Spring Health Tips

If you have a family, schedule an after-dinner walk. Make it quality time.

Winter is the season for snow ball fights, ice skating, sipping hot chocolate by the fireplace, and watching your favourite movies under a nice warm blanket. However, there are some negative things that happen during cold winter months. Often our health takes a back seat to the other things happening in our lives. Below are several ways to stay healthy and avoid those dreaded winter blues.

1. Get plenty of sleep.
2. Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables.
3. Eat a healthy breakfast.
4. Stay active.
5. Keep your stress low

Risk of cardio vascular disease and death is lower among regular stair climbers. This was a practice I implemented for myself once I returned to work after my recovery.  I made it a daily habit to take the five flights of stairs to my office at least 5 or 6 times a day.

Get active. Not only do families who are physically active together improve their odds against heart disease and stroke, but they have more fun.  Make regular physical activity part of your New Year’s resolution.

Winter is the season for snow ball fights, ice skating, sipping hot chocolate by the fireplace, and watching your favorite movies under a nice warm blanket. However, there are some negative things that happen during cold winter months. Often our health takes a back seat to the other things happening in our lives. Below are several ways to stay healthy and avoid those dreaded winter blues.

1. Get plenty of sleep.
2. Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables.
3. Eat a healthy breakfast.
4. Stay active.
5. Keep your stress low.

It is not easy to hand over your life and put your heart in the hand of a surgeon and his medical team. Trust me when I say, I have never been so scared as when they wheeled me into that operating room on the morning of my surgery in April. I remember the operating room being so white and bright and it seemed like there were dozens of people bustling around getting the room just right for me. The next thing I remember I was waking up in the intensive care unit. Apparently, I tried to order a Piña Colada. I think it was at that point that my family and friends knew I was going to be OK. Recovery was now in my grasp.

I set many goals for myself, some large and some small. The first goal I set was not to be tied to my hospital bed. I wanted the luxury of being able to come and go as I pleased during my stay in the hospital. Having to spend the weekend after my surgery in the I.C.U. assisted me in attaining this goal. By the time I got onto the recovery floor on Monday morning, I was able to get around quite easily. The nurse said that if I could make three to four trips to the patient lounge by lunchtime, then I could leave my bed without ringing for assistance. I made a dozen trips to the lounge that morning. My recovery was already on track.

Once I arrived home, I immediately began to do my 30-day walking curriculum that the hospital gave me. I remember that first day having to do six, five minute walks. I literally walked out my front door hugging a pillow to my chest and made a left turn at the sidewalk. I walked five houses down and back again; that was a five minute walk. Today that walk would take me less than a minute to do. I then tried to make it a bit further on each walk. I used each crack in the sidewalk and the lamp posts as my next set of goals. If I could just walk that little bit further each time, I knew I would be making the progress necessary to get myself back into shape. After 30 days, I was walking 2 kilometer’s in 30 minutes and I never looked back.

I had many accomplishments during my recovery. I lost 20 pounds and gained some lifestyle changes. My breakfast no longer consisted of toothpaste and a takeout coffee. I now made time for a proper breakfast
each morning. I also read and followed Canada’s Food Guide. In fact, a copy of it is still posted on the front of our refrigerator. As I mentioned earlier, I set some large goals for myself as well. My first goal was to join my walking team for the fourth year at the annual 60 kilometre-marathon walk that we participated in. I am proud to say that I completed that walk on the second weekend of September – a mere 4 1⁄2 months after my open heart surgery. I also completed my cardiac rehabilitation. And at the urging of my rehab therapist, I ran a 5 kilometre race on New Year’s Day, nine months after my surgery. Shortly thereafter, I got back to the scene of the crime, my winter tennis league, and I returned to my passion for playing golf, nine rounds in six days. Lastly, I ran 10 kilometres on April 27, 2008, the one year anniversary of my surgery.

I have to admit I had a very uneventful recovery and I believe that it was all in my attitude toward life. My focus from day one was to get back to where I was before my diagnosis. I know that I will never be the same Brian that I was before my surgery, but I also know that I will do whatever it takes to make sure that I am fit enough to walk my three daughters down the aisle on their wedding day.

