Something Sweet with Susan

My plan to write about faith this week did not include heart health.  Those plans changed. 

I want to start by saying, most of the time insurance or other protocols dictate what procedures can or cannot be done in the health arena.  I am a strong believer that everyone has to be their own advocate when it comes to their health.  Remember, your doctor does not know how you feel unless you speak up.

My faith was put to the test last week when my brother Bill had a heart attack.  A heart cath showed he had numerous blockages in all the main arteries of his heart. These were not small blockages.  They ranged from 70-99% and he would have to undergo quintuple bypass surgery.  I can’t say I’ve ever prayed harder in my life.  

Bill could not believe what he was hearing. Everyone in the room was shocked.  He had undergone a major back surgery four months earlier.  The heart surgeon was shocked to hear that and said, “You are one lucky man.  I cannot believe you did not die when they put you under anesthesia.”  That’s not all.  He had an echocardiogram and nuclear stress test two months before the heart attack that did not indicate any heart problems.  Strange!  This is like me in that I had also passed a stress test and echocardiogram and was dismissed by a cardiologist 2 ½ months before my heart attack.  The heart surgeon went on to explain how one can have a false negative test result when there are so many blockages, as in my brother’s case.

Why do I share this?  

Bill and his wife had to insist on him having a heart cath Thursday morning after the heart attack.  The first cardiologist they saw at the hospital explained to them that there were risks involved and he did not recommend doing the heart cath because there had been no changes in his echocardiogram from the one he had in June.  I come from a family of five siblings and we are all so thankful they did not accept the recommendation from the doctor. If he had left the hospital with all those blockages, death was surely in his near future.

Symptoms and warnings were present in my Dad, my brother and myself.  We all experienced fatigue, shortness of breath, needing to sit and rest more than normal and brushed these off as aging.

I remember my parents started having annual physicals in their 50’s.  When my Dad was 73, his doctor asked if anything had changed in the last year.  The only thing he told her was he had started sitting down and taking a nap every day after lunch but “he guessed that was just part of getting older.”  She recognized that as a heart risk, sent him for testing and found he had three blocked arteries.  His LAD was 99% blocked – he was ready for the widow-maker.  He underwent a successful triple bypass surgery and lived to be 88.

My brother, age 73, had been less active than normal for four months leading up to his heart attack.  He was recovering from back surgery and thought that was why he couldn’t do much.  He had played golf a week before his heart attack and could only play 11 holes before he gave out and quit.  He called me five days before the HA and I asked him what he was doing because he was so winded.  He didn’t even realize he was short of breath.

I turned 60 seven weeks before my heart attack.  I was tired all the time.  I woke up tired every morning.  I thought that must be what aging feels like.  I wondered why my husband, 8 years older, had so much more energy than me.  I played golf twice in the week before my heart attack and both times I had to stop after 5 holes because I did not have the energy and I was too short of breath to finish.

Do you see a pattern here?  We were all tired and brushed it off like that was a normal part of life.  Plaque in the arteries builds up over time, not overnight, making the symptom of being tired not easily recognized as a heart health risk.  Also, with this gradual build up you do not recognize the heaviness in your chest because it comes on so gradually.

 
If you are more tired than normal,  if you find yourself having to sit down and rest almost every day, if you cannot complete normal activities in your daily life, if you are telling yourself “This is part of getting older” –  Get yourself to the doctor – especially if you have heart disease in your family history. 

My Dad did the right thing in telling his doctor he was more tired than normal and his blockage was found before having a heart attack.  Don’t accept answers that everything is ok if you know in your heart and your gut that something is wrong.  If you feel your doctor is not listening to you, find yourself another doctor because there are definitely doctors who listen.  (I’m thankful – I have 3 of them.)  If I had known before my heart attack what I know now, I would have gone back to the cardiologist that dismissed me and told him my symptoms were getting worse and pushed him for more tests.  My brother and I learned this the hard way, but thankfully we learned it before it was too late!

I woke up the morning after Bill’s bypass surgery with the same overwhelming feeling of thankfulness that I had the day I came home from the hospital.  I don’t cry often, but I cried for a full 45 minutes.  I walked around my house thinking about my life and what’s truly important.  We go through life, making a life.  We work to provide for our families.  We buy things, go places, achieve goals – for what?  What is really important in this life?  As I looked around I thought, it’s all just stuff.  The people we love are what really matters.  Stop what you are doing today and tell those people in your life you love them.  Yesterday is gone.  The future is not promised.  We have only today.

I had originally planned to write about my faith and why I got a tattoo.  My faith in God is what gets me through these tough times in life.  I never wanted a tattoo until I saw the word faith in a font that made the shape of a cross.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was something I wanted to wear the rest of my life.  I didn’t want this to be the first thing someone saw when they looked at me, but I wanted to see it myself.  When I am fearful or anxious, seeing the word faith on my wrist serves as a reminder to myself of who I am and what I believe.  Many years ago I came across the phrase: “If you’re living in fear, you’re not living in faith.”  I have repeated this to myself more times than I could ever count!  Seeing faith on my arm last week, when my fear was at its greatest, helped me stay calm and remember God is in control.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”Hebrews 11:1

”Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:29

**update:  Bill went home from the hospital 4 days after surgery.  He was told he can chip & putt in 2 weeks and play golf in 2 months.  I’d say that’s miraculous after quintuple bypass. We are still praising God.

This is a picture of me and my siblings last Christmas. Bill is on the right.

I know you are probably thinking that I’m the ‘oops’ in the group. I’ve always been told that was not the case. No matter what, I could not have hand picked better brothers and sisters than the ones God gave me.