Posture & Purpose With Dr. Michelle Carr Frank
Welcome to Posture and Purpose where both healing and community come together! An inside look into Carr Chiropractic and Dr. Michelle Carr Frank.
Posture & Purpose With Dr. Michelle Carr Frank
Fighting the Silent Killer: One Woman's Journey Through Heart Disease
What does it take to face your own mortality at 41 years old, with no symptoms, no warning signs – just a routine screening that accidentally revealed a ticking time bomb in your chest?
Katie Ferguson's story will stop you in your tracks. After 20+ years advocating for heart health through the American Heart Association and 15 years as a full-time caregiver to her husband, Katie suddenly found herself on the receiving end of life-altering medical news: an aortic aneurysm that required open-heart surgery. Even more shocking? During the procedure, surgeons discovered a congenital heart defect that had never appeared on any imaging – a bicuspid valve instead of the normal tricuspid structure.
"If I hadn't known about this aneurysm, I'd be living on borrowed time right now," Katie reflects, now at 45 years old and thriving post-surgery. Her experience shatters the myth that heart disease only affects those who "look unhealthy" or have obvious risk factors.
Throughout our conversation, Katie shares profound insights about navigating heart health in Southwest Louisiana, where cultural food traditions (boudin, etouffee, fricassee) present unique challenges. She offers practical, doable strategies for protecting your heart without sacrificing cultural connections – from simple food modifications to leveraging the region's social nature for staying active.
As current chairwoman of Go Red for Women in Lafayette, Katie reveals how the American Heart Association is working locally, providing CPR kits to schools, establishing blood pressure check stations in public libraries, and addressing food insecurity through partnerships with food banks.
The statistics are sobering: one in three women will die from heart disease – that's one woman every 80 seconds. Even more troubling? Women of color face higher risks and often receive less effective treatment due to medication differences across demographics.
Take Katie's advice: get screened, know your family history, and trust your instincts. Your heart might be hiding something your body isn't telling you yet.
Curious about your own heart health? Listen now, then visit the American Heart Association website to find free or low-cost screenings in your area. Your future self will thank you.
What about living in southwest Louisiana?
Speaker 2:and eating healthy.
Speaker 1:How do you think that affects our rates of heart?
Speaker 3:disease. We have to do rich and wonderful culture in so many ways. Obviously, the food makes it hard. I mean because we love. I love my boudin, I love my etouffee.
Speaker 1:We all do.
Speaker 3:I love my fricassees.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Posture and Purpose, where both healing and community come together. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, spotify and YouTube. Let's get into this episode with Dr Michelle Carr-Frank.
Speaker 1:Did you know? Heart disease is still the number one killer in America, yet 80% of cardiovascular events can be prevented. Today, we're diving into how the American Heart Association is changing the game through research, community outreach and life-saving education. If you've got a heart, this episode is for you. Heart disease doesn't just happen. It builds up over time. But what if you could take small, powerful steps today to protect your heart for life?
Speaker 1:In this episode of Posture and Purpose, we're spotlighting the American Heart Association and how their work is making waves right here in Lafayette. From local events to everyday habits. We'll explore how heart health starts in the home, in the community and with you. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, but it's also one of the most preventable. Today, we are joined by Katie Ferguson, chairwoman of Go Red for Women, right here in Lafayette, louisiana. She will be sharing how the American Heart Association is empowering women in the community to take charge of their own heart health one step, one beat and one bold move at a time. Welcome, katie. Thank you for having me. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 1:A proud Louisiana native, katie Ferguson is a graduate of Acadiana High School, lsu and UL Lafayette, with more than 25 years of experience in marketing and public relations, katie has helped organizations across industries and non-profits sharpen their strategic planning, relationship management and brand development. In planning, relationship management and brand development. In 2020, she was awarded the two-year fellowship with the Elizabeth Doyle Foundation, where she championed the needs of military caregivers nationwide. Professionally, katie is the event and industry relations manager for SchoolMint, an educational technology company headquartered in Lafayette, louisiana. In this role, she oversees its presence at nearly 40 trade shows annually, connecting with educators and building strong client and industry relationships. In addition to her professional advocacy work, katie currently serves on the boards for the foundation of SOLAC.
