An exhaustive resource of Women Fitness and Health
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On the December midnight when she discovered that she could not breathe, Marylou Kelly Streznewski finally had a good reason to head to the emergency room, after eighteen months of five doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Seven hours of open heart surgery later, she was in possession of a replaced mitral valve, a repaired tricuspid valve and a triple bypass. But even that did not make her an advocate for educating women about heart disease. It was reading a newsletter three months later that listed the very symptoms that had puzzled doctors for those eighteen months. Had she known, she could have insisted that they test her heart! Highlighting the necessity if educating the women of America about the dangers of heart disease as their number one killer, this dramatic memoir takes the reader inside the trauma of open heart surgery using the actual surgeon’s notes, prose, letters and her own poetry. Streznewski shows how her use of integrative medicine modalities taught her that she had to heal herself after the surgeons rebuilt her heart.
This is not a book of medical advice; the author is not a medical expert. It is the cautionary tale of a survivor who did her homework and took responsibility for her own healing. It is time for such a patient to speak. Someone needs to tell the story of what it takes to get your life back after the massive assault on your entire being which open heart surgery entails. Marylou Kelly Streznewski is that patient.
