Women who've been there help fellow heart attack survivors

When Lynn Niblick woke in the middle of the night with chest pains, she didn't pay them much mind. But once she got to work the next day as a benefits administrator, she no longer could ignore the pain. She agreed to go to the hospital, where she discovered at 58 she was having a heart attack.

"I blew off pain a lot," said Niblick, of Easthampton. "I was busy with my family and my job, and I thought if I went to the hospital they'd make me stay.

"I didn't have time for it."

Niblick, 65, needed five stents inserted in her heart. Now, several years after those initial pains, she has been nominated to attend a WomenHeart symposium at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She and another Virtua Hospital heart attack survivor, Joan Wisniewski, 67, shared their experiences and underwent intensive training in supporting other women with cardiovascular disease.

The two are group leaders in a new program, WomenHeart at Virtua, presenting expert speakers on topics including nutrition, stress management, and medications, followed by a support group open to all women with heart disease. Meetings will alternate between the Moorestown and Washington Township wellness centers on the second Thursday of the month.

"We don't want to remove the seriousness of heart disease," said Niblick. "But we want to have a girl's night out to sit around and B.S. about what happened to you, situations you're going through, and where and how to get help."

"We want women to talk about their own stories and to encourage them to really live after heart disease," said Wisniewski.

Although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S., more than all cancers combined, only 54 percent of women are aware of that. Not surprisingly, women frequently ignore or don't know the symptoms of heart disease, which often differ from those in men.

"You need to honestly face your risk factors," said Valerie Torres, director of cardiac services at Virtua. "Really understand your family history and be aware that for women, if you have jaw pain, stomach cramps, or feeling really tired, you could be having a heart attack."

In addition to conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, women share risk factors for heart diseases related to pregnancy - gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, said Maria Duca, a cardiologist at Virtua and codirector of the program. She points out that psychosocial factors - including depression, anxiety, and stress - play a bigger role in heart disease among women then among men.

Wisniewski's cardiologist discovered a blockage in an artery during a catherization performed when she was 54 because cardiovascular disease runs in her family. That was followed by two heart attacks - one in 2011 at age 62, signaled by profuse sweating and nausea, and a second in early 2015, when she felt a burning in her neck she thought was acid reflux.

After her first attack, during which she coded in the catherization lab, she developed clinical depression, a fairly common response.

"I was Superwoman after my first heart attack," said Wisniewski, of Monroeville. "I lost weight, I had no fat in my diet."

Still, she got "a little quivery" and went back for a checkup for reassurance.

"While I was there, someone was brought in who was having a heart attack. And I remembered the time when I coded, and I dropped. It was a good six months of despair," said Wisniewski, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and clinical depression.

"Not until I got help and talked about my feelings about the heart attack did I begin to feel better. I never dealt with the heart attack when it happened.

"A lot of people are in denial and don't want to talk about what happened to them, but that can bite you back later," said Wisniewski.

As common as heart disease is among women, Niblick and Wisniewski understand it still can feel isolating. So they are training to be volunteers at the hospital. They plan to have bedside talks with cardiac patients about the new support group.

"I'm not sure I would have used [the group] when I had my attacks," said Wisniewski. "But it would have helped to have someone who had cardiovascular disease and who looked pretty fit visit me at the hospital.

"We want women to know that life exists after heart disease," she said. "It's not the end of the world. You're different, but you're not wounded."

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