It was in the hospital for seven days and on the sixth day a cardiologist walked in and said okay, it's in your lungs, so it's most definitely around your heart. And he said it's a form of endocarditis. And I was a drug rep back in the day, so I and I sold cardiovascular drugs. So I knew that endocarditis was really bad and I didn't even tell my husband. He had no idea what it was. But I knew if that was the case it was going to change my life, probably forever.
Did you know that in the US, someone dies from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds and nearly 45% of women over the age of 20 are living with some kind of cardiovascular disease? And I'm not sharing this to scare you. Quite the contrary, I want to inform you and I want to let you know that it's very possible. You probably know somebody who is living with cardiovascular disease.
I do, in fact, I just recently found this out myself, and that is my friend, Stacey Grant, who joins us today on HIListically Speaking. I did not know that this was something that you were struggling with and I thought you know what. It's Women's Health Month and we're about to leave this month, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking about these things going forward, right? It's not just a month where we think about our health and our heart health or just our health in general.
It's not just a month where we think about our health and our heart health or just our health in general. It's every month. But for you, when I heard that you had faced something in regards to your own personal heart health, I was like I need to have you here. I need you to share your story. You're being so open with it and, quite frankly, I had no clue. So this is one of those things that we need to have a conversation about, isn't it?
Absolutely, absolutely. And the more that I learn, the more I realize I don't know about heart health, especially in women. It's insane.
Yeah, and you know you and I go back a ways. We've known each other for a number of years. We're both podcasters. I want to give you a shout out for your podcast, gurus and Game.
Changers with.
Mark Labraji, and I've been so fortunate to be on your show as well, but I think like we connect in these ways through our stories, right? We're storytellers as podcasters, but also as human beings, storytellers as podcasters, but also as human beings. And for you, your own personal story with this. I mean, never have I heard you talk about it.
Then I see a social media post where you shared more about it that you're actually nominated as one of the women of impact for the American Heart Association with the Go Red campaign which is going on starting. It started on Go Red Day right In. February and going through, you know, the next 10 weeks or so, but when I was like what is she talking about?
So I want to give you a chance to share your story, to give women, and just anyone in general you know, an awareness that there are things we need to check on, even if it goes undetected and we don't even know what's happening in our bodies. What can we do to bring awareness to this, to check ourselves, especially as we get older?
It's crazy. And after menopause it kind of spikes in women. So I mean, I think women are like this and men are kind of they slope, but once menopause hits it literally goes like this they slope. But once menopause hits, it literally goes like this. And I think most women over the age of 50 are the ones who struggle. But for me, like, my story was just out of nowhere, right.
So I had this really strange little sore on my face and I was in Virginia actually and I was hanging out with my sister-in-law and I was like this is strange, right, it's all of a sudden getting really big. So the side of my face got huge and I tried everything. I put, you know, neosporin, I thought was an ingrown hair. I had no idea what it was. Is it a bite that's gotten infected?
But like I didn't think it was anything crazy, right, I mean we never do, we're women, so we just let everything go. So I went home that day and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and bigger and, long story short, I ended up in the hospital. It was at first misdiagnosed. I had regular antibiotics, ended up in the hospital and it was MRSA, which is crazy. You know how does that happen.
And then the MRSA, which is a medically resistant staph infection it's very hard to treat which is a medically resistant staph infection. It's very hard to treat. And it went into my bloodstream and then it went into my lungs and it was in the hospital for seven days and on the sixth day a cardiologist walked in and said okay, it's in your lungs, so it's most definitely around your heart. And he said it's a form of endocarditis.
And I was a drug rep back in the day so I sold cardiovascular drugs. So I knew that endocarditis was really bad and I didn't even tell my husband. He had no idea what it was. But I knew if that was the case it was going to change my life, probably forever. So I had to go get a test called an interesophageal echocardiogram where they looked at my heart. And that day I was freaking out, just freaking out, and the cardiologist had told me it is definitely around your heart Somehow.
