Marcy Fiet of Watervliet was out for a run last September, when something felt off. And despite her initial apprehension to head to the hospital in the middle of the pandemic, she’s glad she did.

"Pain in the jaw, in the back of the neck, and in between your shoulder blades is very common, and I started having all those symptoms," Fiet said. "So logically, I knew something was up, but like, I couldn’t wrap my head around it."

She couldn’t wrap her head around it because she’s in her early 40s, an athletic mom of 10-year-old twin boys, a nurse, and doesn’t have any risk factors.

She credits her Apple Watch’s heart-rate monitor for clueing her in that what she was feeling wasn’t normal.

"I was way down that way, about a half-mile down the road, and as I’m walking home, it kept climbing, higher and higher and higher, rather than recovering the way it normally does," Fiet said.

Fiet says her heart rate was around 160 beats per minute and rising. When she got home, she told her husband and kids she just needed water and rest, but then, "Out of the blue, my left arm went numb and thank God it did, because that’s when I looked at my husband and said, ‘You’ve got to call 911,'" Fiet said.

Fiet says she was worried about her husband, their kids, and being a burden on health care workers.

"If I don’t go and get the help that I need, there’s not going to be a me to take care of anything," Fiet said.

When she made the decision to go to Albany Medical Center, she knew she’d have to leave the kids at home due to COVID-19 restrictions.

"Everything was happening in fast forward and slow motion all at the same time, and as they were loading me into the ambulance, I looked up and I saw them. I remember I said to everybody, ‘Stop,’ " Fiet said. "And I said to them, ‘I will be back. This is not goodbye, we’ll see you in a little bit. I’ll be OK.' And I had no idea."

Luckily, she is OK.

Fiet experienced a heart attack known as SCAD, or spontaneous coronary artery dissection. It causes a tear in the heart and is most common in women under 50. While researchers are still learning more about it, it’s also more likely to happen in women who don’t have risk factors for heart disease, and tends to happen under extreme stress.

"It was something they had really never seen [at Albany Med] and they didn’t know much about it, so I became sort of the star patient on the cardiology unit," Fiet said.

Fiet spent four days in the hospital and missed the boys’ first day of fourth grade, but one resident reminded her of what she wouldn't miss.

" 'You’re going to be there for fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth and 10th and 11th grades, and college and so on and so forth,' and I said, 'You know what? You’re right.' "

After 12 weeks in cardiac rehab, Fiet is back to running and teaching fitness classes online, a business she launched shortly before her heart attack. She says her first run alone was a challenge.

"I was sort of having this internal battle the whole time of, ‘Do I run past the spot where I realized something was wrong?' Because there was a particular spot," Fiet said. "Or do I avoid it? And I thought, ‘You’ve got to run through it. You’ve got to get yourself past that.' And I went down there and I ran through it and I just said, ‘You can’t get me yet.’ "

This week happens to be SCAD Awareness Week and Fiet says that while not a lot is known about it yet, doctors at Mass General in Boston are researching it. She has an appointment with them in March.

Doctors are also urging people to continue to go to routine doctor's appointments and to head to the hospital if you feel like something is off.

"Just because we're in the middle of a pandemic, it doesn't mean your risk for heart disease is suddenly going to disappear," said Dr. Suzie Mookherjee, a cardiologist at Albany Med and an AHA New York Board Member.

Dr. Mookherjee says they've heard of patients they could've treated and potentially saved who died during the pandemic because they had heart attacks at home and refused to call 911 because they were afraid of getting coronavirus.

"Yes, hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, but if you go down in the middle of this for something you could've been saved from? That's a tragedy, too," Dr. Mookherjee said.

Dr. Mookherjee says the hospitals are taking every precaution to keep people safe.

"Please, do not be afraid to come here," Dr. Mookherjee said.

For more information about heart disease and how to reduce your risk, visit this website.