Change of heart

Erica Whittlinger

Back pain, some tightness in her chest. Those were Erica Whittlinger’s only symptoms. Yet they were disturbing enough to visit a Park Nicollet Urgent Care doctor.

Within 20 minutes, her blocked artery was discovered; within 48 hours, angioplasty opened the artery, with a stent implanted to help keep it open.

Afterward, “I did all the right things,” says Erica, then 51, a successful business owner, investment expert and avid skier. “I took my medications, ate a low-fat, vegetarian diet, exercised, took vitamins, read books and tapes on heart disease, took classes.” Yet, three months later, the stent was plugged. This time, three stents in a row were placed in the artery. That was on Monday.

The beat goes on

“On Friday, I knew something was wrong.” She called 911. “They patched me through to Methodist Hospital’s Emergency Center.” The team was ready when she arrived. “I received deluxe treatment, but discouraging results,” Erica says. Another stent was placed in a different artery. Three months later, she was back in the hospital, stents blocked once again. Bypass was recommended.

Before proceeding, she called a friend from Medtronic to check on the Park Nicollet doctor who would perform the requested revolutionary “beating heart” surgery. (Park Nicollet Heart Center was one of the first in the country to adopt this approach.) “My friend said Dr. Spooner was one of the two best surgeons in the Twin Cities.”

She spent 11 days recuperating at Methodist Hospital, “where the nurses were wonderful, and built my confidence,” she says. Afterward, a question posed by a cardiac rehabilitation therapist radically changed her life. “‘You’re a Type AAAA, and I’m more worried about you than all my other heart patients. You’ve had four warnings. What is it you want out of life?’”

Internal rekindling

Erica recalls feeling like she was hit with a 2’ x 4’. It was a defining moment. While her health issues led to changing her external self – driving in the right-hand lane, instead of the left, for example – her inner self had not changed. It needed to, if she wanted to be around to enjoy her financially well-planned retirement. 

At 52, after 19 years running a busy, high-stress portfolio management firm, she slowed her internal speed. “I leave plenty of time to get where I’m going,” she says. “When I feel a little stressed, I deep breathe and say to myself, ‘Relax into peace.’ I pull weeds in my garden – there’s something about working with living things and creating some beauty.”

Although she lives much more in the moment, she is still busy with a new business she co-founded, The ReFirement Group.

Erica now conducts Refirement workshops

Feeling joy

Erica now conducts workshops and presentations to inspire people to bring more joy into their lives. She uses “The ReFirement Workbook,” which she co-authored, to facilitate refirement – not retirement – planning, rekindle the passions of disengaged workers and enhance intergenerational communication in the workplace.

To do all this, Erica, now 54, travels between Minneapolis and her Utah vacation home in the mountains, where crisp air and sunshine greet her as she steps out the door. She feels joy.

“I wasn’t unhappy before, but now I walk down the street and realize, ‘I’m happy.’”