Speaker 3:What is that.
Speaker 1:South Louisiana Community College, south Louisiana Community College, lafayette Public Library Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Louisiana, further reflecting her commitment to education, civic education and community development. Katie brings authenticity, resilience and purpose to every project she undertakes. She values continued learning, meaningful advocacy and leads with genuine curiosity and positive energy, making a lasting impact in her community and beyond. Welcome again. Katie, you're definitely no stranger to overcoming adversity.
Speaker 3:You're definitely no stranger to overcoming adversity. Oh, it's been a fun ride.
Speaker 1:It's been wild at moments, but nothing that we can't handle. Please share your experience. Sure, what else started your involvement with the American Heart Association? What brought that about?
Speaker 3:To back up just a tad. I actually have been involved with Heart Association for probably 20 plus years. I was on the original first and second committees to plan Go Red for Women, so interestingly that 20 years later I was actually on the receiving end of needing heart help. So being involved in our community was always something very important to me, since I can recall. In order to be in a community, I think you need to give back, and the best way to give back is to give your talents and whether that is my talents with marketing or with just my hands physically going out and doing things just my hands physically going out and doing things Fast forward. My husband was in a catastrophic accident in 2010 and was rendered a functioning quadriplegic, so that put me into the role of full-time caregiver.
Speaker 3:I did that for 15 years, and whenever you're 24-7 on, you recognize that someone literally needs you every moment. They are not going to get through the day if you're not there, and so you start recognizing ways that you help and other ways that aren't just in the marketing side, it's the advocacy side, and so that kind of strengthened my advocacy desire of realizing I had a voice. I was in my 30s when this happened. My husband was in his 40s. We had voices, we had networks. A lot of people don't, and so, while things were happening to us, I was able to, with time, have them fixed or mitigated, whereas a lot of people don't have that ability. So, finding ways that I could use my experience to help others, whether that was through a catastrophic injury, whether that was for advocating on a national level to have better coverage and more awareness probably 2022, whenever I went in for a general health screening, I had absolutely no symptoms. In fact, all my annual tests show that I was 100% healthy, clinically healthy, and how old were you at this time?
Speaker 1:I?
Speaker 3:was 41.
Speaker 1:41.
Speaker 3:And so went in and did these battery of tests and everything came back great because, um, because I had a history of cardiovascular disease in my family my father and my grandfather um, the nurse practitioner was like why don't we go ahead and get a calcium score done? So I went in for that imaging and they called me back and said imaging looked great. You have zero calcium buildup. Um, however, it appears you have an amourish aorta, so you might want to get that looked at. And, like everyone, I had no symptoms. So I went in thinking, ah, it's not that big of a deal. I was probably laying in a weird way, I'm young, I'm healthy.
Speaker 3:And so three months later I went in and got the imaging done and the next day they told me that I needed to make an appointment with a cardiologist, that I had an enlarged ascending aorta, and so, from there, met with Dr Ingraldi and he was like you're so lucky, this was even found. We would have never looked for this until after you were gone, because you are so healthy, because there were no factors to make us look elsewhere, and the fact that it was on an unrelated scan, just you know, I call it divine intervention, you can call it lucky, whatever you'd like to call it. And from there I was able to take. We watched it for about a year and it was growing slowly but it was growing. And so about a year into it we had my checkup and he said why don't we wait another year and make this choice? And I was like whoa, whoa, you've already told me this is never going to go away, it's never going to get smaller. What are we waiting for? I'm young, I'm strong, I'm healthy, I can bounce back a lot faster than if something were to happen Absolutely. And he agreed, wholeheartedly agreed.
Speaker 3:And the next day I was referred to a surgeon in Houston and proceeded to have the procedure done the open-heart surgery. Kicker to, that is, we knew about the aneurysm. Once they got in there they found out that my aortic valve I had a bicuspid valve, so where you're supposed to have three leaflets, I only had two. So in all of these 45-minute imagings that we had done every couple of months never showed up on any of them. So we had no idea that it was my valve that was actually causing the aneurysm.
