VIDEO: Starkville Woman Gets Wake Up Call About Heart Health

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- You may have noticed a lot of people wearing red on Friday, that’s because the first Friday in February is National Wear Red Day.

It’s a campaign to help raise awareness about heart disease among women.

The movement calls for women to take control of their health, which is a message that speaks loud and clear to Linda Grosinske.

She initially ignored her symptoms of heart problems, but fortunately was able to get a diagnosis just in time.

“I am thankful to be alive, very very thankful,” said Linda Grosinske, Starkville resident.

As Grosinske and her daughter Amy flips through family photos, smiles come to their faces as they share this moment.

The two are grateful for one another because just a few weeks earlier, on December 19th, things nearly took a turn for the worse.

“I went to bed around 10:30 or 11 that night and sometime during the night, about three or four o’clock in the morning, I went to try to turn on my side and for some reason I couldn’t turn over,” Grosinske recalled.

When Linda woke up from her sleep she started feeling pressure in her chest.

That pressure then began to spread over to her left shoulder.

“I knew that wasn’t good but the only thing that crossed my mind was girl you better start praying,” she expressed.

So she did, and the pressure slowly started to ease up.

When Linda woke up that morning she was feeling fine and didn’t think she needed to go to the hospital.

However, Amy paid her a visit and kept repeatedly telling her mom she needed to go see a doctor.

After continually being told she should go she a doctor, Linda finally gave in and went to the hospital.

“When I got to the emergency room they did lab work, and EKG, and chest x-rays,” Grosinske described. “I’m still not thinking anything is wrong because I was doing fine. Then the doctor came in and he said your troponin level is elevated. I’m going to send you by ambulance to Columbus to be admitted into the cardiac catheterization unit to have a cath done the next morning.”

So she took the doc’s advice.

“I had my cardiac cath done the next morning,” said Grosinske. “They found three areas in my heart that needed stents. They did two stents that day and I had the last one done this past Friday.”

Linda worked in the medical field for several years and is familiar with heart problems.

She said her heart problems came out of the blue, because she always exercised, watched what she ate, and took good care of herself.

“I was in complete denial about the whole thing,” she said.

But thankfully she got the help she needed just in time.

Now Linda is sharing her story so other women won’t make the same mistake that she made.

“Women know their bodies better than anybody else,” the Starkville resident expressed. “If you have something that doesn’t feel right to you, you need to get it checked.”

Linda’s father died from the same thing she has now.

Since her procedure, she said she’s feeling a lot better and stronger, and is currently waiting to begin cardiac therapy.