When I came out of that echocardiogram the nurse was like she knew how crazy I was about it. She grabbed me and she said you're okay, you're okay, it's not around your heart. But it miffed every doctor. They had no idea why it hadn't, you know, gone around my heart. So I just felt extremely grateful that I was not going to have to deal with any kind of heart disease for the rest of my life. So fast forward to one of my friends who is on the board of directors of the American Heart Association.
She came and sat with me and we were talking and I told her I wanted to give back. So next thing, you know, I heard that I was a nominee for the American Heart Association. Go Red for Women, women of Impact, and what that is. Do you want me to continue?
to tell you yeah, please tell people.
So what that is is an 11 week campaign and I am up against 10 other women in the Philadelphia area and we're raising money for the American Heart Association, go Red for Women. But I've learned a ton. I'm doing a bunch of events, I've had people come to me and tell me stories and it's just been. It's just been wonderful really.
Yeah, and part of that. I mean you mentioned this to me and I know this for who you are, that's the kind of person you are. It's not about the win, it's about raising awareness. You know, because I asked you, I said what happens if you become the woman of impact, the one who actually walks away with it, and you're like I just get to tell the story, and isn't that that's really the true gift is being able to touch, move and inspire one person. It can make a difference.
Look, it already made a difference in my life when I think about the fact that I didn't even know that you were struggling with this at one point, and here you are talking about it and being open about it, to where maybe it'll make one person ask for that one test or go to the doctor when they haven't before. Or, you know, as women in perimenopause and menopause, like you said, the numbers skyrocket the things we don't think about, even in our healthiest state, you know.
No, and I mean my sister, who is 52 years old, just recently had two friends who had heart attacks. Do you know what their symptoms were? Indigestion, Strong, but strong enough indigestion that they actually, thank goodness, went to the hospital. But our symptoms are so different from men. I mean you watch a movie and you see a guy and he grabs his chest and he falls down and you're like, oh, he's having a heart attack. I mean, you know what's happening to that man.
But for women it could be anything. It could be jaw pain, it could be arm pain, it could be indigestion, just sort of a little bit of pressure, abdominal pain. And I don't know about you, but I don't know any woman who's going to call 911 because she has jaw pain, Like I just, you know she's probably thinking she's got a toothache.
I mean, we all try and do so much and you know, I know so many women who just really don't care about themselves as much as they care about others, unfortunately, because we just sort of always fall to the end of the list.
I think there's both sides to it too. Women. We're the nurturers, we take care, we want to protect. We tend to put ourselves second in a lot of ways and we don't step up and do a lot of self-care. And you and I have had many conversations about that, about how we can do that, what we can do to actually raise more awareness in that area, which I love.
Like.
Havening. Like Havening girl. I love that. Thank you for bringing that up. Yes, havening is one tool and I'm so glad that that's something you resonate and gravitate to, but there are many tools, but it's not even that. It's like what are you doing to be your own healthcare advocate and then you go to the other side of the fence, even though we're talking about this during the time of recording. It's women's heart health month. Like I said, this is an ongoing thing.
This is not just a. This is the month where we should be aware of this. This is like the awareness sparks action. The awareness sparks further awareness on how you're going to look forward and do things in the future to protect your heart and in all, 2000 parts Right.
Yeah, yeah, I didn't know so many facts about heart disease and I, you know, I'm not young, I mean I should know these things, I feel like. But you know, it's the number one killer of women and actually everyone in the United States it's the number one killer. It kills more people than all cancers combined every year. And I unfortunately didn't know that.
And the other thing I didn't realize was that women, if you so let's say, you're walking down the street and you're a woman and you have a heart attack and next to you and you fall down and next to you a man falls down with a heart attack 80% of people will help the man and not help the women. Do you know why?
Yeah, I do not know why.
Because of the boobs. Yeah, because people are really nervous about legality and there are Good Samaritan rules. So if there's a man watching this, help a woman, do CPR. Cpr is the number one way to help a woman who's having a cardiac event.
I think in that time we can put all things aside and realize that somebody needs help. And you're right, I mean we have an obligation to help each other. You know, and look, I'm the daughter of a father who had a heart attack right there on the streets of New York City, you know, and it was a massive heart attack. I think by the time he even hit the floor he was gone. And it was a massive heart attack, I think by the time he even hit the floor he was gone.