Speaker 1:So while they were in there they put in a mechanical heart valve, so they grafted the aneurysm, so I wouldn't have gone on to do the surgery, the procedure they wouldn't have discovered it Exactly, and typically those type of things are hereditary.
Speaker 3:But my brothers, my parents, they've all been checked they don't have it. So it was just a simple birth defect that we would have never known and I probably would have had less than five years from when they found it. So I am now 45, so I'd be living on borrowed time right now if I did not know that I had this aneurysm.
Speaker 1:But you took those preventative measures to discover what was the root of the problem.
Speaker 3:And again that also goes to the advocacy part of. I had, and still do, good insurance. I could absolutely go have these tests done and stay on top of my health and all and so trying to be the voice for individuals who might not have the ability or want to spend money to go get themselves checked out. You don't understand how much this helps now as opposed to having to deal with a problem in the future. This is just a potential issue. Once it becomes a problem, then you absolutely have to deal with it. So dealing with it when it's still a potential issue is so much better financially and also physically.
Speaker 1:And we see that every day in my clinic, because some people come to see me when they're in their 60s or 70s and say okay, I've heard about you chiropractors my whole life, but now I want you to fix me. It's preventative wellness maintenance be on top of it. Think about those genetics. You said your grandfather and your father had heart-related issues. If you wouldn't have had those red flags, you may have not taken the further steps that you did. Absolutely. So how did this change your life, all these steps?
Speaker 1:that brought you to this spot.
Speaker 3:It changed my life. It made me more aware, definitely paying attention to what your body says, but kind of what you said before. You know, by preventative measures, whether that is eating healthy, whether that is, you know, taking the proper supplements, going to your annual checkups with your physicians, whether that is going to see a counselor to make sure your mental health is correct.
Speaker 3:There's so many things that go into taking care of your body so that you can be your best self. As I would tell people, you want to be there for those you love. But in order to be there for those you love, you have to actually be there. And if you're not there physically, unfortunately, or if you're not there physically, unfortunately, or if you're not there like wholeheartedly with you know, mentally there for them or physically able there to help them do whatever you're not as good as you could be yeah so your presence is absolutely necessary in other people's lives because they love you and they want you there.
Speaker 1:But you have to be physically be there to have that matter and I believe, believe our generation and under our generation, the younger people, are taking more of those measures. My parents, I'm sure, like your parents. Let's just put some dust on it, it'll be good to go. There's no blood, you don't have to do anything about it.
Speaker 3:Tough it out, tough it out.
Speaker 1:But now we're questioning those things and that's what I like to see. Even in my practice with chiropractic care, my patients are becoming younger and younger, younger adults, not just parents bringing their children in, but young adults saying you know, I want to get to the root of the cause, I don't want to wait till this manifests further, which is much like what you experienced too. So any tips that you would just easy, because you know we need easy People don't want to do anything difficult, like exercise, but what would you say are some good, healthy tips that you've learned along the way through your work with the American Heart Association?
Speaker 3:Eat smart. It doesn't have to be super healthy, but if you're eating smart, you know eating your vegetables and your fruits, eating lean protein, consciously making a point to not eat as much sugar. So you have that cookie but don't have five. Not eat as much sugar, so you have that cookie but don't have five. Have that sandwich, but maybe only have one piece of bread. Do a fold-over sandwich. So being smart with what you're choosing to eat. Exercise One thing for me is I work behind a desk, so getting up about every hour, every other hour, and walking around for 10 minutes, whether I'm going to visit with someone at the cubicle next to me or go and walk outside, get some some Sun, just those little moments they add up over the day.
Speaker 1:As for let's see others, I tell my patients, even if you have to put an alarm on your phone, especially my accountants, like you said, people that are going to be sitting at a computer all day long, every day, and that's a lot of the population out there, let's be honest. So if you have to put an alarm on your phone, do it Just take those small, small measures to be proactive with your health.