Our first job was to go home and tell our three daughters. Although I had not even had time to digest the totally unexpected news myself, I had to not only reassure the girls that everything was going to be OK, but I also had to be strong for my husband.

This is when my role as a caregiver began. As a mother, I was used to dealing with my children’s runny noses and upset stomachs, but I had no idea what lay ahead of me as primary caregiver to my new patient. I had almost zero experience with heart disease. Although Brian’s Dad had a massive heart attack and died at 61, I didn’t learn a lot about heart disease at that time because I was fairly young. I became like a sponge absorbing everything the doctors and nurses told me about all the things to expect. A great resource that I used to ramp up on my knowledge was the Heart and Stroke Foundation website.

As a caregiver, I felt one of my biggest responsibilities was giving Brian reassurance that all the things he was going through were normal. However, I think the hardest time for me was bringing Brian home from the hospital. Now it was all in my hands because there were no doctors or nurses helping him or making decisions. The first few days home were the toughest as Brian had very limited mobility – especially getting in and out of bed and going up and down the stairs. I also made sure that Brian started a schedule of taking his medication as he was not prone to taking more than a painkiller before his surgery. It was imperative that he made this process a part of his routine going forward, like brushing his teeth. It didn’t take me more than a few days to have to begin telling Brian to slow down a bit. He totally took on his recovery walking curriculum and completed his 30 walks in 32 days. Although I was proud of him, I was also a bit scared.

I knew that my health was important and that the stress that we were under was going to have some kind of impact on me. I would grab my MP3 player and go for long walks, which always helped work off some of the stress. I’ve always enjoyed a long, hot, bubble bath, but now it was like an essential to help me relax. I also found time to take care of our new puppy Jackson. I have to admit that doting on him was a bit of a release for me. As we all know, if you want loyalty in your life, get a puppy. For me, taking Jackson on walks was also great, as I kibitzed with him and let my cares float away.

I was also well taken care of. Our family and friends made sure that our freezer was full of dinners. My girlfriends’ support, visits and long chats on the phone were a lifesaver for me. But most of all, I knew everyone’s love, prayers and best wishes were with us through it all.

Overall, Brian was a very good patient over the 4 1⁄2 months that he was home and not working. We got along well. It was a good taste of what it will be like when we retire.

I had never really given much thought to the emotional side of my recovery. All of my time and attention had been spent on how I would get back to my original level of fitness. Also, when I was diagnosed with heart disease, I did not take it personally or feel sorry for myself. The way I saw it, for close to 50% of the people that get diagnosed with heart disease, their first symptom is death. So I felt pretty lucky that I was diagnosed due to genetics and was given a second chance. Also, I did not have any of the standard symptoms for heart disease. It was my family history, so other than cutting down our family tree there was nothing I could have done to prevent my diagnosis.

Weeks passed and I eventually went for my surgery and was recovering well. In fact I was highly energized to get back to my old self. I was doing my rehabilitation walking program religiously and was able to complete the 28 walks in 30 days. So certainly I was not experiencing any mood swings or lack of motivation.

It was during one of those walks when Lori asked me, “Have you ever had any of the depression that they said you might experience in the pamphlets we read.” Her question totally caught me off guard as I had forgotten about that line in the booklet and was entirely focused on getting my body back in shape – not my mind. I had to really pause before answering her question, but my response was no.

Her question, however, kept echoing in my mind and later that day I looked up the meaning of the word depression – sad feelings accompanied by a sense of gloom and inadequacy.

At that point, I experienced a “wow factor.” I definitely had been experiencing depression. I had many questions that were unanswered around my recovery and a lot of doubt as to what my new level of fitness was going to be. Would I ever be able to play tennis again? Could I ride a bike? If so how far? Would I be able to play golf, one of my favourite sports? Considering I could not walk more than two minutes prior to my surgery, I was not sure how far I could eventually walk again. I was having huge feelings of inadequacy.

What I found was, once I realized this and began setting goals, however big or small, it kept me focused on getting back to the level of fitness I required to do the things that I wanted to. Within six months, I was back on the golf course, rode my bike and began to prepare for a marathon walk. Lastly, I am now registered for my winter tennis league, where this whole journey began for me.

