Toledo native Julia Allen didn’t know what a heart attack felt like until she had one.
On April 15, 2013, the then-44-year-old started to feel tightness in her chest while at work. She ignored it until she became short of breath and nauseated and felt a tightening in her jaw. It was then that she knew what she was feeling wasn’t normal.
“We all go to health fairs and read stuff or watch ‘Dr. Oz’ and that stuff kind of sticks in your head,” she said. “Inherently I just knew something wasn’t right.”
Allen fought the idea of calling an ambulance because of the cost. After calling her husband, he tried to talk her into going to the hospital. She compromised, saying she would call her doctor. He told her to go to the hospital.
“I was in denial,” she said. “Up until this point, I had been the picture of health. I had never really had anything major. I was that person that went to the doctor every year, I got my physicals, I did everything … just like I was supposed to.”
She said she thought her husband and doctors were overreacting the day of her heart attack. She was almost convinced that she would get to the emergency room to find out she had the flu. She even stopped home on the way to the hospital.
Allen, who now lives in North Carolina, is a spokesperson for the American Heart Association’s “Go Red For Women” campaign. It’s the same campaign she turned to when she was suffering her heart attack.
“They had women out there doing what I’m doing now,” Allen said. “The women actually tell the story of what was happening to them, what they felt, what they experienced.”
She said the website saved her life.
Her outlook on life changed the day she had a heart attack. While in the hospital, she made a deal with God, asking for her time not to be up yet.
“I think you get to the point of desperation,” she said. “I am a Christian, I’ve given my life to Christ … so if he had taken me that day, I feel like I would’ve gone to heaven. But I wasn’t ready to not be a part of my children’s lives. I wanted to see them grow up.”
She promised if she survived, she would make changes in the way she treated herself.
Before her heart attack, Allen said, she always put everyone else’s needs before her own.
“I was trying to be that perfect mother and perfect wife,” she said.
Since her heart attack, Allen has reduced stress, started listening to her body and begun exercising during spare time. She said showing kindness and appreciation is another way she’s changed.
“All those things that we take for granted … make people realize that you care about them,” she said.
Having a heart attack proved to Allen that tomorrow is never guaranteed.
“I try to slow down now and definitely spend more time with my kids and my husband,” she said. “Now I have more family nights.”
Allen said heart disease runs in her family. She said her son, an avid athlete who eats well, has high cholesterol because of his genes.
“Family history plays a very strong part in your risk of disease,” she said.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America and 48.9 percent of African-American women ages 20 or older have cardiovascular disease, Allen said.
“In my situation, before the heart attack, I remember having chest pains here and there years before,” she said. “It would come and go and [I would] ignore it.”
Through her efforts as a spokesperson, Allen meets other women and hopes to inspire them to take better care of their hearts.
Allen also encourages everyone to wear red for the nationwide Wear Red Day on Feb. 6. The day serves as a reminder for women to be aware of their health. For more information, visit goredforwomen.org.