Speaker 3:And I see that once you get started, it kind of starts going into the next thing, into the next thing. So you want to go walk outside, Then you want to eat a little bit more healthy, drink more water because you've been walking outside. So one small step ends up leading to several others and eventually they all start making progress in your health.
Speaker 1:Right and find something you enjoy. Some of my patients say I don't like to walk or I don't like to run, I don't like to go to the gym, I don't want to work out in front of other people. Well, find what you enjoy. If that's pickleball, if that's swimming and tennis, any of those things golfing, just stay active, Just stay active. But that sometimes is the difficult part for some people. And what about living in Southwest Louisiana?
Speaker 2:and eating healthy.
Speaker 1:How do you think that affects our rates?
Speaker 3:of heart disease. We used to do rich and wonderful culture in so many ways. Obviously, the food makes it hard. I mean because we love. I love my boudin, I love my etouffee.
Speaker 2:We all do.
Speaker 3:My fricassees, but paying attention to what they are, and there's so many ways that are available now that you can alter them to make them a little healthier maybe not healthy, but healthier yes, in moderation, but also the great thing about where we live is there's always something going on, there's always a festival, there's always, you know, a lot of people love to dance.
Speaker 3:there's this social aspect of going to, you know, meet up with your friends for some social time, or potentially going to church, and you have that support. So, while we have somewhat of the negative of are these very rich foods that are really yummy, we have the wonderful benefit of we do have an active culture, provided that you want to get on and you enjoy dancing and enjoying socializing, and we also have the ability to have, I guess, that family environment that you want to stay healthy. You want to be there, present for them.
Speaker 1:You want to be there for the graduations and the weddings and the anniversaries. Of course we do. And what is the local Lafayette chapter doing? Do we have anything planned for the year with the American Heart Association?
Speaker 3:Event-wise, we just hosted our 21st Go Red for Women on Tuesday. It was wonderfully successful.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Then. So it'll be next May before we have another one, but this November we have our Heart Walk, held in Town Square and River Ranch, and that is open to anyone who wants to participate. The website and all will kind of give you a little bit more information. But I think for me what's exciting about these events that bring in money, the money doesn't just go out to a corporation or to research, which it absolutely does, but a good bit of that stays here in town, and so Heart Association is funding CPR kits for schools. So several years ago our state legislature mandated that high school seniors have to be taught CPR before they graduate, which is fantastic, wonderful.
Speaker 3:Yes, they didn't allocate any money to be able to teach them, so they're having to find videos online and so on. So Heart Association is giving these CPR kits with dummies and so on to be able to have hands-only CPR training to these students. That's wonderful.
Speaker 3:Also, I believe the coaches now have to be trained on the automatic external defibrillators. Oh, okay, and so they have all these things that are coming into place that need funding. Also, heart Association has been raising funds to put blood pressure check areas in public libraries, in your public recreational facilities.
Speaker 1:Why haven't we done that before All of these areas?
Speaker 3:that make it easy for people to go check their blood pressure or to stay on top of it. You can check them out at the libraries and take it home and keep up with your blood pressure over the course of a week so when you go back to your doctor's appointment you can actually have data to give them. Food safety I'm sorry. Food insecurity has been another thing that Heart Association has been working with Second Harvest, helping supply healthy, fresh foods in addition to ways to keep them fresh like refrigeration systems. So they've been very busy in the Lafayette Acadiana region, making our community stronger and healthier. In addition to you know all the research they do nationally.
Speaker 1:And with the Heart Walk that's in November. Tell us a little bit about that. Is it because I know? When I was at the event on Tuesday they said to encourage offices groups, you could get your girlfriends together and just form a group and that way you can, you know, work as a team to support the American Heart Association.
Speaker 3:And so that's the wonderful thing about the Heart Walk is anybody can be a team.
