Enjoying every second of my life.. while preventing a second heart attack!!



Not letting my heart attack slow me down... Enjoying every day!

Just one second. I feel like I've been told a hundred times had I waited another second, a minute or for sure 30 minutes I wouldn't be here today! I read recently that the American Heart Association has a new campaign "Don't wait for a second." When reading through this, I started thinking what am I doing to prevent a second heart attack? I graduated cardiac rehab with a few hiccups along the way.. not many people can say they that cardiac rehab sent them home and said come back next week. ( Yep, acute pericarditis got the best of me) My chest pain would come and go that my speed on the treadmill would make a turtle laugh! I quit caffeine cold turkey; boy was that painful. I remember asking for Diet Pepsi in the hospital due to a major headache not realizing it was caffeine free on the cardiac units. (UGH!!) Detoxing off caffeine was similar to childbirth, ouch!! I no longer drink alcohol. My glass of white wine when on date night with my hubby is a thing of the past.
You are probably wondering why in the world would I give all this up? Simple, I will do everything possible on God's green earth to never have to experience the sights and sounds of a cath lab!!

Below are the five steps that American Heart Association Recommends for preventing a second heart attack:

1. Take your medicines
2. Manage your risk factors
3. Get Support
4. Connect with your doctor
5. Participate in cardiac rehab

Here is how I manage to incorporate the five steps into my life on a daily basis. Keep in mind I am by no means perfect. I sneak in a burger and fries every once and awhile.. ok, maybe a little more frequent than that! But, remember we are all human, and we have been given a second chance at life so give yourself credit when you do the best you can at prevention.

1. Take your medicine: I am a fanatic about making sure I take my meds every day. This is the nurse in me. I have a pill box and fill it every Sunday night. Crazy, aren't medicine boxes for nursing homes? Nope, its the new cool thing to display on your countertop!  If you don't have one, be sure to run out and get one. Medicine is only one piece of the puzzle to prevention.... So always keep it as your #1 priority.

Bruises.. Bruises everywhere. The day folding laundry became dangerous!!
The side effects of blood thinners.. they keep the stents open but makes you look like a pin cushion

2. Manage your Risk Factors: This can be tough because some risk factors are modifiable, and some are non-modifiable. I maintain my modifiable risk factors by taking a statin to keep my cholesterol low, and I follow the cardiac diet( I know this can be very trying at times.. but it does the body good.) I try to make simple changes everyday like eating white meat, vegetables and fruit, and little to no salt. I walk every day and don't smoke. The non-modifiables are a little harder to control... I can't change my family history or age.. which sadly just keeps going up every year!! Always keep in mind that stress can contribute to heart disease. As Mark Twain says " I've had a lot of worries in my life.. Most of which never happened."

3. Get Support: I have relied on my family and friends to get me through this crazy experience! We have talked about my heart attack five ways to Sunday. It seems like every once and awhile the thought of "WHAT IF?" sneaks into my thoughts. TALK, TALK, TALK.. don't let your wandering mind get the best of you. You're alive.. make it worth it!!

4/5. Connect with your doctor and Participate in Cardiac Rehab: I lump these two in the same category because they go hand in hand. My Cardiologists and the nurses in Cardiac Rehab helped me so much! I had faith that they knew what would be best for me and let them guide me through the process of recovery. I went from running half marathons to barely being able to walk from the couch to the bathroom without being short of breath. My heart attack was truly a life altering the experience. Cardiac rehab not only got my endurance back but my confidence and security that my heart could handle a little kick in the butt and be ok!

As I finish writing my blog tonight, I celebrate six months post heart attack. I describe my heart attack to my friends as a crazy journey. I've shed many tears along the way, had hiccups in my recovery and experienced four additional nights in the hospital. But I won't let this get the best of me. I have a second chance at life, and I won't take it for granted!! SO... PREVENTION IS THE KEY TO NOT EXPERIENCING A SECOND HEART ATTACK!! Control what you can control, smile and just breathe.

Scared, Nervous, and frightened... a 10 year olds perspective on heart attacks

Brenna and Gus.. Blog guests

Today as I write my blog my 10 year old daughter Brenna sits beside me. It's her first day of spring break and I explained to her that I have been writing a blog about my heart attack.  Up until this point I have written about how the heart attack has effected me and not from my families perspective.

I've asked her to share with me her thoughts about how our lives have changed over this past month. Don't get me wrong we've talked about the incident but she has really been quiet and reserved. Brenna has the personality of just dancing through life, smiles all the time and just goes. So having this time one on one this morning I wanted to ask her a few questions.

