Getting her heart, health back on track

By Louie St. George III

Alone in the emergency room at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center, Donna Mickelson sent a text message to her daughter, Abby.

“Take care of your dad,” Donna wrote in June 2020. Her heart was racing and her legs were shaking, prompting the visit to Essentia. She’d previously had an angioplasty to restore blood flow in her right coronary artery, which was 80% blocked. This time, Donna’s left anterior descending artery was severely blocked. Stents now were placed in two out of three main arteries. Stress and anxiety had leveled immense strain on her heart.

Compounding the problem, Donna had battled abnormally high cholesterol most of her life. She has genetics to thank for that. Her low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the “bad cholesterol” — was measured as high as 406 milligrams per deciliter of blood in 2012. Last winter, as her health worsened, it was recorded at 247 despite being on the highest possible dose of two cholesterol medications. Any LDL above 190 is considered very high risk for coronary artery disease and other conditions.

So when Nicole Groeschl, a family medicine doctor at Essentia’s West Duluth Clinic, and cardiologist Katie Benziger recommended getting a calcium score last March, Donna agreed. It was something that her sister, a registered nurse in Georgia, also had advocated for. The test was delayed by the

Once Duluth’s Donna Mickelson started listening to her heart’s warning signs, she and her care team at Essentia Health took action. Today, she feels better than she has in years.

COVID-19 pandemic until late April.

A normal calcium score is zero — meaning there is no calcium seen in the heart. A higher score indicates more calcium and an elevated risk for heart attack. Anything greater than 400 represents very high risk.

Donna’s score was 1,531.

“It’s one of the highest I think I’ve ever seen,” Benziger recalled.

As she sat in the ER on that June morning — her husband, Steven, was stuck at their Norton Park neighborhood home thanks to COVID-19 visitor restrictions — Donna says her racing heart felt like a panic attack.

“I believed I was going to die,” she said. “It was very scary.”

As Donna recuperated, she was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia, or a very fast heartbeat. Thus, rather than a heart attack, it was her body’s way of saying, “You need to do something about this.”

That’s not easy for many women, according to Benziger.

“It’s particularly important for women, because I think women are much more likely to underreport their symptoms or write off their symptoms as getting old,” the doctor said. But, “if you’re having symptoms, you need to talk to your doctor about that.”

According to Benziger, symptoms of heart disease can include excessive fatigue, shortness of breath, jaw or arm pain, epigastric pain and chest heaviness or discomfort.

Stress started to mount on Donna, a 65-year-old retiree with three children, in January 2020. That’s when a younger brother, whom Donna had been the primary caregiver for, died from cancer. In February, her daughter Stephanie’s mother-in-law died. Then the COVID-19 pandemic reared its unforgiving head.

Increasingly, Donna’s energy was sapped. Fatigue would set in and derail her days, sending her to bed by 7 or 8 p.m.

Unsurprisingly, she chalked it up to getting older and being stressed.

“I’d have to sit down and catch my breath,” she said. “I just didn’t have the energy to do the things I like to do.”

Dr. Benziger cautions against a mindset wherein being less active is simply a byproduct of aging. Staying active is important. Abrupt changes in lifestyles rarely are the result solely of advancing years. There might be something else going on.

“Our body tells us what we need if we just listen to it,” Donna said.

Donna’s health scare is receding in the rearview mirror. Benziger and Groeschl, as well as their Essentia colleagues, collaborated on a treatment plan. In addition to the two stents, Donna was placed on medication and participated in rigorous cardiac rehabilitation, which led to gradual improvements. Over the 30 days that followed her June discharge, a heart monitor registered a fast heartbeat only once. Her cholesterol has lowered significantly and she’s lost weight.

Indeed, Donna is on the mend.

“I feel absolutely wonderful,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much better I could feel.”

The improvement was obvious to Benziger when the two reconnected in the fall.

“She was grinning from ear to ear,” Benziger said. “She says she has not felt this good in 10 years.” D Louie St. George III is a media relations specialist at Essentia Health.

Samantha Roffers, a Moose Lake writer, believes it’s important to shop for things you love and feel comfortable in. Everyone’s style is unique and that’s what makes it so special.