Speaker 3:You literally just have to go onto their website and sign up and then from there it will send out emails to all the people that are on your team and you know for them to send out to whomever they know to help, you know, raise money for walking. I know at School Mint we had a team last year and I doubt we'll have a team again this year, and it's whoever wants to get involved and because heart disease is so prevalent in our area, everyone. Either they have heart, some sort of heart disease, or they know someone who do, so it becomes very personal. So whenever you're walking for Katie Ferguson, it's a whole lot more personal than if you're just doing it for yourself. Or I'm walking in you know honor of myself, like I survive heart disease. You know, and I think if putting a face to the disease, when one in three women are going to die from heart disease so one in three, that is insane. Um, whenever that means I was reading a statistic the other day that that's one woman every 80 seconds.
Speaker 1:How that is mind-blowing?
Speaker 3:to me it is, it is mind-blowing that most women aren't properly diagnosed with heart disease. So you have to give it a face, you have to make it personal. Yeah, some other crazy statistics I've read recently Women of color. I know that. So women of color, women of Pacific Islander, and also gosh there's one other ethnicity that are more. Not only are they more likely to have heart disease, but they're less likely to be properly treated for it, because certain medications do not work.
Speaker 2:The same way they do with Caucasians.
Speaker 3:The same way they do. You know, some medications don't work the same way they do with males over females, but even more so when it comes to African American and so on. So it's finding a, a, a cardiologist, that understands the differences and understands that what, what they're going to, you know, give me as a medicine will not work for my friend. And so it's true to try and have to question the answers on top of all, all of the research and unfortunately.
Speaker 3:But it also means that you have to self-advocate, because you may know this, but think of all the patients your physician has. They may not know that one little tweak of information, and it's not that they don't want to know, it's that they just haven't gotten to that part of the data yet. So sometimes you have to go in there with your data and say, look, how have you thought about this? And I would venture to say the majority of them are very thankful that you have that and absolutely will incorporate it into your care.
Speaker 1:Self-advocate? Absolutely, that's so important, especially, you know, everyone's so busy these days, so it's okay to do your own research, bring that paper in with all your questions on it and have them answer those questions and I think the question, the paper with the questions, makes such a difference.
Speaker 3:I am I am a self-advocator and a researcher just by nature, and so whenever it came time for me, when they told me that I had no Sydney aneurysm, first of all I'm like okay, what is that? Where is that?
Speaker 1:What were you feeling at that moment?
Speaker 3:I just wanted to get as much knowledge as I could. I wasn't really feeling anything yet. I didn't, because at the time I didn't realize how severe it was or even the how severe of a situation I was in. But it was trying to get as much information as I could. There was different, varying views on how to treat it, and some cases could be treated.
Speaker 3:My case was not one, mine, absolutely. You had to go in, you had to have open heart surgery, you had to graft it, but I was like, okay, so now that that's the case, now that I knew that this was gonna happen, now let me research how can I make this as good of a situation as possible? I had a little bit of time to plan, so I bought things like the seatbelt pillow to make it a little bit easier whenever I wore my seatbelt, things that you just, you know, prepare. I was able to bring my own pillow to the hospital, all those different things that are for comfort, but also to keep in mind that you know you're putting your body through trauma that it's never experienced before. You need to make it as comfortable as you can.
Speaker 1:And how much time did you have between diagnosis?
Speaker 3:Oh, diagnosis to the surgery was about a year and six months, cause we watched it for a year and just okay, is it growing? How fast is it growing? How, how emergent is this? Do we need to like go today? Do we need, can we wait, a year? But then, from the time that we decided that we're going to have the surgery, um, and they referred me to the physician and um the surgeon, rather in houston. It was about six months and that was um for a couple reasons, mostly insurance because, but because I was not in emergency presenting it in the ur good old insurance they had had to go through all the different uh protocols that they go through, and it took quite a while.
Speaker 3:And then, um, at the very end, I postponed it. I had some personal things going on, and so I was able to postpone it for one more month. Um, so that led me to January of 2023 and how was the recovery?
Speaker 1:uh, who helped?
Speaker 3:you get through recovery or what?
