That Time I Thought I Was Dying At 19 Yrs Old

“Help, I can’t breathe.”

Grace Bianco
6 min readApr 25, 2022

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By Grace K. Bianco

I hope you ever don’t have to experience scares to understand life, but I do hope you realize what matters before it’s too late.

Photo from Canva

One Wednesday night, my husband, who I had only been dating for about five months at the time, and I went to our Bible study. We went back to my parents’ house, and I told him that my chest had been hurting. He was immediately on high alert, but I told him I was fine. He got me into bed, and he went home. (We didn’t sleep together before marriage.)

That night, I was everything but fine.

It felt like someone was sitting on my chest, and every move I made was excruciating. My heart would race, and then, slow way down. My body ached, and as soon as the sun began to rise, I was “running” down to my parents’ room.

Before I could get to my mom’s, I texted my husband, “I am not good.” He hadn't slept the night before out of concern for me, and he immediately left his parents’ to rush to me.

I grabbed my mom’s leg to wake her up, “I can’t breathe.” She thought I was having a panic attack. On the other hand, I was convinced that I was going to die of a heart attack.

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Grace Bianco

I am the author of “Party Pooper: Growing up with Anxiety.” I love oversharing my life. I talk about my faith, marriage, mental health, & everything in between.