MY DIAGNOSIS I Knew My Chest Pains Weren't Normal

ER doctors sent her home several timesuntil she nearly died.

- FLORENCE CHAMPAGNE, AS TOLD TO MARISA COHEN

In 2012, between jobs after a career in government, I was on my way to a job-training meeting. But as I got out of my car to walk into the building, it felt as if I was climbing a mountain in slow motion. I could barely breathe.

Thankfully someone was coming out as I was going inI couldn't imagine how I would open that big glass door by myself! As soon as I got inside, I sat on a bench, then lowered myself to the floor in hopes of getting some air. Someone asked me, "Are you OK?" I nodded my head yes, because I didn't want them to call 911. I recalled that the last time I had gone to the hospital, I'd been told to seek counseling, as if the pain were all in my head. I did not want to go back there.

A HISTORY OF MISSED SIGNS

At that point I had been having symptoms for nearly a year. It would feel as if someone was stabbing me in the chest with needles and I couldn't breathe. I would sometimes feel pain radiating down my arm and start sweating, and I also felt jaw and neck pain. Once, in the middle of a heated argument with my then-boyfriend, I collapsed to the floor, and the only words I was able to get out, in a soft whisper, were, "Take me to the hospital."