My family had a big wake-up call this summer - one that could have been a tragedy, but instead posed an opportunity for all of us to reevaluate our lives and make good decisions going forward.

In early July, my father (age 60) took our family dog out for a walk. When he was only a few blocks away from the house he felt a crushing chest pain and had trouble breathing. He stumbled back to the house as quickly as he could and my mother, with trembling hands, called 911.

By the time the ambulance had arrived, my father's chest pains had passed. Embarrassed that he had made a big deal out of what seemed to be nothing, he told the EMTs that he was fine and said he didn't need medical care. Because of state law, however, they were required to take him to the nearest hospital for testing.

Once my father got to the hospital, he was admitted for some tests which all came out fine. Though my father had high blood pressure and high cholesterol in the past, these symptoms had been under control with the use of medication for over ten years. Before this incident, he had been the picture of health - golfing 18 holes practically every day, getting up at 6am every day to do work around the house, and never showing any signs of fatigue or strain.

Despite the initial tests showing everything to be OK, a second doctor who saw my father in the hospital encouraged him to get a cardiac catherization. The definition of cardiac catherization per The American Heart Association is this "This is a procedure to examine blood flow to the heart and test how well the heart is pumping. A doctor inserts a thin plastic tube (catheter) (KATH'eh-ter) into an artery or vein in the arm or leg. From there it can be advanced into the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries."

My mom thought this procedure to be too invasive, considering my father's seemingly perfect health. After all, my father had more energy that she ever had. He was the picture of health. It couldn't be possible that he could have heart disease. The doctors were persistent, and eventually my parents agreed. My father had the cardiac catherization that day.

It was a good thing he did. The doctors found that my father's main artery, often called "the widow-maker", was almost completely blocked. They told my mother that if he hadn't been admitted to the hospital that day, he almost certainly would have had a fatal heart attack sometime during the next week.

This was a complete shock to everyone in my family. Despite the wealth of information on heart disease, despite the certain knowledge that hamburgers and french fries will clog your arteries, despite even the fact that my father had a strong family history of heart disease and stroke, we had never seriously contemplated the fact that he could die of heart disease. Never.

In retrospect, its easy to see that we were naive. Stupid even. Unfortunately, I think that this kind of willful dissociation is all too common in our society today. How often do we think, "That's something that happens to other people, not to me?" Sometimes this helps us to safeguard ourselves from fear of things out of control. However, in the case of heart disease, our health is entirely within our control. My Dad's heart attack was our wake-up call. We all had the power to do something to curb heart disease.

My Dad had triple bypass surgery was completed without complications. The doctors informed my family that his future health was now in our hands. We had to keep down his sodium intake and limit his exposure to saturated fats.

My Mom and Dad took this advice to heart, but my Dad's surgery did more than just change their lifestyles. It changed the lifestyles of my brothers and I as well. It was true that my father had a strong history of heart disease and stroke. His own father had died of a stroke when my Dad was just a boy, and none of his aunts and uncles had made it past 60 years old. I am 27 years old and my brothers are 29 and 30. God willing, we have our whole lives in front of us. So we're taking this lesson and changing our lifestyles to ensure that we lower our risk of this completely preventable disease.

The days after my Dad's bypass surgery were a flurry of research. We hit the bookstores - found heart healthy recipe books, educated ourselves about what foods do to our bodies, and

Here are some tips for heart healthy living.

1. There are four different types of fats: saturated fats, trans fats, monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. AVOID saturated and trans fats. You can do this by reading food labels. Read them like it's your job.

3. Cook healthier. Use olive oil, fresh vegetables. Cook fish - it has amazing Omega 3 oils that will keep your heart healthy

4. Exercise! This is a big one. Cardiovascular exercize keeps your heart healthy.

5. Avoid salt. It raises blood pressure, increasing your risk of heart attack.

6. Don't smoke. This one is sort of a no-brainer, seeing as smoking causes problems beyond just heart disease. In the days before my Dad's bypass surgeries, doctors emphasized to him many times that his risk of complications were far less because he had never smoked. He was glad that he hadn't. Bypass surgery is scary enough without added worries.

7. Check your family history. This is one place where our family really messed up. My Dad had never had a stress test before his cardiac incident, despite an INCREDIBLY strong family history of heart disease. This is not completely his doctor's fault. Everyone needs to know their own risks and push for stress tests and EKGs if they have a history of heart disease. Its your responsibility to take care of your own health.

My family has learned so much from this experience. The biggest lesson is that heart disease isn't something that you should start worrying about when you get into your 40s and 50s...it's something that you should work on preventing your entire life. My brothers and I have educated ourselves about how to eat so that we won't have the same problems later on in our lives. It's never too early and it's never too late to start thinking about your heart.

My parents have learned that to eat out less and to cook healthier meals at home. They also go down to the local track and walk two to three miles every day now. My father is still healing from his surgery, but he has bounced back remarkably well. He's even been out on the golf course a couple of times this fall.

Sometimes I think about how lucky my family got in this whole experience. If my Dad hadn't had those chest pains, he never would've known the truth about what was going on inside his body. Some people never get the chance to learn for themselves that it can happen to you, that it does happen to families all over the country every day. My father got a second chance at life. It may sound dramatic, but it is true.

So I'm on a big of a mission now - to educate my friends, and my family, about heart disease. To let everyone know that people don't have to lose their Moms and their Dads to this disease. That everyone can do something about it.