A Tragic (and possibly preventable?) Death

An online blogger friend of mine passed away last week, and I've been thinking about it off and on since then. Members of us on a group FB page that knew her have been sharing our feelings of sadness and fear brought up by her death. She had a young daughter who had recently started kindergarten and was the light of her life. Rest in Peace, B. You will not be forgotten.

A sudden loss like this makes one think of the fragility of life and the importance of valuing and making the most of each day, as well as communicating our love to people regularly. This friend was healthy except for a couple of specific symptoms, including an extremely low heart rate and shortness of breath, and her cardiologist actually said it was nothing she would "drop dead" from. Haunting words to read after she did pass away not long after. He should have taken her symptoms more seriously and erred on the cautious side.

I'm not sure if it will be helpful, but I feel compelled to share a couple of links about heart disease and heart problems you can have, even if you exercise and are relatively healthy. There can be both auto-immune factors in heart disease, as well as detrimental effects from long-term, strenuous cardiovascular exercise (think training for marathons over time).

Please take a moment if you can and read the warning signs, such as breathlessness and edema. And please, make a BIG deal of these kind of symptoms, and err on the overly cautious side. I know B had a profound impact on the lives of those close to her, and she will be hugely missed, especially by her daughter. Maybe another impact she will have is educating others on heart disease and how to interpret, and take seriously, it's various forms and symptoms.