But in that moment, what if it was a woman that had put her hand against the wall for a moment and then collapsed? Would somebody have helped that woman, like the people that came and tried to help my dad? So it raises a really good point. I never thought about that.
That it's because we're like whoa, whoa, whoa, hands off, yeah, but you know, it's really, it's really crazy and I'm learning all kinds of statistics like that and anyone can learn stuff if you go to the website, the American Heart Association website but they're really trying to do great things for women. A lot of research is going to be coming out of this. A hundred percent of anything that I raise goes directly to research for Go Red for Women. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you next.
And I've worked with the Go Red for Women campaign a couple times as a journalist and I really saw just how much and no pun intended they truly put their heart into the project and you know from the events that are held to where the money goes. And I will share in the notes of this podcast how you can contribute or just find out facts. They are so good about sharing statistics and up-to-date facts because you can really go down the rabbit hole looking for the right kind of information.
But I will say on this specific area, they don't. They don't cut any corners.
No, no, it's really, it's, it's crazy, they're, they're awesome and I really feel like. I think maybe people look at the American Heart Association as this big organization. You know why do they need to raise funds? But specifically they do for research. I mean it's, it's the number one killer of all Americans and I still can't believe. I did not know that until I just joined this campaign.
Yeah. So let me ask you this from what you learned from your situation and when did that happen that?
was.
August of 2023. Okay, so it's not that long ago. You've had, you know, you haven't even had two years to really ingest all of this. What is something you do differently, Stacey? That that you have learned because of this experience to protect your heart.
I feel like I am slower. I mean, you know me, I had my own company, a production company that I sold, and then I have another company that I've just started mainline studios and the podcast, and I also work as an agency producer for an ad agency. I do a lot of things, but I used to pack in like eight to 10 things a day. Now, like today, for instance, I had this podcast, I did three things, you know. So I, I, I feel like I'm really kind of pacing myself.
I was scared when I was in the hospital, so much so that I at one point told my husband I'm like let's stop everything, let's sell the house, let's just be together. Because this is so silly when you're facing a huge health scare, nothing else matters. I say that, but it's really the truth. Like not one other thing matters in life but your loved ones. And so true, it does go away.
Like I, when I first came out of it, I was much more like protective of my time and my self-care, and it starts to fade after a while when you start to feel better. But I definitely don't have the stamina I did before I got the MRSA. There's a few things that are a lot different.
So self-care, is important, I'll agree with you on that. And bringing down the stress levels very important, because that's really stress levels and high stress and cortisol that can be a killer as well. So you don't want like this double dose, right? What are you doing with? Are there changes you've made in your life? In your lifestyle as well, you know how you protect yourself, like the foods you eat or the kind of movement that you do. How are you supporting yourself in that area?
Well, I just I'm thankful that I was very healthy going into it. I think that's one of the reasons why I survived the MRSA, because a lot of people don't survive that. When I came home I had to have antibiotics in my arm for six weeks afterwards and I had a home health nurse and you know it was just crazy. And she walked in the first day and she was taking my statistics and she said, well, isn't that great that you're alive? And I was like, really, like it was that close.
She's like, yeah, she said you really dodged a bullet. I'm thankful that I've always been healthy. I do a ton of yoga. You know we talked about that. I do the hot yoga. I walk in the mornings. I eat fairly healthy. I don't drink that much anymore. I can't take it. Actually I can't take the alcohol. This is too much of a hangover, but I mean just stuff like that. But you know what? It's crazy.
Like we really get old, like we really do, like I. I keep looking at Eric like we're actually my husband, I'm like we're actually getting older, like this is nuts.
Like.
You know what I mean, I just feel like we shouldn't, you know, get older. But it's, it's actually happening.
So like is it the point? Like I have these conversations a lot with Chris too and and you know, chris, who's my partner and I I'm like I just want to like have a house with a, with a doc and sitting on some old Adirondack chairs and like late for me might be nine, 30. And I don't even know if I want to go out to dinner if it's past seven.
