Diane Graden's had a brush with death a few years back, but now, making the rounds at the Heart Savvy Summit in Austin, her heart beats for the cause.
A wife and mother of two, Graden, once oblivious to her illness, had to undergo a triple bypass surgery. Heart disease kills more women in the United States than any other disease, but Graden was one of the lucky ones.
"I could have been dead at 47," Graden said. "Instead, I'm more than alive at 61."
 |  |
 | |  |
| | | | | | | |
Checkups
News 8's Crestina Chavez has one woman's story about how her health scare turned her into a faithful follower of physical exams.
 
| | |
| | | | | |
|
Before the surgery, Graden said she wouldn't have considered herself the type of person to get regular checkups.
"No, I was not that good at it," she said. "No. I was too busy, just like so many women."
"It's sort of like that airplane analogy you're supposed to put oxygen mask on yourself first so you can take care of other people — that's how we need to start thinking about ourselves," Dr. Melanie Collins, at St. David's Women's Center of Texas, said.
Dr. Collins said women should start at an early age. Testing should begin as a teenager with regular Pap smears and pelvic exams to check for cervical cancer.
Middle-aged women should start screening for breast cancer with annual mammograms. Women in their 50s and 60s should get bone density tests for osteoporosis, as well as colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer.
"The first time to come in is always a woman's scariest, both for their routine Pap smear and mammogram. They always have fears about that," Dr. Collins said. "Most of the time, when they come, they think it's not quite as bad as they thought it was going to be."
Graden said she marks her calendar and gets it over with. But more importantly, she takes better care of herself, and considers her brush with death a blessing.
"You learn to say, 'I'm going to take the day off and read a book,' and it's wonderful," Graden said. "You do smell the flowers and you do hear the music. It's too bad people can't live that way all the time."