A quote I used to assist me in my recovery during this uncertain period was from the author Dennis Waitley. It stated, “Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” These words continue to ring so true for me as I take each step in my recovery from heart disease.

I spent most of that first night going in and out of a restless sleep. Although you get great care in the ICU with a one-to-one, patient-to-nurse ratio, it is quite noisy. Because there was no bed for me and no staff in the recovery room on the 7th floor, I spent the entire weekend in ICU. By Sunday night, I was miserable and tired. I was not getting the rest I needed nor did I have access to the outside world: no windows or television. Thankfully, the floor nurse that night tucked my bed away in an unused corner of the ICU and I got my first good night’s sleep. The following morning they moved me up to recovery.

One of my first goals in my recovery was to have the freedom to come and go as I pleased. When I arrived on the 7th floor, I told my assigned nurse about this. She promised me that if I could make five to six trips from my room to the patient lounge before lunch, then I could have that freedom. When she brought lunch, she asked for an update. When I told her I had made about a dozen trips, she was amazed and blessed me with the flexibility to come and go as I pleased. I had set and achieved my first goal, just the first of many.

The rest of my stay in the hospital was rather uneventful and I got to go home on Wednesday morning. I was over the moon with excitement. When I left, they gave me a number of prescriptions and a 30-day walking program to get my recovery on the road, so to speak.

During my recovery, a couple of life moments occurred. A life moment is when you know exactly where you were when something significant in your life happens – like when Paul Henderson scored the winning goal against the Russians in 1972. One happened on our trip home from the hospital. My wife Lori and I decided it would be a good idea to drop off my prescriptions on our way home so they could be filled. We thought it would be a better route to enter the plaza from the back where there was less traffic. So there I was sitting in the back seat – I could not sit in the front just in case of an air bag deployed – when my wife hit a speed bump that neither of us knew was there. I don’t know what scared her more, my head hitting the roof or the sound I made when the seat belt locked across my chest.

It wasn’t exactly the start I had anticipated in my recovery, but it was just one more milestone behind me and there would be many, many more as I continued my journey down recovery road.

First, was the fact that my body felt like a house in the middle of the night, with its every creak and groan. My body felt the same way. I was definitely more acutely aware of every ping and pang. Due to the fact that my diagnosis was caused by shortness of breath, I really had no idea what angina, chest pains or any of the other symptoms of a heart attack should feel like. A comforting factor for me was a few days after my diagnosis date my doctor called me at home to see how I was doing. I told him I was fine but that I really did not know what I was dealing with and what I could or could not do. I was really confused, as a few weeks ago I thought I was this healthy middle-aged guy. My doctor gave me some great advice and told me to exercise common sense and not do anything ridiculous such as raking or shovelling. When I told him I had watched my wife Lori rake earlier that morning he laughed and said, “I think you get it.” My doctor’s call and advice certainly helped to put my mind and body at ease.

A few days later, I was just lounging around the house when I felt this odd sensation in my chest. It only lasted about a half hour so I let it go. However, when it reoccurred at lunch time for another half hour, I mentioned it to my wife and we immediately went to the hospital, just as my doctor had told me to do. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the hospital took on my case when I told them I was awaiting by-pass surgery and experiencing chest pains. They immediately inserted an IV, did some blood tests, hooked me up to a heart monitor and took chest X-rays. Because the blood work had to be done 4 to 5 hours apart to see if there was any stress related activity on my heart, I settled in for the balance of the afternoon and awaited the results. After dinner, the doctor came in to tell me that my results were fine and I could go home. I was really happy to hear this news.
The balance of my waiting game was rather uneventful. I spent many hours doing some recreational reading. Prior to my diagnosis I read personal development type books. I took this downtime to lose myself in somebody else’s life. My favourite author: mystery writer James Patterson. I also received many calls, visits and lunch invitations, but I tried to manage my social calendar to avoid getting run down before my surgery. But I did appreciate everyone reaching out.

All in all, there were many different emotions that I went through during my waiting game. I believe the one thing that helped me get through it the most was the awesome support and guidance I received from my family, friends, colleagues and doctors. Without their unconditional support, I know my waiting game would have been a much more trying time for me.