Go Red For Women (SP)

Blood Tube

This post is sponsored by the Heart Foundation

Blood Tube

I’m afraid of needles. Not just a little afraid, a lot. Not just a lot, a lot. In fact, whenever I’m presented with a needle, I faint. One of the most memorable episodes was in 2007 when I decided I should get an allergy test since visits to my parents’ house and cuddles with my beloved Bella were causing me to come home sneezing and with red, swollen, itchy eyes.

Off to the doctor I went. I paid my $90 and was placed in a room on a chair while the assistant prepared me for the allergy test. I got as far as having things drawn on my arm before I woke up on the floor in a pool of blood. Turns out I’d passed out and landed on the tiles on my nose. Luckily it wasn’t broken.

This fear of needles is something I’ve lived with all my life, and I’ve become accustomed to fainting when presented with needles, but last year I passed out from the sound of Bella’s heart beating at the vet. I was out for 6 minutes. When I woke I found myself lying on the floor of the vet’s office. It’s a funny sensation, waking up from a faint. I remember only the moments before fainting, then while I’m out I am continuing with life as if I’m not, only to be rudely interrupted and pulled back to reality. Luckily the cat I had been holding at the time had been grabbed from my arms before I went down, and I’d been pushed away from the metal table we were standing at.

It was upon waking up I realised I had wet myself. I’d never done that before. Ashamed, shaken, and clad in scrubs, I returned home and made an appointment with the doctor the next day.

A trip to hospital and I was diagnosed with cardioinhibitory vasovascular syncope. It means there’s a problem with my heart. When my stress levels rise, instead of my blood pressure rising, it drops. Blood pools in my legs, my heart slows down and I lose consciousness. The test they do to measure this is supposed to be one of the longest and most boring tests you can get. I lasted 3 minutes before I passed out.

The reason I’m telling you all this is I was recently approached by the Heart Foundation to get a Heart Health Check as part of Go Red For Women month. I was petrified at the thought, in the knowledge I would probably have to have a blood test. But I did it.

And if I can do it, so can you.

Heart disease is the number 1 killer of Australian women. We are 3 times as likely to die from heart disease than breast cancer and 90% of Australian women have at least one risk factor for heart disease.

A heart health check takes a visit to your GP, a little bit of your time, a little bit of your blood, and provides you and your doctor with information, knowledge, and piece of mind. Heart disease is largely preventable, and contrary to popular belief it doesn’t just affect middle-aged men with beer bellies. Heart disease kills almost 9,708 women each year. That’s 27 women each day.

So what can you do?

  • If you’re over 45 years old, visit your doctor for a heart health check. This involves discussing your family history of heart disease with your GP, having your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked and discussing what other risk factors you might have. To make it easier, download these questions to ask your GP and take them along with you.
  • Learn more about heart disease clinical risk factors (order or downloadinformation), including blood pressure and cholesterol.
  • Take care of your heart if you have heart disease – make sure you attend cardiac rehab (only about 20% of women do) to reduce your risk of future problems. Orderor download more information about women and heart disease (find brochures in other languages here).
  • Know the warning signs of heart attack so you can act quickly if you or someone you are with displays them.
  • Contact the Heart Foundation Health Information Service on (cost of a local call) or via  for free, personalised information and support from a qualified health professional.

It’s so easy to go and get checked. What are you waiting for?

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  • Monique Fischle

    I had no idea T, I hope you’re ok. Thank you for sharing your story!

    • https://kikiandtea.com/ Tamsin Howse

      I’m alright, thanks :)

  • Rusty Hoe

    Thanks for sharing Tamsin. I was diagnosed with neurocardiogenic syncope back in 2007 so feel your pain. My meds control my fainting for the most part now thankfully. I have other issues on top of that which mean I’m getting a pacemaker next month, but I remember back at the start how anxious it made me and the crazy embarrassment you feel when you collapse in front of others (or have to lie down on the floor in the middle of Myers, ugh). Know you are not alone. There are a surprising amount of people who have some form of recurrent syncope. Speaking publicly is so fantastic for lessening the embarrassment and letting others know they are not alone. :)

    • https://kikiandtea.com/ Tamsin Howse

      Yikes! A pacemaker!

      I hear you on the embarrassment. The time I passed out and wet myself on the train was pretty humiliating. Especially when I then ran into a high school teacher.

  • maree talidu

    Good on you for speaking out and sharing something so close to home, hopefully awareness will be raised. Seriously, good on you for sharing.

    • https://kikiandtea.com/ Tamsin Howse

      Thank you xx

  • Michelle

    Good on you for sharing your challenges and raising awareness T! I used to have a different kind of needle issue – a full blown phobia. Then I had knee surgery, a subsequent DVT, and was on anti-coagulents for 9 months. I had to have blood tests daily, then every two days, then every three days, etc, eventually stretching out to weekly. Was a lousy time, but totally cured my needle phobia!!

  • Workingwomenaus

    Wow Tamsin! You really are right: after reading that, if you can do it, anyone can!

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