Stress caused my spontaneous dissection of the coronary artery

As said Jacquelyne Frroeber

Everything happened so quickly.

In December 2022 I walked back from the bathroom to my office when I felt a tugboat in my chest and a strange sensation – as if I had been icy hot on my heart.

My first reaction was that I might have a cold, or flu or worse – Covid. I started to have a hard time, so I asked my husband, Mark, to drive home. By the time I got into the car, I knew that the house was no longer an option.

“Drive to the heart hospital,” I said. Of course Mark was confused.

“That of the highway.” It wasn’t the nearest hospital for us, but I remembered that there was a friend of a friend who went there when she had a heart attack.

I wasn’t sure why I felt led to the Heart Hospital. I had never had cardiovascular problems and I played most days of the week. I was a 53-year-old mother with two boys in high school and one at the university and our entire family was very active. My friends often said that I was the healthiest person they knew.

But that didn’t look like it in the car. When I started losing the feeling in my hands, I realized that I might not come to the Hartziekenhuis. I told Mark that I loved him. “It was a great life,” I said. “Tell the boys that they have been the best part of my life.”

I felt the car change in a high gear. “You don’t die today,” said Mark.

And everything faded into black.

When I woke up, I had a tube in my throat. My arms and my right leg were modest and I had several tubes from my body. Uncomfortable does not even start to describe the feeling of being intubated. I felt trapped and scared – my broad eyes were the only way to express my thoughts. Fortunately, the steady stream of medicines helped me to calm me down.

While I drove in and out of consciousness, I was aware that my best friend Jessica was there. Mark had gone home to tell our son that I had had a spontaneous Kranslag vehicle dissection (SCAD) – a deep tear in the left coronary artery of my heart. Doctors had introduced a stent to restore blood flow, but my heart was too weak to pump oxygen and blood to the important places in my body. At one point they believed that I had entered the brain for 18 minutes without oxygen, and I threatened to fail. An artificial heart pump kept me alive, and doctors said that the next 24 hours would be crucial. “If there was ever a time to pray, this would be time,” Mark told our son.

The next day the doctors made the intubation tube earlier than planned, and we got the good news that my heart responded very well. The percentage of blood pumped from my left ventricle had gone from 20% to 50%. I was more than grateful and I knew I was lucky to live.

But that night there was a code blue on the cardiac Intensive Care unit. “It’s me,” I thought. “I die.” I wouldn’t make it anyway. Then I heard someone say six. I knew that I was in room eight and it urged me that eight is the infinity symbol – unlimited without borders. I divided eight by two – a sacred song – to get four, which represents the heart chakra in the body. That gave me the spiritual power I needed. I knew it would be fine.

2023

After only four days on the ICU I was fired and home again. The doctors were not 100% sure why the SCAD happened, but I had no existing disorders or genetic dispositions that would have jeopardized me. However, I was a woman who is the greatest risk factor for SCAD. And stress is also big.

Like many women, I did not fully realize the impact that stress could have on my heart. I am the type of person who is always on the road and I tried to be as healthy as possible, but I had had a stressful year. Physically I thought I took care of myself, but my heart took cortisol after hit – until it broke.

The weeks after the operation were mentally extremely difficult for me. I grew up with the thought that asking for help meant that you were weak – and I didn’t want to be weak. For the first time I had to lean on other people, and the way the women in my neighborhood and community showed up for me was in -depth. I received more love, support and meals than I knew what to do with it.

I started to go to cardiac rehabilitation three times a week and felt that I was getting stronger every day. Every visit I would become addicted to a Bluetooth EKG that followed the electrical impulses of my heart. I could see on the screen where the line dropped – that was the sign of the damage. My doctor said my heart might never heal completely.

Two months after the incident, a group of high school girlfriends flew in to see me. We spent the weekend catching up and laughing and relaxing the way only real friends could. When the weekend was over, I was a bit sad, but also appreciation for our friendship.

The next day I went to Cardiac Rehab, and a few minutes after training the technology called me to the monitor. The line dip was no longer there – it was gone. My heart was healed. That is the power to be surrounded by women who love you unconditionally.

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