Heart disease doesn't discriminate
Sept.
13, 2002
I had the honor and privilege of celebrating the life of one of my most precious friends last weekend.
One of my former roommates from Utica College, Shavona Robinson, almost died around this time last year after she went into congestive heart and lung failure. Even as late as February, she wasn't sure if she was going to live.
But she made it, and many of her family and friends came together to celebrate her 34th birthday ... and her life.
During the party in Hackensack, N.J., Shavona thanked all her guests and even made bookmarks for each of us. In part, the bookmark said: "Your presence and the fact that you have found time in your busy lives to be here means the world to me."
In reality, I think it meant the world to her guests to see her looking so beautiful and full of energy.
Shavona's story actually is pretty amazing -- she still is living because she almost died.
If she had not been home trying to recuperate from her illness, Shavona would have been working at the New York Stock Exchange at the World Trade Center last Sept. 11. Instead, she was home watching TV as her workplace disintegrated before her eyes.
Her doctor even told her that had she been in the twin towers that day, she would not have survived. He said she never would have made it down the stairs because her heart was so weak.
Life truly does work in mysterious ways.
Since she first became ill, Shavona has had a long struggle and it's not over, but she is doing very well now.
During her long struggle, she battled diabetes and weight gain. Before her illness, she actually was ready to have gastric bypass surgery, a procedure that makes the stomach smaller. But then her plans changed.
In March, when her doctors could not tell her she definitely would live, she convinced them to let her have the surgery. She felt in her heart that it would help her live. Since the surgery, she has lost 92 pounds and is doing wonderfully.
I unfortunately had lost touch with Shavona -- we had talked only a handful of times in the past five years. But seeing each other again seemed as though we had just spoken the day before.
It's very scary to see my friends dealing with heart disease. Another of my friends had a heart attack last week. Isn't that only supposed to happen to elderly people who have eaten poorly all their life?
Ever since I joined the Choose to Move program, which did not meet Wednesday out of respect for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, more people in my life have been affected by heart problems. Maybe I'm just paying more attention.
Either way, heart disease is scary and can affect everyone -- young and old.
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