Pips Petals

My name is Annette and I am the founder of PipsPetals. Here is my story (and the story of how PipsPetals came to be):

For years I would occasionally get light headed when I got up to quickly or bent over and stood up to fast. I didn’t give it a thought when on Christmas Eve 2017, when my husband called me from the next room to look at something and I said to him, “Wow, I feel light headed!” The next thing I knew I was being whisked away to the emergency room.

I had a heart attack. Luckily, my son knew the Emergency Room doctor at the hospital and called ahead. They took me right in and hooked me up to a lot of machines. A few minutes after I arrived to the E/R my heart stopped 2 more times. The doctors decided to put me in ICU and to monitor things. Everything seemed to be going OK. I spoke to my husband and son about 5:30 am Christmas morning and assured them I had a good nights sleep. I turned on the TV and began to watch Christmas Mass. It happened to be from a parish that I used to belong to. As the television cameras scanned the pews I wondered at the people and how many faces I didn’t recognize. Then I blacked out. The next thing I knew, I looked around my room and it was full of medical staff! My heart had stopped again, but this time it was more serious and they had to perform CPR to bring me back. At 6:00 am I called my family and told them they should come to the hospital. By 7:30 am the doctors had put in a temporary pacemaker through my jugular vein. The next morning at 8:00 am I was taken in and had a permanent Pacemaker implanted. I couldn’t believe that I—me—had a pacemaker!

As I was recovering, I couldn’t wear a bra and the following week when I went for my first Pacemaker check-up I asked about wearing one. I was concerned about the strap rubbing against the incision might be uncomfortable or cause infection or prevent the pacemaker from working correctly. The technician said the best thing to do was to put a maxi-pad around the bra strap were it could protect the incision! I tried that and it looked terrible, but it felt worse. The pad kept moving and sticking to my skin. I was home on medical leave so I decided to come up with something better. This is how PipsPetals was born. I’ve been sharing PipsPetals with my friends ever since (I didn’t mention that two of my colleagues had heart attacks right before and right after mine!)

I want people—women especially—to know that all heart attacks are not the same. I had no warning or indication that anything was happening or going to happen. I did not see “the white” light. For me, it was like I had fallen asleep. I had no idea of the time lapses. I had no pain. When in doubt, have it checked out! And, if you do wind up having a pacemaker implanted, please give PipsPetals a try. I hope you will find PipsPetals to be as comfortable and helpful as I did!

Share your story with me, you can e-mail me anytime at Annette (at) PipsPetals.com!

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