Like we get to that point where it's like what I want to live, I want to travel, I want to do great things, but I am at a point where I'm just like I don't have time for that anymore. We went out a couple nights ago to see a friend who was performing at a comedy club, who had come in from the West Coast, and I think we got home around 1.30. I'm like, who are we?
And it was so much fun.
I wouldn't trade it for the world, but we were at this comedy club bar until after 1230 at night and I'm like, oh my God, I'd be in bed by now, at least on the couch watching a Ken Burns documentary or something right, Don't go out that much anymore to where it's late because it's you know. Your body pretty much is telling you what it needs and what to do. Body pretty much is telling you what it needs and what to do and do you feel like that's happened more for you as you've gotten older.
Sleep is like so necessary. When I first was recuperating from the whole thing, my eyes just tell me like I had to take a nap. I don't nap, I mean, I barely sleep. Like my whole life I had like four hours of sleep every night and I was fine with it, you know, but I would have to take a nap and then I would go to sleep at like nine, you know, and so I really sleep is so important. It's hard to sleep when you get older, though.
I definitely struggle with getting my full eight hours where I'm not getting up every every two or three hours.
Yeah, I feel like I want to sleep more, but it's sometimes it's hard and you sit up. You sit up and you're just in your chatter or you're in your head. I also have sleep apnea, so like I struggle with that anyway, but having tools obviously to help me with that helps.
But still, I sit up and I'm like, Hmm, what's going on, Like you start going through that laundry list of things and you really got to bring yourself down because it's so important and also the connection between sleep and our heart health, right. What are some things that you wish you had done differently? You know, obviously, Merce, it was something that it wasn't like you were acting carelessly and it came about.
But what would be something that the older and wiser and more in tune Stacey would tell her younger self?
One of the things I don't do anymore which I'm not sure if it was a factor in the MRSA or not was get nails, and I love having my little acrylic nails, but I something about the nails like. I felt like maybe they weren't, maybe they introduced it into my face because I was scratching my face, so I don't do that particular thing. Besides working less, which is hard for me, I gotta be honest, I actually went to a therapist because, basically because I'm like am I a workaholic?
I don't know, because I love working so much. Of course my son laughs his ass off. He's like mom, you don't work enough to be a work much. Of course my son laughs his ass off. He's like mom, you don't work enough to be a workaholic, like you definitely are not one. But I'm really trying to work in here. Most, you know, and because I felt like I was doing a lot physically, it's really in here.
You know how to calm down, how to how to console myself, how to breathe more, how to slow down, how to not be stressed, and I feel like, hopefully, and also that helps with eating right. So I recently lost a lot of weight. I, I try to eat a lot of protein.
I just, you know, and if you slow down, you're not, you know eating, yeah, you're not nibbling and so much of food can really be boredom, or just that, that quick fix of dopamine and then you come down. Right, that's great. I mean you lost. I haven't seen you probably in over a year in physical space.
I know I miss you.
I miss you too.
We're going to change that but I'm curious what?
what did you do to actually get yourself in a more healthy state?
Well, I did do the triseptide, you know the actual, not the semiglutide, but the other one which has been super, super helpful. It's not a cure-all right? So if you do that, you also have to do the other things. It does help you with your appetite, but Quiet's the noise, eat only McDonald's. It does.
Right Quiet's the food noise and protein protein protein.
It does Right.
It quiets the food noise, nuts and protein, protein, protein. I think that's the big one, especially as we get older, we're told at least 100 grams of protein. We definitely need more protein.
Yeah, as we get older, we definitely need more protein than we thought we did, you know, for the lean muscle mass and just protecting our body and everything around it, you know, and protecting our arteries, protecting our organs, just creating a leaner mass Cause we hold onto a little more as we get older.
It's so hard. Oh, menopause it's my whole life, you know, and yeah so yeah, but I don't know.
I mean like workaholic when you hear that word. How, how does that um, how does that resonate with you?
I mean any aholic sounds so bad. Right, but listen, we don't get penalized for being a workaholic. If we work really, really, really hard, we normally get lauded for that and people applaud that I could work. I have this. I'm a freelancer. I have my own businesses. Like I could work a hundred hours a day Like I if there were. Like it would just and never get to the bottom of all the work I have to do so you know, I mean, you have a business.