Speaker 1:got you through recovery gosh what got me through recovery?
Speaker 3:probably my family, um my parents were incredible. They were literally my full-time caregivers, especially this first handful of weeks, whenever you underestimate what you're gonna be able to do. I can't imagine oh, I'm strong, I'm healthy.
Speaker 3:I'm independent, I don't need help, I can handle this and they came in and they were just there for everything I needed whether that was helping me wash my hair, because you can't. You don't think about things you can do. You can't really lift your arms up. I mean you can, but it's very, very complicated and it hurts. There were so many different pieces to the recovery that they tell you that you can go back to work in eight weeks. I would love to see that get moved to at least 12, because at eight weeks back, to work in eight weeks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like they say, oh, you can go back to work. Even at 12 weeks, I was still having to go home and take a nap during the middle of the day. And keep in mind I was 42 years old, extremely healthy. I was able to start recovering almost immediately because my body didn't have to go into a deficit, a health deficit prior to the surgery, like I went in completely asymptomatic so I came out with just this heart surgery, so I was able to start recovering very quickly. I think it was a process that made me realize and appreciate being the person who is given, who is being given the care. As a caregiver for 15 years and just a natural giver, that is my personality. I had never had someone just literally have to wait on me hand and foot, because, well, of course I'm not going to need that.
Speaker 1:You're young, you're an independent female. Why it was a?
Speaker 3:very, very humbling moment whenever you realize that I can't sit up without someone helping you sit up. You know, at least halfway first before your abs can kick in. It was humbling. Whenever you can't, really you don't have the energy to get up and go to the refrigerator to grab something to eat. You know it's just those moments that you don't think about that a lot of people deal with this every day. I mean, we have over 20% of our population is disabled in some way at any given moment over 20% and so there's a lot of people who deal with things like this every day. And so it allowed me to have that experience well, fortunately without having to stay there long, but it just opened my eyes to stuff that I thought I was aware and I was very aware going into it, but it just opened me up to much more.
Speaker 1:So how do you find? Do you live differently?
Speaker 2:since the surgery, have you picked up any?
Speaker 1:form of exercise, stress management tips, anything that has really complemented your recovery.
Speaker 3:I've been more adamant about my self-care Before. It was something you did. I was married and we didn't have any children, so I didn't have a whole lot that was pulling on my time and my energies other than being a full-time caregiver, which was a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 3:So it was taking those, I guess, those moments of just meditating more.
Speaker 1:Self-reflection.
Speaker 3:Not allowing people to disturb my peace. I think part of that also comes with being in my 40s. So, whereas things I would let go in my younger days, I don't now, but I guard my peace. I guard days, I don't know, but it's I, I. I guard my, my, my peace, I guard my. I don't want the chaos, I don't want the uh, all the other things that come with that. Um, as far as health wise, um, my eating, I'm I'm more aware and more intentional, probably the best way. Intentional, I intentionally drink a lot of water every day. I intentionally try to eat more protein. Um, so it's, that's probably the biggest difference. Is that the intentionality of, of my, my wellness routine?
Speaker 1:and looking back at this whole experience, what would you say are top three, top five things that you would like people listening to learn from your experience?
Speaker 3:That heart disease looks different in everybody. I met someone this week that had run two marathons before she found out that she had a heart problem. Just because you were in shape and healthy by our standards doesn't mean that you're healthy by medical standards.
Speaker 1:Genetics right.
Speaker 3:Genetics, oh my gosh. Genetics play a large portion, but it's only a small portion. There's so much more. It's your lifestyle, the normal stuff you hear don't drink, don't smoke. And it's almost cliche because we hear it so much, but it's so true.
Speaker 1:And it will catch up with you. It will. I think that was.
Speaker 3:Some people are luckier than others, but sure, we still have to um and some also staying on top of your health, because sometimes things are inevitable. I had an aneurysm. There was no way I could have ever known that. There's no way I could have stopped it. Eating healthy wouldn't have made it better. Um, you know, meditating wouldn't have made it better, like trying to relieve stress.
