absolute miracle.
She was talking to them in their language,
their lingo, their medical lingo.
They knew she was a medical professional.
So she was not just some flunky
person who was having a, being
spastic about having a baby.
She was talking to them with about
the symptoms in the language that they
recognize and they understand, and
they would not take her seriously.
And so she ended up surviving and
she's, she is one of my heart sisters,
one of my women heart sisters.
And and then she goes
out and talks to her.
Her audience is primarily women
of color because that is a
particularly vulnerable population.
That is a group of people who
are even more marginalized than
Caucasian women are Caucasian.
Women can be marginalized in the
hospital system, but women of
color African-American Hispanic,
native American, anybody who's got
a little bit of melanin in their
skin is very often even further
diminished in that in medical system.
But her story is one
of triumph, she's fine.
Now her boys are, I think
they just went into.
Yeah.
And she's very proud of them.
She absolutely should be, but but
she is a powerful woman and I just
really admire her because she was able
to come through this triumphantly.
And but this is the kind of treatment.
She was in medical professional
and they treat her like that.
Jenny: Where does she live?
Karen: She lives in New Jersey.
Jenny: it's shocking to me, because
again, I can speak to the other side
of that, where they kept bringing me
back for more, you know, white girl.
And I kept saying, I'm fine.
There's nothing wrong with me.
Why do you keep making me
come back to the doctor?
And it turns out that I was not
fine, but I kept saying, I feel fine.
I CA I exactly.
And I was being cared
for to the point that.
With with Nicholas, my PA stayed
late and waited for me to call back
to the office so that she could
get me admitted to the hospital.
The difference in care, given and received
based on, the color of skin is scary.
And then you hear stories from like
women, like Serena Williams that
they experienced the same thing that
other persons of color experience
and you're like, are you serious?
Cause I would have expected that
Serena would have gotten better
care than me, but it didn't happen.
And that's, again, that's crazy.
It's like your mind
was being blown before.
That's the kind of shit that blows
my mind and I'm like, I can't yeah.
And it's, and even now I still
get checked up on because they
want to make sure that I'm not.
Going into any type of hypertensive
crisis, which like I have low blood
pressure, which is funny that I was the
one with preeclampsia and too pregnant
Karen: to bring.
All right.
Jenny: Oops.
My body was not made to hold babies.
I make cute babies
Sarah: though.
Yes you do.
Yes, you do.
I do.
Who are rays of sunshine?
Jenny: They are rays of some train.
Anyway, we digress
, Sarah: so Karen, how can our
listeners connect with you
Karen: can connect with me by email.
At Karen at your power, your health.com
or going to my website and connect them.
Connect with me there.
Www dot your power, your health.com.
Sarah: Love it.
Thank you.