You realize like I could be doing something right now that could probably help my business. I could be doing marketing.
I could be doing you know what I mean.
And I love. I'm a creative so I love to do all the graphic design and stuff like that. I would think I was sort of should have been one in the past life. Maybe I was one. I've really tried very what I did was I started getting puzzles. I'm a puzzler, so I'm like, or I'll read fiction I'm a big fiction reader especially to go to sleep at night. It turns my brain off. Or if I wake up at 3 AM, I read a fiction book.
Yeah, I like to read and I don't do technology in my room as much as possible because the doom scrolling you can get pulled in. I love the puzzles. You're talking about just puzzle pieces. Yeah, yes, actual time we did one of those.
Well, listen, cindy Crawford I follow her on Instagram. She's my buddy. No, she's not, but she's. That was like somewhere, and she had this puzzle box that she could like spin around and like put puzzle pieces of different colors and different drawers. And I'm obsessed. I have one, and so I can move my puzzle off the table and bring it over here and bring it back and when I'm watching television or doing whatever I just you know, or what football games puzzle it's.
It's really I love it, and I've got one of my friends on it too.
I might have to try that. I haven't done puzzles in a long time and it used to be so much fun but then what do you? Do with the puzzles when you're done.
I mean I put them sometimes under the. I put some tape on them and put them under my bookshelf. It's such an achievement, or you can just rip them up and put them back in the box.
I'm always amazed at the folks that just like glue them together. They're on a wall. I'm like, oh my gosh, Like the people that do like Legos. I'm like, you know, Lego Palooza going on Right, but the the idea of just doing a puzzle and then, maybe you know, the second time you do it it's never going to be the same If you do it again it will never be the same two pieces that you start with or end with.
And what's kind of fun is like. People might walk by and then kind of get involved in the puzzle, like they might not want to, but like, maybe my daughter will be like, ooh, let me see if I can fit this one, and so it kind of becomes a little bit of a what are you doing with that? That's? That's an end piece, don't even don't even touch that.
I've been looking for that for an hour and a half, Right, Don't you hate that? Like when someone comes along and you're just like sorting and I remember this from doing puzzles you'd be looking for that one piece and someone would be like, oh, I think that goes right there, and you're like you, mother.
My sister, like she came to visit and she did that for like half an hour and every time she got a piece she'd be like oh, there it is. I was like would you just please, just button it off, like I can't find any of the brown ones, Just like we literally got in a huge fight.
So let me ask you this what's next? I mean, we talked about the fact that, look gur. So let me ask you this what's next? I mean we talked about the fact that, look gurus and game changers. I want to mention that because it's a really great podcast. I had such a blast being on the show when you first launched. Well, I adore you and I adore Mark. The both of you are just wonderful co-hosts together and, knowing you both, yeah, do the hearts.
And then, of course, you have this beautiful studio, new studio of Mainline. See, I need to come and check that out in Westchester Pennsylvania, you and Erica. It's in Wayne Now it's in Wayne. Now it's in Wayne, now it's in.
Wayne, it's on the Mainline. We're moving up.
It's on the Mainline, yes, mainline's on the Mainline, mainline's on the Mainline. I love it Love it. But I mean, your other studio was great, but this one, everything I see, I'm just like, I just want to be close to that. I will, I will, I'm going to come visit and then, um, you know, the catching wind of you being so involved with this movie.
The line, oh yeah, the movie. So it's on Amazon prime and it's on Apple and it is a movie about a fraternity where things go wrong. It's a little dark. That never happens. It's a little dark but you can rent it now. I think it's actually. You probably can just watch it now. Hopefully you don't have to rent the movie. But it's Alex Wolff, Halle Bailey, John Malkovich, Denise Richards, Lewis Pullman from Top Gun, and when we cast the movie we didn't even.
Some of these people weren't even stars yet it was super fun. It was in the heat of COVID when we shot it and I couldn't even come to set because I was like, if I come to set I'm definitely going to get COVID and shut the movie down. So I didn't go, but I saw dailies and it was just a really fun part to be a part of, so thank you for mentioning it.