Speaker 3:That is so sometimes just staying on top of your health to find out things that you couldn't have prevented. So you know, enough time to make a change with it, whether that is surgery, whatever the change is Something else they can do. Just stay involved with your own body. Listen to your body, listen to your gut. Surprisingly, which was a little disturbing for me, was I didn't have that gut feeling that something was wrong. So a lot of people have that. I did not. I was clueless to that. I do have a lot of intuition, feelings and other things, but for that particular one I did not. So listen to your vet, because most people do say that they felt like something wasn't quite right. Their body wasn't reacting the way they thought it should have been reacting or responding.
Speaker 1:Regular checkups. Go to the doctor, even if you don't want to. Even if you're healthy or what people think is healthy. So if someone out there wants to become involved with the American Heart Association, sure, if they say, okay, well, maybe I should go and get checked out, are you at liberty to tell us where we should go for those tests, or?
Speaker 3:so I'll tell you where I went from. My my um free screening was with the cis cardiovascular institute of the south um. About once or twice a year. They'll have some here in town. I think. The next one they have coming up is next month in new iberia, um. So they have them regularly. Um lords, that has normally has them at the heart, the heart hospital. You might have to call around, you might have to wait a couple of months, but if you're waiting for that free screening, there are definitely some that are around, typically around February, which is heart month, may, which is women's health month, and so you can pretty much guarantee they're going to happen then. But they do happen year-round. And what?
Speaker 1:would those involve? What type of screening?
Speaker 3:It was obviously very innovative because they were getting you in and out of there probably in 15, 20 minutes. It was blood pressure screening. They did an ultrasound of my carotid artery. They listened to your heartbeat they're listening for heart murmurs and such. They did an EKG.
Speaker 1:Wow, and this is all free.
Speaker 3:In my case it was. It may not be in every case, but the one that I attended was free.
Speaker 1:No one has an excuse.
Speaker 3:No one has an excuse. But even so, much as like when they're doing the calcium scan for whatever reason surprisingly insurance doesn't cover it. But even out of pocket want to say, at cis it was like 60 and at lafayette general it was 90. So you really don't have a reason, not, I mean, for less than 100. You can walk away with peace of mind. And even if you know that you have a little bit calcium buildup, at least you know. But what that, what it was at that time. And five years from now you go back and do another one and it may be the exact same. So so you know, okay, I'm stable, or it may be a whole lot more. You're like, oh, in five years I've gained a lot more calcium in my heart. Something's going on.
Speaker 1:But life-changing information Absolutely Either way.
Speaker 3:Any type of test you can ever get done on your body can be life-changing. Knowledge is power.
Speaker 1:The more you know about your body, the better off you'll be, regardless what that knowledge is, the better off you'll be, absolutely so. My last question In your life and work, how do you maintain your posture?
Speaker 3:while pursuing your life's purpose Well put, in addition to sitting up straight, of course. So I think a lot of it has to do with deciding what my purpose is, and a lot of that is I have a voice, using my voice, advocating for others and to include myself, and staying true to what my values are. You know, everyone's values are probably a little bit different, but a lot of people value the same things. But it's also finding the strength to stand my values are. You know everyone's values are probably a little bit different, but a lot of people value the same things. But it's also finding the strength to stand up for it.
Speaker 3:And that's where, I think, a lot of myself include. At times we will step back and say, oh, I really don't want to. That's not, I don't want to go that far, that's hard. I don't want to ruffle feathers.
Speaker 2:And it's saying no.
Speaker 3:No, it's okay. If these are your thoughts and these are the foundation that you stand on, stand up for it and it's okay, and that, I think, has gotten you further than anything.
Speaker 1:Well, it's gotten you pretty far. Thank you. To know you is to love you. That statement was made because of you, so thank you for being here. I appreciate you sharing the stories with us and until next time, sit up straight, stay happy, stay healthy and stay adjusted.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to the posture and purpose podcast with Dr Michelle Carr Frank. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube, spotify and Apple podcasts Until next time.