2023-09-26 10:23:00
Bernadette is thirty years old, with two young children, she is married to a doctor whom she assists by answering the phone day and night. “I was always on alert, always at home. Taking care of the housework, the children, the patients,” remembers Bernadette Désirant, who still lives in Gembloux. She admits of course to having been stressed by all this, “which resulted in stomach ulcers which led her to a gastroenterologist”.
For the young woman, this is the explanation for what she suffers two to three times a month, at night, always at two in the morning: “Unbearable pain in the middle of the body, as if I were caught in vice. It lasted a few hours. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t wake my husband, what good would that have done?” Bernadette, who turns 74 in a few days, is the type of woman, born following the war, who prefers to be devastated than to complain and who thinks of the well-being of the family rather than their own comfort. A tough girl who doesn’t imagine for a single moment having a heart problem.
More than 5 hours of pain
In fact, she will only know following having suffered a heart attack which will make her experience hell for hours before she alerts her husband. “I know, I’m stubborn,” she smiles now. “The pain in my arm had gone down to my little finger. Arriving at the hospital, I kept repeating that I wanted to have surgery, that I was suffering too much from these damn ulcers.” The heart attack will plunge her into a week-long blackout. Despite the examinations, we will not immediately discover that Bernadette suffers from angina pectoris, a disease which consists of “spasms of the coronary artery which cause violent pain”.
Nearly 30 years separate these two photos of Bernadette Désirant. After her heart attack, she underwent cardiac rehabilitation and never stopped exercising: gym and volleyball are still on the program every week. ©DR
The weakness will last more than 6 months. A real blow for the working mother. “What saved me was the revalidation through the gym at the Walloon Brabant cardiac club. I was welcomed into a wonderful group, where we support each other without talking regarding illness. There, I regained confidence in months. I have been a member of Cardio BW for 38 years! In addition to the gym, I play volleyball once a week,” explains the woman who wanted to become a volunteer this year to talk regarding the club to people suffering from heart conditions who need to get back into the gym.
And she also willingly agrees to tell her life adventure and this terrible “D-Day” as she calls it to raise awareness. This year, Heart Week of the Belgian Cardiological League targets “bad habits that age our hearts”.
Bernadette has been taking medication for 38 years. Especially since in 1997, his angina pectoris was complicated by atrial fibrillation: “I even beat my record once: my heart rate rose to 204”. Humor, sport, morale carry her, as does a healthy diet. Angina and cigarettes were her enemies… even if she has since stopped smoking.
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