HISTORY

By Stacy Hawkins Adams  From timesdispatch.com

Lois Trader's favorite words from the Bible remind her that perfect love casts out fear. She clung to God's unconditional care five years ago when at age 47, she found herself struggling to survive a heart attack.

At the time, she was thin, otherwise healthy and happy with life.   But she was also known as a "superwoman" who tirelessly served her family, friends, and community. "I didn't do major things wrong," said Trader, who spoke by telephone from her home in Orange County, Calif. "Life, stress, Taco Bell. I didn't think [fast food] was a problem."

In June 2003, however, she took an uncharacteristic day off work because she didn't feel well.  On the second sick day, when upper-back pain persisted, she went to a hospital emergency room.  Because of her physique and age, the doctor on duty disregarded her abnormal EKG and gave her medicine for indigestion.

Trader returned to the hospital the next day and received a similar diagnosis.

The emergency-room doctor was preparing to send her home again when another physician suggested that Trader stay overnight for a stress test.

That test led to further probing, which revealed a blockage in one of Trader's major arteries.  Doctors told her she was having a heart attack and placed her in intensive care.  "If I hadn't gone back to the emergency room, I believe I would have been one of the statistics," said Trader, who was stunned with the diagnosis at her age.

She soon learned that she wasn't unique.  According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the U.S., claiming the lives of 500,000 females every year.  The National Institutes of Health indicates that while women older than 40 have a higher risk of heart disease, it can begin in the teen years.  Trader spent three months in cardiovascular rehabilitation. During that time, she rediscovered a passion for writing that had been sidelined as she focused on her family and career.

Writing about her recuperation helped her cope with the fears, frustration and worry that often threatened to engulf her.  "I was always fearful," she said. "Sometimes I'm still overwhelmed with it. I can't stand the fact that I have heart disease."

Yet when those emotions bombard her, she turns to prayer and to the Bible.

"The Bible gives you the strength to say, 'These guys are just like me,'*" Trader said of people in the Scriptures. "The No. 1 thing is perseverance and the power we have in knowing that we've got somebody that really cares about us all the time."  About six months into her recovery, she wrote an eight-page essay on living with heart disease.

Trader decided to use the piece to educate people about this silent killer. She attached the essay to every e-mail she sent, leading everyone from friends and former colleagues to her youngest daughter's college professor to read it. That professor, at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., invited Trader to visit the classroom and share her story with students.  It was Trader's first public-speaking appearance.

eight months later, she quit her fast-paced job as operations coordinator for a national corporation and began speaking and writing full time. Soon after, she completed a book about her experience, titled "Help...There's An Elephant On My Chest." Then her next book was published called: "Lady in the Red Dress"  A personal story of a woman with heart disease. Both available through Amazon.

Trader now travels the country, encouraging women to arm themselves with accurate health-care information, listen to their intuition and advocate for themselves with health-care providers.   "Most of the time we know something is wrong with us, we just might not move on it," Trader said.  "I encourage women to learn to be their own advocate, and that goes for any part of their lives," she said. "If you're in an unhealthy situation at work, in your relationships, where you live - - you've got to change it. There are ways to get help."

She will share with audiences how she has transformed her life to fit her body's needs and how her faith has improved her overall well- being. "I really exercise now, where before I thought if I went from one end of the mall to the other with a big shopping bag that was enough," she said. "I show that we're not exempt from sickness or sadness, but we can have a peace that passes our own understanding."