Carmen ...

• Those of you who know me personally also know or have heard me talk about my most wonderful sister Carmen. She is the first born of our Clan of five kids and there are times I wonder if she was the one who has gotten the purest heart of all of us ;)
  Truly, I can describe each of my siblings in a certain and happy way but when it comes to describing my oldest sister the words, happy, laughing, giggling and joyful come to my mind, but also someone that absorbs stress like a sponge.
  For some wicked reason when Carmen and I get together we always end up laughing tears and giggling like little girls but she also inspires me constantly to live and eat better. She is the oldest of us and was 15 years old when I was born but I do not feel 15 years between us when we are together and I think by me having older siblings explains why in many cases my friends are older then me.
  
  On Friday morning I got a call from my Mom and she gave me the horrid news that my so adored Sister Carmen was in the ICU due to a Heart Attack she had during the night.
  Now she is in her 50's BUT the shocking thing about all this is that she is hands down the healthiest person in our whole huge extended Family.
  She has been a Flower Child and still is and has been a Vegetarian since her 20's. Her husband and her grow their own Fruits and Vegetables and she even grains her own Flour for breads.
  They are both very active and she has traveled to almost every Continent, often backpacking through Countries. She takes a bicycle to work in the summer and loves to walk and hike. They ski each winter and by just looking at her you would think she was a picture of health.
  She is this tiny person who is a tad taller then me and is a size 2 maybe 4! and I am 5'6''!
  

  I know in her case I would point the source of her heart-attack to her job. She has a very stressful position at a Bank and every time we are together she tells me how stressful the work is for her.

  I have been able to Skype with her on Saturday and Sunday and I was thrilled the two of us were able to be giggling and laughing with each other as we always do. She really is a ray of sunshine even if she looks so grey, white and tiny in her hospital bed. However, there is not taking lightly to what happened here. This was a serious and still is a very scary wake up call for her and for now she was moved into a private room out of ICU but a lot of testing will be done this week.
• 
  

  She is already asking to go home BUT the doctors told her she will have to stay at least until Friday maybe longer and then they will release her straight from the Hospital to a three week stay at a Rehabilitation Clinic.
  I am super proud if her as she has her mind in one place as even questioning the nurses already. They handed her a cocktail of pills that seem to be a standard for heart attacks patients but she asked to have each pill explained.
  One was a aspirin to help thin the blood,
  One is a Beta B blocker
  One was to lower her cholesterol (which my sister chimed in in pointing out she has this monitored all the time due to our genetic link and that it is always a tat high... Normal for us 
  The last pill made her almost jump out of bed as it was a blood pressure lowering pill!!!! Her blood pressure has always been very low and came in at 90 over 60. She asked the nurse if she wants her to have no blood pressure????
  That's my sister, always alert and now we have to hope she can also learn to stop worrying about work and learn to let go of outside stress factors .... I am not a good one to teach this but I have gotten better at this in the last three years ... thanks to JDM. Those around me know how much easier it has become for me to say 'NO' but I am still improving ....
  
  Hugs,
  
  R A C A