Second Change at Life

Second Life At C h a nce

by Brooke Ezzo

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…

Lori Houser is no stranger to cardiac issues. She has lived with an irregular heartbeat called Tachycardia for as long as she can remember.

But, nothing could have prepared her for the road she was about to travel. After having constant headaches for a couple of weeks in April of 2018, Lori went to the neurologist and had an MRI.

“I had it done on a Friday and they called the following Monday, asking me if I was sitting down,” Lori said. “They told me I had a stroke.”

Lori was in the best of shape of her life; she ate clean and organic, she ran and worked out multiple times a week, and played soccer. Her lifestyle showed no signs of disease. The doctors immediately got her in for testing.

“For the next three weeks I felt like a lab rat,” Lori said. “They poked and prodded me, did a bubble study to make sure there wasn’t a hole in my heart, and any other testing to find the cause of the stroke.”

Without much luck, Lori had a heart monitor put in in May 2019. It’s called a loop recorder, and its main job is to find hidden rhythms that cause strokes. With another monitor next to her bed, the data is submitted to a device team. Each night, the monitors basically perform an ongoing EKG.

days,” Lori said. “They told me I needed to come in for immediate heart surgery.”

Lori had what is called Cardiac Ablation; the doctors cauterized all four parts of her heart creating scar tissue to make those openings smaller and reduce the amount of electrical activity going out, which is what causes the AFIB.

“I am not out of the woods yet,” Lori said. “The goal is to not AFIB for two years after the surgery.”

Two years will be this coming June, and no matter what Lori gives all the glory to God.

“I feel like I got a second chance at life,” Lori said. “I thank God every day that He kept me going.”

Lori and her husband cook clean, fresh meals at home. They don’t eat out often because she strives to stay on the cardiac diet, but also because she has 28 food allergies. She realized she needed to alter some of her favorite foods, chips and salsa being one of them.

Friends started commenting on how good the homemade salsa was and told her she needed to bottle it. Once she put the word out, the salsa started selling quickly.

“We make low-sodium mild and spicy salsa using all fresh, organic ingredients,” Lori said. “We try to eat healthy and organic, so the salsa has turned out to be something that has worked out perfectly.”

Lori is a Realtor with The Houser Realty Group and lives in Lantana with her husband Brett and their four children.

Your Salsa Lady salsa can be ordered through the Lantana Life Facebook page or place your order with Lori directly at 214.417.8998.

Photos courtesy of Pamela Tuckey

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” - Maya Angelou