- Shannon Henning is a small business owner and health and wellness marketing specialist.
- During the summer, he began to experience severe fatigue, numbness in his legs and feet, and chest pain and difficulty breathing. She tested negative for Covid-19, and walked away from the ER after being told she had a cold in her chest.
- In September, the 34-year-old was hospitalized for six days and diagnosed with congenital heart failure, a condition that mainly affects people aged 50 and over.
- Henning realized that being overwhelmed by work, family, and anxiety over COVID-19, she neglected her physical health and pursued her symptoms because nothing was serious.
- Now, Henning is working to improve her health, and warns other working mothers to check with themselves more often to make the same mistake.
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In early 2020, I was a busy 34-year-old entrepreneur and working mom, living with my husband and son in Calgary, Canada. I have spent the last five years raising a consultant side gig in a thriving full-time business, working with professionals in the health and wellness industries on their branding and marketing.
I am very proud. Six more revenue figures were brought in in my first year, and I was easily on track in 2020 to do just that. I had a big plan to hire a team to make the mass sale effective and support me.
My goal was to increase revenue by creating a signature program for private clients while my goal was to increase my dealings with small business owners through a teaching online teaching and coaching program. I hope to start working with hundreds of new customers.
One day in early September, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. with a special gurgle in my chest.
It seems to get you when you are fighting a cold in a bad chest.
I’ve been running all summer, and I’m bored more than ever. I have had symptoms like cold and flu since July and have gained 12 pounds in the last two weeks. My legs and feet were constantly stiff and stiff, and I had significant difficulty breathing when I climbed my stairs.
I described my husband’s level of fatigue as almost a “cellular level”, and falling asleep or not seems to be enough to alleviate my fatigue.
I was active, ate a healthy diet and lost 55 pounds in the past year, none of these symptoms I realized. During quarantine due to COVID-19, I improved my health as much as I could and thought I was managing well.
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I was doing my best to navigate the reality of the epidemic and the meaning for her business, along with my husband’s challenge and we were studying in our 6 year home school.
My busy routine began to affect my business on a large scale. I no longer have time to devote to customer work and I was struggling with deadlines that under normal circumstances was never a problem. I didn’t even know where I was going to find time to teach my son.
Talking to colleagues and customers, it seemed like everyone was suffering from the low level of anxiety and fatigue that I had. It didn’t feel like I was alone and unique in the physical and mental toll of wielding all the balls, so I pushed my health to the side.
My time was being poured in to create the business of my dreams, but I have yet to realize that my lack of life-work balance was inadvisable.
Fast forward to that September morning, and I know I need help. Although I matched the symptoms associated with the virus, I was already tested for Covid-19 and the results were negative. I complained to the emergency department about the same problem 10 days ago, as well as coughing up a small amount of blood, but was sent home and told I had a cold in my chest.
In the emergency department, I was given my diagnosis when I saw my blood pressure rise to fatal levels and my ability to breathe decrease and decrease.
The doctor told me I had pulmonary edema, a condition in which your lungs fill with fluid, and I was in coronary heart failure.
I was. A 34-year-old woman, sitting alone in the emergency department because COVID-19 visit restrictions would not allow my husband to stay with me, was told that right now, at this moment, my heart was failing and I was dying. .
Something that was to come next was a whirlwind of emergency treatment to open my blood vessels, slow down my heart, and get oxygen into my body. The IV flow of heparin, blood thinners, and nitroglycerin (a drug that helps relax blood vessels and help blood to enter the blood more easily) stabilizes me before I move into the cardiac intensive care unit.
I was hospitalized for six days, where I learned that my heart was pumping less than half what it should be. Further investigation showed that the primary cause was high blood pressure which had been uncontrolled for a very long time.
As I came to terms with my diagnosis, I immediately turned to Google to find out more about who I was against, and I was stunned to see that the symptoms of heart failure mimicked many like COVID-19 including shortness of breath and shortness of breath. Difficulty in taking, fatigue and weakness and persistent cough and chest pain. I learned that heart failure can cause fluid retention, coughing up blood, and even swelling in your legs, ankles, and feet.
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I had symptoms of heart failure during the summer, but I was too busy with my business and worried about COVID-19 to think of anything else.
After a round of tests, including an echocardiogram and a cardiac MRI, I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, which weakens or thickens the heart muscle where it cannot pump blood properly.
When left untreated by medication, stress management, nutrition and exercise, it can lead to heart failure.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), cardiomyopathy is frequently diagnosed, but 1 in 500 adults in the United States can live with the condition. When left untreated by medication, stress management, nutrition and exercise, it can lead to heart failure.
I knew I would have to make a thorough assessment of all aspects of my life if I wanted to move on.
Henning the day before admission to the hospital and six days after discharge. Within two weeks of being admitted to the hospital, she lost 27 pounds of water and fluid build-up.
Shannon Henning
The stress of business ownership, motherhood, and the Covid-19 pushed me to the brink of total collapse. I had many risk factors for cardiomyopathy, but I had no idea that this disease could affect a person my age with such fatal consequences.
Since my diagnosis, I have made changes to better balance my work and family responsibilities and my body is more consistent with what it is trying to tell me. To other parents working during this time, I encourage you to check your own physical and mental health, as you do with your loved ones, so that you do not miss the life-threatening diagnosis you have made.
Shannon Henning is a freelance writer and health and wellness marketing professional. He is president of OpenInk Solutions, a company that helps health and wellness professionals build their personal brands and become thoughtful leaders in industries. Follow on Twitter.
