Three years ago today I experienced the scariest, most traumatic event of my life: I had a heart attack at just 32 years old.

I had just returned to work from a brief maternity leave and was looking forward to a long weekend of baby snuggles and a nice family picnic. However, instead of spending that time on a blanket in the warm sunshine with my boys, I spent it in a cold hospital room in the cardiac ICU recovering from a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD). Because I didn’t get that picnic three summers ago, I decided to make it a tradition, a picnic every year around May 27 to celebrate each year of survivorship. Of course this year we’ve skipped the picnic due to a lot of factors like the constant dreary weather, the pandemic, and being in the middle of packing everything up for a move.

But I’m still in very good physical health and my mental health has improved tremendously, though I still occasionally deal with some PTSD stuff. But I get to watch Sebastian sing songs and learn new things and run around, and I’m extremely thankful that I was so lucky, that I’m still here to watch him grow. I’ve always felt that all the little things count so much, but now I know just how much.

In this third year:

–I signed up for and started training for the inaugural 5K SCADaddle© for Research to run 3.2 miles and raise money for more important SCAD research. The race was originally supposed to be held in April but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so my training has also been postponed but I’ll get back into it soon!

–I continue to be active in several online support groups, including a SCAD Survivors NC Facebook group where I can connect with and support survivors who truly understand what I’ve been going through these last three years because they’ve experienced it, as well.

–I’m still eating better. My diet has never been horrible but we now make it a habit to cook at home more and to ensure we’re eating fresh fruits and veggies.

All in all, I’m doing very well. And I’m *still* looking forward to a long lifetime full of sunny, warm picnics!

As Memorial Day came and went, so did the two-year anniversary of my heart attack.

Two summers ago, I had just returned to work from a brief maternity leave and was looking forward to a long weekend of baby snuggles and a nice family picnic. However, instead of spending that time on a blanket in the warm sunshine with my boys, I spent it in a cold hospital room in the cardiac ICU recovering from a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD). It was truly one of the most scary things to ever happen to me. Because I didn’t get that picnic two summers ago, I decided that a do-over was just want I needed to celebrate my first year of survivorship. I had planned to have another picnic this year to start a new tradition, but unfortunately, Sebastian came down with a fever so we’re having to postpone it for another time.

As we approach Sebastian’s second birthday next week, I thought I would share a special gift for him that I’ve been working on. But, first, some background.

Many years before I became pregnant, I was in graduate school and was spending one of my breaks binge watching sappy movies on Netflix when I came across Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas and decided to watch it, thinking it was going to be just another love story. It actually kind of rocked my world a little bit and I didn’t even realize it yet. Allow me to explain (spoilers ahead):

Book (left) vs Movie (right)

Hey, look at me, back with some pictures of the clothes I put on my body!

So, how many of you, like me, have new year’s resolutions to clean up your space and are KonMari-ing? If you have Netflix, you’ve probably seen the show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo or you’ve at least heard of it. I bought the book a few years ago so I was already familiar with the KonMari method of tidying when the show came out. If you’re not familiar with KonMari, you organize by room instead of my stuff. Then, you take EVERYTHING out of your closet, drawers, etc. and hold each item to determine whether it “sparks joy.” If it does, you keep it, and if it doesn’t, you get rid of it.

The idea of taking every single piece of clothing out of my closet at once is still too daunting, but as I’ve mentioned a few times on the blog, I’ve been taking pieces out a little at a time to ensure my style reflects who I am now, and to help me achieve my goal of living a somewhat minimalist lifestyle. Freshly inspired by Marie Kondo and her show, I’ve taken even MORE pieces out of my closet in the past few weeks and I’m still feeling great about the pieces that remain, as evidenced by the return of my office-bathroom mirror selfies!

Anyway, on to the outfits!

I received some good health news recently!

Since the heart attack in May 2017, I’ve been seeing a cardiologist every six months to make sure I’m healing well and that I’m not having any complications. So far, everything has been fine. At my most recent check up, I mentioned to him that sometimes when I stand up, I feel slightly lightheaded with a throbbing in my ears that lasts few seconds. This was a fairly common occurrence when I was on a concoction of medication right after the heart attack, which included a beta blocker to keep my blood pressure and heart rate low, but having been off of those meds for about 6 months now, I wasn’t sure what was happening.