Q: Brenna what did you think when you found out I had a heart attack?

"That morning when dad woke me up and started talking to me about what happened to mom I thought it was all a dream" Brenna says. Brenna and Parker both handle stress in different ways. They knew that day that I had a heart attack but were unsure of what really happened or the outcome.
"We always watch Code Black, Chicago Med, and Grey's Anatomy whenever people have heart attacks on these shows I thought it was life or death" says Brenna.  Brenna said "scared, nervous, frightened, sad and weird were the emotions that went through her head.

Q: What did you think as dad was driving you to see me for the first time?

"I was just tyring to keep my mind off of it, so I wouldn't freak out." "On the way up to the CCU room dad said don't be scared."

Q: How has your life changed since this happened?

 "I have to clean more which I don't like, it just scares me that it might happen again."

Q:  Have positive things came out of this experience?

"I'm closer with my mom now and I get to ride the bus to and from school everyday!"


Q: What words of advice do you have for other parents who have to talk to their kids about any type of sickness or disease?

" Be honest and tell them everything is going to be okay!

After we got done talking I asked Brenna if she had anything else to say and she just gave me a big hug!! This is a common theme in our house over the past month that I hope never changes. Nobody leaves the house without a hug and I love you.

I asked Brenna to give me a picture for my blog and this is what she felt best represents her!

Always remember that a heart attack not only affects you it also affects your whole family!

Being open and honest with your kids no matter what age will help to make the healing process better and more understandable for all.

Maybe next week? The day Cardiac Rehab sent me home!

 

 My new digs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

 

I have to be honest, yesterday was a tough day for me. I was all excited to dust of the tennis shoes and get on the treadmill to health... But my heart had other things in mind. I mentioned earlier that I was re-hospitalized last week with chest pain. What they think is happening is that my heart and pericardium(membrane enclosing the heart) are inflamed from the stents and catheters being used during the Cardiac catheteritzation procedure. The effect of this is extreme chest pressure with increased activity.
I decided to finally venture downstairs this week and immediately upon coming back up to the top step knew I had done too much. Crazy right, walking one flight of stairs in your home is too much.. For pete sakes, this is a girl who ran two half marathons, thought hot yoga was the best thing since sliced bread and loves to exercise!

It took almost 4 hours after one flight of steps to recover and have the chest discomfort resolve. I decided to go to Cardiac Rehab yesterday thinking the only way I'm going to get stronger is to get on that treadmill and walk. I got all suited up in my new shirt that Tracy Farland sent me, tied my shoes and sat down with the rest of my group. One elderly man's hearing aid battery died so they kept shouting at him so he could hear. Another, had fallen earlier that morning in his bathroom and had a band aid on his forehead covering his sore. One lady smelled like smoke... All I could think was, this is my new reality. Why am I getting so mad because somebody still smokes after having a heart attack?? We do our warm ups, stretch and then get on the treadmill.

 





As soon as I get walking at the speed of 1.5mph (Yep, a turtle just lapped me)  I start to feel that chest discomfort come back.. UGH! As I look around I see that everybody is working hard.. why is this happening to me?
The nurse ( who by the way are amazing in Cardiac Rehab) comes and takes my blood pressure and heart rate and sees that my chest discomfort is starting to get bad. She backs my tread mill down and tells me to keep walking to see if the chest discomfort lessens.

 

 The picture above is the result of the chest discomfort. I will never take the ability to walk without discomfort for granted. I don't know how many times I just jumped on the treadmill, cranked up the speed and started running.. Those days are over for awhile.. BUT I KNOW THEY  WILL RETURN.. slow and steady will win this race.

My Cardiologist started me on a new medication that is a little stronger than the Motrin I was taking. I now have a new medication called Colchicine (sounds like a spice in your pantry) that helps with acute pericarditis.  Remember, the blood thinners I take pretty much react with everything and increase my chances of bleeding. As my husband says, take all the knives out of this kitchen for awhile!!

 

My Cardiologist told me to take a few days off from Cardiac Rehab and try again next week giving the medicine time to work.

 

I will not let this get me down!

 

 

My goal next week.. To accomplish one full week of Cardiac Rehab without discomfort!

 

Bring on the treadmills!! I'm ready!

 

 

Going from a mutli-tasking mom .. to a short of breath lump on the couch!

