SCAD

What is SCAD you will probably say. Well two years ago on next Wednesday I had a SCAD heart attack. SCAD stands for Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. SCAD is easier to say. The most annoying thing about having this ‘condition’ is that no one knows what causes it. In fact the people who suffer a SCAD are usually healthy women! When a person suffers a heart attack you would think that they would need to change their lifestyle. Stop drinking, smoking or eating too much or the wrong foods. Well us SCAD survivors often don’t do this so they can’t stop doing it. That is why it is so annoying. If I thought, well I have stopped smoking and stopped eating the wrong foods then this will prevent it happening again. I may eat a bit less now but that is the only thing that I can think of. Only recently have I tried to find out more information about the SCAD heart attack. I guess I was a bit scared and also thought if there is nothing to do to prevent it I don’t need to know the facts. I guess it is that acceptance thing again. I never really thought I had a heart attack. It was the cardiac arrest that was much more serious. I have no memory of the night it happened to me but I have been told of my reaction when the paramedics told me I had a heart attack. I went into a cardiac arrest so I guess I must have been shocked to hear this! Yesterday I went on a SCAD fundraising walk to raise money for SCAD research. I talked to the doctor who runs clinics for SCAD patients and listened to a talk he gave which was very interesting. I wore a name label with the year of my SCAD on it. I saw some people have had more than one SCAD which is a bit worrying. The last two years I have been focusing more on the brain injury that the SCAD caused but perhaps now I need to focus more on my heart.