Stepping Into Me: Part Two

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?

I looked forward to my hospital meals although they were never filling enough, which probably explained some of my weight loss while I lazed around for a week. I should mention that before this event began, I was running on my treadmill or jogging outside five days per week. At six-foot-five inches tall, I was down to two-hundred and twenty pounds, which is decent, but my goal was to maintain a weight of two-hundred and five. Sure, that’s thin but I believe it is a healthy weight for my heart and especially for my knees.

Although I had been more or less vegetarian for quite some time, my desire to lose significant weight clouded my thought process and I decided to dive into a low carb diet. So while continuing a fairly strict exercise regime, I was eating meals consisting mostly of meat and dairy products. Considering that I am in my fifties, this was not one of my wiser decisions. Low carb diets dehydrate you and decrease muscles mass. This is fact, no one can deny it. To add, so much animal fat will, without any doubt, thicken your blood and harden your arteries. It is better that you do your own research but for me, by following this diet excessively, I was unknowingly opening the door to disaster.

The doctor in charge of the cardiac division visited me on my third day, after x-rays were taken of my heart and liver. He emphasized that I was lucky to be alive and that changes were in store. Cigarette smoking was done with and he would try to have a nutrition expert speak with me. This was the easy part of the discussion and I nodded with no resistance. Then, things went south, or at least, things got frightening. He said that I had a heart condition called Atrial Fibrillation, a serious category of arrhythmia. In a nutshell, it is a very fast and irregular contraction of the atria resulting in a rapid beating of the heart. He was certain, according to x-rays and damage to my lower ventricle, that I had had a minor heart attack before my recent event.

My stomach knotted and I could feel anxiety seeping into my core.

He then added that my heart was only working at 87 percent. That piece of news floored me and the doctor knew it. He finished his discourse with a solution called an ICD or an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator. If my heart rate exceeded a certain amount, the ICD would activate and reset my heart much like the paddles did two nights ago.

Now, in Part One I mentioned how patients are not in their normal mindset, i.e., they are embarrassed, distressed and too willing to agree to whatever their doctor is selling. This was one of those times.

I had pneumonia and this delayed the upcoming operation. Instead of going under the knife on Monday, I had to wait until the following Wednesday, Christmas Eve. Before the ICD could be implanted, I had to go for an Angiogram, which in its simplest definition, is an x-ray of the blow flow in your arteries. No blockages were found and I was sent back to my room. It was a relief to hear some good news.

On Wednesday morning, I left my hospital at five forty-five a.m. and arrived at the operating clinic well ahead of the ten a.m. surgery. I was fourth in queue. Yah you heard me right. On Christmas Eve day, I was fourth in line to have an ICD implanted. Nothing strange dawned on me at that time because I just wanted it done so that I could go home for Christmas. Looking back, if so many people were receiving the same procedure on December 24th, how many ICD’s were being implanted on a daily basis. This was just one hospital. How many other health facilities were doing the same?

My children and their mother picked me up at the hospital at 3pm the same afternoon. I was sore but very happy to be leaving. We drove directly to the pharmacy to pick up the Beta Blockers prescribed to me by my hospital physician. Beta Blockers are ingested to control heart rhythms, specifically fast heart rhythms and they are to be taken every day for the rest of the patient’s life. The problem with Beta Blockers is that you gain weight almost immediately. Your metabolism decreases more than usual and therefore you are instantly prone to weight gain. Weight gain denotes more stress on your heart! This was crazy.

Ten days later, my left forearm swelled and I was back in the hospital with a blood clot. I guess the surgeon was in a hurry to finish before the next patient. Yes, that’s sarcasm but its honest sarcasm. Now, aside from Beta Blockers, I had to take a blood thinner for the next two to three months. I couldn’t do any exercise; I was always worried the ICD would go off and knock me on my ass and it was apparent that friends, family and co-workers viewed me as damaged goods. I was stigmatized.

I ballooned to two-hundred and fifty-two pounds before I made the decision to stop taking the beta blockers. The more weight I gained, the higher my resting heart rate went which in effect, was exactly the opposite of the desired result. In simple terms, I was running in circles.

To be fair, I was no longer smoking and barely exercising so this might have accounted for some of the fat gain but I was watching my diet so the additional forty pounds in four months was near impossible from just food choices.

If I didn’t change soon, my health would diminish even further. I began to research manners in which to repair a heart. I had heard that the human body was extremely resourceful and always mending itself or at least, when given the chance, would repair itself. I read hundreds of articles and quickly surmised that the same theme repeated itself over and over again.

Food and exercise; almost every article stressed the importance of food and exercise. The exercise portion called for anything strength inducing (but not necessarily heavy weights) as well as aerobics. The foods that mended broken hearts were all natural plant based foods. Foods not to eat were anything from an animal and anything with sugar. Aside from sugar intake, this type of diet is known as Veganism. I chose to eliminate sugar as well as all meat and dairy and began a vegan diet on July 1st 2015.

This decision led me on a new journey towards the world of health and a blueprint for sustainability.

Read on.

End of Part Two