The days that followed my heart attack became really confusing. I had to call somebody to go to the bathroom. You have to be kidding me? Why can't I just jump out of this hospital bed and go pee?

Sleeping was a little scarce. I had been started on a new regimen of medications. I went into the hospital on one medication and now I'm leaving on four! One of the medications is a Beta Blocker. This is a medication given to post heart attack patients to help reduce the energy needs of the heart and decrease oxygen consumption.  The funny thing about Beta Blockers is they don't really know how they work in the long run. The Cardiologists just say its better to take it then not.. Ok. The only problem is when you give this to a patient like me who had normal to low blood pressure and a low resting heart rate.. all the monitors go off. I had nurses rushing into my room at night because my blood pressure would drop into the 80/50 range. Keep in mind a normal blood pressure is 120/80.  My pulse while sleeping would go in the 40's, normal 60-120. So as you can imagine to my surprise the nurses would abruptly open my door to make sure I'm still breathing. Well, the shock of being woke up definitely got my vitals headed in the right direction.

Before I left the hospital the nurses from Cardiac Rehab came to visit me. They had books on risk factors, modifiable and non-modifiable... your probably thinking to yourself what???
Modifiable are things such as: high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, physical inactivity, bad diet (yep, that means fast food and grease which we all love), and being overweight. Non-Modifiable are things you can't change! Think of it this way, age, gender and family history. You are stuck with your genes and no I don't mean the type of jeans you have to squeeze into after a fun weekend of too much food and wine. Isn't red wine heart healthy?? Of course in moderation.

Cardiac Rehab had a lot of things not to do, don't drive for a week, don't lift over 10 lbs., start the Cardiac Diet ( are you kidding me?) One thing they did tell me was that I would have a range of emotions. Sorry Joe I know that this woman is already moody, buckle up its gonna be a long ride. After the nurses said all this they would then insert "but then again you don't have any risk factors, but it won't hurt to try".  I set up my appointments for Cardiac Rehab and will now go three times a week. I have visions of who will be in my class, grandma's and grandpa's and yes that truly is my class. I told Joe I just want to go around and hug them all they are so cute!

That first day home was tough. My family was there to help me. My mother-n-law flew in from Arizona, my sister and family came from Chicago.

That's when it hit me. The true impact a heart attack can have on your loved ones.  When you see their faces. Joe and the kids were truly amazing during this whole process. I could see the worry in their faces.  I noticed how many more "I love yous" I would hear as they would pass me on the couch. My sister Jennifer hit me the hardest. When she walked through the door I could see how worried she was. If felt amazing to be able to just hug her and let her know that she is stuck with me for the duration like it or not. (That's right Sissy I'm not going anywhere)  Friends would come by to visit and you could see the shock and disbelief. It  really made people start to look at how precious life was.

The one thing that I was not ready for was all the flowers. Now, this girl loves her flowers! I have a huge issue in the spring with buying more flowers then my yard could possibly hold.. shiny object syndrome my husband teases me about.  But as all the flowers sat on my coutertop I would look at them and think "WOW, those flowers could have just as easily been for my funeral." I know this seems crazy to say but it's so true.  Remember, the nurses told me that there would be a range of emotions and here it finally surfaced.

The emotions during that first week ranged from seeing the night light in the bedroom and thinking that's what I looked at as I walked out to the family room with chest pain. To putting my head on my pillow and wondering would I wake tomorrow morning? Joe and I started to make a joke of this to add a little levity to the situation. I would say before bed "if you wake up in the middle of the night wake me up to make sure I'm alive". You might think this is crazy.. but in my mind all I could think about was the fact that I didn't have monitoring patches on any more. No nurses to run into my room and tell me to wake up? Joe is great but he is no magician, he can't look at me and say your blood pressure and pulse are low.. sit up Missy!

My next step is going to Cardiac Rehab classes. I am excited and nervous. I went from working out daily to now hanging out on the coach and each day increasing my activity level. The hardest part is trying to just do simple chores like making my daughters lunch for school. When you start to cry over the inability to make a peanut butter sandwich with out getting short of breath you just have to keep the faith that the struggle with normal living will get easier.

Here is a picture of me getting released from the hospital the second time.
(Yep, on my one week anniversary I had chest pain, was short of breath and had radiating chest pain.. I had an additional night in the hospital last week). My heart checked out.. 1/30 people with stents will have inflammation around the stents and I was the lucky one. Well, maybe not so lucky.

Here's to hoping to a week of no hospital stays! Bring on Cardiac Rehab!!