她26岁时两次心脏病发作. 现在她跑马拉松.

Channing Muller woke up one Sunday morning feeling a little beat down. 26岁，前一晚还出去过, 她觉得这很烦人, 但是普通的, 宿醉了，她只需要熬出来.

When she took a step out of bed, she immediately knew something else was going on.

她的心开始狂跳. 她的呼吸急促起来，好像刚跑完5公里. 她感到一阵恶心.

穆勒跌跌撞撞地走到浴室，照照镜子. Her skin was whiter than she'd ever seen it and covered with a sheen of sweat.

她爬到床头柜前，抓起手机. Although she had a roommate, Muller knew she wasn't strong enough to yell for help. 当她的室友接电话时，穆勒说:“有点不对劲."

When Muller arrived at the emergency room of a nearby hospital in Washington, D.C., her heart was still racing and she couldn't get her breathing under control. Doctors tested the electrical signal in her heart and conducted two rounds of blood work.

几个小时后，他们知道发生了什么事:

她心脏病发作了.

穆勒被空运到另一家医院的心脏监护室, where more extensive testing revealed a 70% blockage of an artery to her heart. But her doctors were perplexed as to why she'd experienced a heart attack.

她没有明显的危险因素. 她是个狂热的跑步者. 她不抽烟. 她吃素已经有十年了. 她是一个素食者，没有家族心脏病史. 她没有高血压，也没有过高的胆固醇.

考虑到危险因素的缺乏和堵塞的程度, her doctors expected she could control it through medication and monitoring. She was sent home to recover and told to begin cardiac rehabilitation in about a month.

一个月后，她的心跳又开始加速.

这一次，她知道哪里出了问题.

Muller went straight to the hospital, where doctors confirmed a second heart attack. 她的堵塞已经恶化到90%.

Her medical team placed a stent in her artery so blood could flow in and out of the heart at a healthy rate.

大约一个月后，穆勒开始了心脏康复, 她走不出一个街区就得坐着. 她一说话就喘不过气来. And she found herself needing frequent long naps to make it through her days.

康复的第一天，医生问她康复的目标. 她毫不犹豫地说:“我想再跑一次."

穆勒从大学开始就是一名跑步运动员，他热爱这项运动. 就在她心脏病发作的前一个月, she'd walked 60 miles over three days during a three-day cancer fundraiser. 她离开时想跑半程马拉松. 现在她不会让心脏问题阻止她了.

穆勒缓慢而坚定地朝着她的目标前进. 她开始时只做了几分钟的心血管活动. 她戴着心脏监测器. 她和她的医生一起工作, dutifully ensuring she stayed within her fitness limits and not overextending herself or her heart.

She set her sights on a 10k hosted by the 美国心脏协会 that was held six months after she started cardiac rehab.

"I wanted to run the whole thing without any walk breaks," she said.

她把这个目标从清单上划掉，继续前进.

穆勒的心脏病发作是在2011年. 从那以后，她跑了8次马拉松，而且还在增加. And she's done it by applying the same philosophy that got her from walking a block – to running a marathon.

"I really do approach every race and run, one mile at a time," she said. She adds that while she wouldn't choose to live a life with heart disease, 她已经学会接受自己的命运了, 想办法继续做她喜欢的事情.

"The heart attacks really did teach me that I can't take my fitness for granted. 即使在疼痛的日子里，或者比地狱还热的日子里, 能够跑步是一种荣幸,”穆勒说。, 谁现在住在芝加哥.

Dr. 约翰•欧文, 穆勒现在的心脏病专家, said her cautious and persistent approach has been a key part of how she's been able to stay healthy and run long distances.

"She did all the right things and approached her return to running in a stepwise fashion,欧文说。, clinical chair of the Department of Medicine at NorthShore Hospitals/Endeavor Health. “她开始训练10公里, 然后稳步增加她的跑步量, building upon her endurance and her confidence in how her heart is performing."

He also noted that her quick response to her heart attacks set her up for long-term success, 哪一点对女性尤为重要, 谁的症状与男性不同, 而且可能很难识别心脏病发作的迹象. Erwin said Muller's story speaks to how heart disease can affect anyone.

"Her heart recovered very quickly, because she sought medical treatment very quickly," he said.

发自内心的故事 chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.