SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – The American Heart Association has chosen “Reclaim Your Rhythm” as this year’s theme. A Metro Detroit woman embodies that theme in every way and she’s hoping it will strike a chord with other women too.
Dee Dee Davis is a singer and songwriter from Southfield. She’s also a mother of three and a grandmother of five. Her 2020 album is titled “Straight From My Soul” but it was her heart that kept trying to catch her attention.
Read: American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Luncheon returns to Metro Detroit
For months, she would occasionally feel heart palpitations.
“I just ignored it. I thought, maybe, I was rushing, anxiety, trying to get back and forth to work,” Dee Dee Davis said.
Then, one day last June, she noticed something.
“I had worked 16 hours and the next day I was preparing to go on a trip so I went to the mall, came back and on my way back from the mall I started feeling this irregular heartbeat. My heart kept beating real, real fast,” Dee Dee Davis said.
She got dizzy, but still tried to brush it off.
“But it wouldn’t go away, so then I started getting more dizzier. So I said, ‘Maybe I should take myself to emergency’ and that’s exactly what I did,” Dee Dee Davis said.
At the hospital, her blood pressure was high. She said she was probably on the verge of having a stroke or having a heart attack.
After weeks of testing she was diagnosed with a condition called right bundle branch blockage. It’s a condition that blocks the normal electrical impulse in the heart, preventing the blood from flowing properly.
She is now taking medication to control it and has stopped hitting pause on her own health.
“I want women mainly to know -- you cannot ignore the signs. You have to persevere and be proactive in doing something about those signs,” Dee Dee Davis said. “I’m always running around, doing something for everybody and I had to start focusing on myself.”
Dee Dee Davis urges others to go find out if something is wrong and fix it.
“We as women, we are resilient, we bounce back pretty good -- but you still have to be aware of what’s going on with your body, especially your heart,” Dee Dee Davis said.
Dee Dee Davis is singing a new song and reclaiming her rhythm.
“I’m doing fine now and getting back to my happy,” Dee Dee Davis said.
Her album “Straight from My Soul” hit No. 2 on the Soul Charts in the U.K.
She has a brand new song coming out on Feb. 19, it’s called “I Got My Happy Back.”
Her music is available on Apple Music, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and Google Play.
Click here to visit her website.
Read: Steps you can take to jump-start your exercise routine this Heart Month