Fast Finder:
Critical Difference Stories: Heart Care
Bonnie Peterson:
Cardiovascular Rehab—Living a New Healthy Life
Bonnie Peterson is the kind of storyteller who keeps you captivated by her calm and soothing matter-of-fact delivery. The slim 63 year old has twinkling eyes. She is soft spoken as she recalls her drive to work Tuesday April 28, 1998.
“I was driving down the connector at 7:30 in the morning. All of a sudden at the Franklin Road exit, I started experiencing heartburn. I remember thinking this is the most incredible heartburn I’ve ever had in my entire life and I couldn’t remember what I would have eaten that would have caused this kind of heartburn.” Just as that thought was processing something else happened.
The next physical sensation Bonnie experienced is the sensation many of us have learned to pay attention to. It’s the sensation that says - this is not a drill. This is a real fire. Bonnie started feeling a pain in her left arm and she started sweating. Bonnie worked for a doctor and was familiar with the signs of a heart attack but surprisingly the second thought she had after realizing she could be having a heart attack was, “I don’t have time for this.”
By the time Bonnie got to her office downtown, just minutes later, things had gotten progressively worse. Bonnie called a friend in a nearby office and shared her symptoms. Subconsciously she wanted someone to assure her that everything was okay. Everything was not okay. The friend Bonnie called was a nurse who said, “Bonnie, hang up the phone. I’m calling 911.You’re having a heart attack.” That’s the last thing Bonnie remembers before an awareness that someone was pressing on her chest.
Fast forward 13 years. Bonnie is one of Dr. Antonio Lopez’ star patients. Dr. Lopez is Director of Preventive Cardiology and cardiovascular rehabilitation at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Dr. Lopez is also the director of the Lipid Clinic and the Chair of the Department of Cardiology.
Dr. Lopez says the fact that Bonnie had a heart attack at 50 isn’t a surprise. Serious heart disease runs in Bonnie’s family. Bonnie’s father died of a heart attack when he was just 38 years old. Dr. Lopez says when people have heart attack in the family there’s likely something genetic that could predispose them to plaque buildup. Add to that the fact that Bonnie had been exhibiting the signs of cardiac distress for weeks prior. She was tired. She had very little energy. Bonnie assumed it was stress or simple fatigue. Based on appearance alone Bonnie was not someone you’d consider a “walking heart attack.” She has always been slim. She never drank to excess and always ate a relatively healthy diet. She stayed active and enjoyed yard work. Like many women of her generation, she’d smoked three or four cigarettes a day off-and on but wasn’t ever considered a heavy smoker.
It was a circuitous route finding Dr. Lopez, whom Bonnie calls her Rock of Gibraltar. Between 1998 and the time she met Dr. Lopez Bonnie had two open heart surgeries. Bonnie says she never clicked with other doctors she had seen and sometimes felt minimized. She got the distinct feeling that she was just another heart attack walking in the door. Her efforts to find a cardiologist with whom she clicked had proven so frustrating that Bonnie had started flying to Los Angeles for treatment; Boise to UCLA to see the doctor. That’s where Bonnie learned about Dr. Lopez and his reputation as a premiere cardiac rehab specialist. Another recommendation came from Bonnie’s sister Debbie who also had a heart attack and was being treated by Dr. Lopez.
Bonnie says Dr. Lopez treated her like a person and an individual. Dr. Lopez listened and explained what was happening and why it was happening. Dr. Lopez also got Bonnie on the track to staying healthy. One of the first things Dr. Lopez advised was for Bonnie to encourage her two daughters to be checked for heart disease. 42-year-old Susan and 41-year-old Marnie are now patients of Dr. Lopez as well.
While Bonnie acknowledges that she’ll live with her heart disease all her life she says Dr. Lopez - whom she calls her Rock of Gibralter - has given her the guidance to live with it in a healthy way.
