Sleepless nights for mother with heart condition

For the past 12 years, Careen Mowatt has been living a life filled with excruciating pain.

Following a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis in 2010, the 39-year-old Seaforth, St Thomas resident is also faced with a torn shoulder muscle and a heart condition called unstable angina that causes sleepless nights. She is seeking the public's assistance to fund a heart surgery which costs $875,000.

Unstable angina is one of several acute coronary syndromes. It causes unexpected chest pain and usually occurs while resting. The most common cause is reduced blood flow to the heart muscle because the coronary arteries are narrowed by fatty buildups that can rupture, causing injury to the coronary blood vessel. This results in the blocking of the blood flow to the heart.

"I don't sleep at nights because I feel a lot of chest pain and I have to take blood thinners. It's not nice, I am just living in a lot of pain. I have a hernia surgery to do, but because my heart is unstable, they say they can't put mi on any machine to do the surgery. Being my heart can act up and kill mi at any time, because it don't beat properly, I have to pay for a angioplasty," she said.

An angioplasty is a procedure used to open blocked coronary arteries, which is caused by coronary artery disease. It restores blood flow to the heart muscle without open-heart surgery. An angioplasty can be done in an emergency setting, such as a heart attack. Mowatt said she is good at hairdressing, but her illness has left her being a dependent.

"Even when I was in pain, I would still do hair and work in the shop, but in 2015 I got really sick and had to stop working. I started to feel a lot of pain around my kidney and stomach, and is like the sickness take over my entire body instead of my joints alone. My blood pressure was always low. I did a lot of ultrasound, but [the] doctors couldn't find out what was the problem; but I was still being treated for arthritis," she said.

Already in severe pain, the mother of two had a further setback when she slipped and damaged her right shoulder in 2018.

"I was coming from river with a pan of clothes and the rain fall, so the place was slippery, and I slide. When I reach up, I realise that I couldn't stretch out my right hand to spread out the clothes. Days later, I had to go hospital and they said they found a tear in my shoulder. I was to do a MRI, but I couldn't afford it. My hand went in a sling and I got a lot of steroids, and it's just really painful," she said.

In December 2020, Mowatt said she began having terrible pain in her spine and her husband took her to get medical attention.

"The doctor said I have a tear in my shoulder that cannot heal because my arthritis eat away my red blood cells, and the white ones are very low as well. I went to therapy for a year but it still don't help, so right now I can't use my shoulder," she said. Mowatt said last year her condition worsened after she started suffering from headaches.

" [It is the] first in my life I feel such horrible pain in my head and chest. It was like something was ripping my chest apart and taking out my heart," she said, pleading for assistance to relieve her pain.

"I am asking for help, no matter how small it is. I should have done the operation from last October, and I am doing everything in my power, but nothing is coming through. I am in so much pain," she said between tears.

Persons wishing to assist Careen Mowatt may contact her at 876 368 2617. Donations can also be made through her NCB savings account, No. 644474283, Morant Bay branch.