Yeah, you know there's something about being creative and being around the creative types. We definitely have our fingers in a lot of different. You know projects, because that's how the brain works. You know doing the puzzles, creating the podcast, being part of a movie, reorganizing your furniture in your house, I mean. Whatever it might be, it's always something different, right? Yeah?
But it also comes back to when is the point where we're taking on too much or we have to take a step back and be like you know what? I'm going to slow my roll a little bit.
I need to slow my roll a little bit. Very good question, because my full-time job really almost is working as an agency producer for an ad agency, yeah, so I mean that's really my, you know, bread and butter, bread and butter, yeah, but I do all these other things at the same time, it's just finding what brings you joy.
As we get older, we realize those are the kinds of things we want, more to tip the scale than the things that are just the grunt work that even might just be paying the bills right when it comes to our well-being, like that's also currency, right? It's not just cash, it's time, it's sleep. It's what we really value, you know, and especially as as circumstances come into our lives that are not expected, like what you went through, or you know, just the everyday changes that happen.
We have to be really aware of that, and I think that's a real lesson here, and why I wanted to do this episode and why I wanted to bring you on, was to really just create that open space conversation and also connect with you, because I adore you. So all right, so you know what's coming, I know you know, you're like all right, enough chit chat. Can we just get to the game already?
All right so we do a little bit of brain candy little word association, writing down some words that you have said during this episode of HIListically Speaking. I'm going to throw out a word, Stacey Grant, and you need to come back with the first word that comes to mind. Are you ready?
I think so.
Okay, here we go, ready Yoga, calm, healthy.
Heart.
Podcast.
Gurus Sleep Relax.
Research.
Organization.
Mom Help, workaholic, workaholic.
Road. Where's that from All?
right, I'm trying to be true with my words that are popping up. I love it. Don't think too much about it. Marissa, ugly, film, joy and heart Health. Yeah, I wish you a healthy heart and I'm so glad that you're where you are. And look, our lessons are what is tomorrow's learnings right? Our traumas to triumphs, our messes, our message, and I can honestly say I wish you didn't go through what you went through, because I can imagine it was very scary, but I'm so glad you got through it.
So you're here today to talk about it and take better care of you, so that others know that they can take better care of themselves. And I'm certainly going to be asking questions too, for my own health. So thank you for opening my eyes to some things too. Yes, you have anything that you want to share as we close, if anyone wants to donate to the Women of Impact campaign.
I'll send you the link and people can go ahead and donate and help women everywhere.
Yeah, that's what it's all about. We're here to help each other. Great Thanks so much.
Thank you.
All right, my friend, if you know someone who may be touched, moved and inspired by this conversation with Stacey Grant moved and inspired by this conversation with Stacey Grant, somebody who might find this beneficial, definitely pay it forward. Pass it along. Let them know that this episode of HIListically Speaking exists. You might make a difference in somebody's life. You might even save a life.
And if you want to learn more about Stacey Grant, my dear friend, how to support the American Heart Association, even learn more about her podcast, my dear friend, how to support the American Heart Association, even learn more about her podcast Gurus and Game Changers with her co-host, Mark Labraji, I highly recommend you check out the podcast and check the notes of this podcast as well, because I will have all the links for you to connect to Stacey, to the podcast, to Mainline Studios and also,
of course, to the American Heart Association, if you want to make a change and make a difference as well. And you heard us talk about havening techniques a wonderful way to self-regulate and self-soothe for self-care, with neuroscience on your side. As a havening practitioner and also a trainer, I offer free online havening happy hours every month, as well as trainings, mentorship and certification. I will share the links in the notes of this podcast episode as well.
HIListically Speaking is edited by 2Market Media with music by my friend Lipbone Redding and, of course, supported by you. So thank you time and time again for making this time together important. Be well, my friend, Be kind to your mind and, of course, be kind to your heart, because you matter and I want you here for a really long time because I love you, I believe in you and I'm sending hugs your way. Be well, I know the girl with mountains in her eyes, Love in her heart.