My sister in law is recovering from a major heart attack. The doctor called it The Widowmaker, as it had the characteristics of the ones that people don’t always survive. It’s been just a couple weeks since it happened. She’s home and doing simple household tasks; making dinner, folding laundry, dead-heading plants, etc.
However, she’s in constant fear she’s going to have another heart attack. If she gets a little sweaty, she thinks another one is coming (that was one of her symptoms when it happened, but she was at Taste of Chicago, so – very understandable).
So this is all very new to her and I would be pretty freaked so soon afterward, as well. Just wondering…are there groups that survivors attend that help them get back to normal? How long does this fear last? Will she ever feel like she can do normal activities again?
I haven’t, but my brother had a heart attack and then an acute heart failure. He got out after maybe two weeks and felt major panic (like throw himself out the window panic). He actually went back into the hospital for another little while to manage the panic. He manages it with medication I think but seemed back to normal within another couple of months. Of course he monitors how he is feeling in terms of what he can do physically and gets rechecked regularly. Sorry I don’t know more about group options.
Not a heart attack, but my mother survived a massive stroke. The doctors at first told us to find a good care facility for her since she’d never regain her faculties. Through lots and lots of hard work and therapy, she’s recovered remarkably well. Part of her rehab was attending a stroke-survivor’s group. It was part group-therapy, part wellness seminar, with guest speakers. It did her a world of good to have other people who understood her fears and frustrations.
Your S-I-L should be undergoing some sort of rehab, right? They probably have a group there.
Yes, and had bypass surgery (CABG x 3) a bit more than one year ago. Don’t know about support groups, but I think the fear is normal. I still have occasional heart flutters and PVCs, and sometimes odd pains in the chest area, and I still get freaked a bit.
My Cardiologist is not concerned about this and most or all of the pains are generated by the incision/sternotomy.
If she follows the advice of her Cardiologist wrt diet and exercise, she should get over the fear eventually.
There’s some sort of ‘doctor supervised’ exercise kind of thing. I have no idea how strenuous that activity will be. She is supposed to lose weight, but they didn’t really give her a diet, per se. They told her to eat foods that look natural (i.e., baked potato = yes, potato chips = no)
The ‘dr.supervised’ exercise is rehab for a few weeks. Then she can do them on her own, and they should be done pretty regular. After my uncle had his heart attack he began walking. He walks everyday - he’s the guy in your town who everyone knows because he’s always out walking… He started that routine 17 years ago when he was in his late fifties. He’s out walking probably right now!
Life will be different, and the faster she can have people around her who empathize the better, like St.Germain said. Can I ask if she is in her fifties? Seems when a lot of people have heart attacks…
I’ve had about eight heart attacks. I don’t know if it’s the same thing, but I had one they called a widowmaker almost 20 years ago (there was a 98% blockage of the LAD after they administered the streptokinase). There was only one that was worse than that one; it was about 6 years after the first. My activity levels typically get back to normal about a day or two after I get out of the hospital. There’s never been any kind of supervised activity or rehab, and I have no restrictions on my activities. Most of the time, I feel fine.
She’s 60, a good 75lbs overweight, I’d guess. She has been walking for a couple years, and I’m talking 4 miles or so at a pop. Doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink. But she’s (obviously) a big eater.
Yeah - I understand. My family is Polish - from the polish section of Chicago- I understand big eaters and heart attacks. There is this place in North Chicago called white eagle or something like that where there is a huge banquet hall and on Sunday’s they seat typically 2,000 people. Easily. That’s a lot of kielbasa.
I had a grandmother live to 96 and another one die of a heart attack at 47. Much of what happened to your SIL is genetic. Does she want to keep up the walking?
To me, 40% sounds bad, but maybe we need a professional to tell us what that really means. The only damage estimates I’ve ever gotten were that it wasn’t as bad as they expected (of course, they expected me to die four times, so…). I don’t tolerate statins, but I understand they work really well for people who can take them. As far as activity, I walk 2 to 4 miles a day in hilly terrain. I’m sure they’ll encourage your sister to walk. I do a fair amount of yard work; I’m a terrible gardener but mowing, hoeing, and all that is more interesting to me than sports or calisthenics. The last time I helped load haybales onto a truck, I was really glad we were done after four hours; I don’t think I had much more left in me at the end.
To tell you the truth, I think she’s too scared right now. She’s well aware that she needs to work out and change her eating patterns in order to lower her risk of another heart attack, but I think she’s terrified of overexerting herself.
I suggested she ask her cardiologist about one of those home defib machines. Maybe just having it with her will make her feel a bit more secure. However, she said the shock was 10 times worse than the pain of the heart attack itself…so she might not want that staring her in the face all day, either.
Wow. I think that’s remarkable that you’ve had four close ones and you sound so absolutely ok now. I’m hoping she’ll be to that point soon, but I have my doubts.
I just talked to her. She is dreaming of heart attacks and crappy procedures, but she’s coming along nicely. She walked with her husband for about a mile today and has resumed 90% of the household drudgery. Actually, she sounded pretty good.
One of her biggest concerns is the cumadin, which is a tightrope walk, I guess. She’s going for regular checks on that and sees the cardiologist tomorrow. They also asked her to be in a study, which she decided to do.
Same with my brother–some sort of balloon pump. (Of course while I was there one of the docs came in and remarked to another about how useless the ballon pump is–reassuring.) Some of his heart died but more recently the scans showed other areas regained themselves and they didn’t end up having to do surgery to repair the valve like they thought they might have to. He was on Cumadin but I think has been able to cut back based on the recent scans.
Okay, so all this time I’ve been thinking that the balloon thing was The Universally Great Thing in cardiac medicine. This is not the case?? Why is that? My understanding is that the sides of the vessel are opened AND it sort of keeps the existing crap in the vessel from breaking loose and cruising to your brain. Seems like a great idea to me. What are the drawbacks?
I think you might confusing two different procedures/devices (unless I am). Balloon angioplasty is done in the cardiac catheterization lab and helps to reopen arteries.
Generally, a stent is placed to keep the artery open. The balloon doesn’t do much by itself.
Public Service Announcement
If you have chest pain or are worried you’re having a heart attack, CALL 911! It’s important not only to get the ambulance, but also to be routed to the correct hospital. On top of that, more and more EMS systems can activate the cardiac catheterization lab from the field for certain types of MIs.
For example, in the Denver Metro area, paramedics can call a “Cardiac Alert” for a patient with EKG signs of an MI. When this happens at night, for example, the hospital calls in the cath lab team as soon as the paramedic calls the hospital. This results in significantly less time to definitive treatment.
She had both. For some reason I thought it was all done at the same time/same motion.
Yes, she said the off-duty paramedic recognized her symptoms as a heart attack, and gave her an aspirin and nitro immediately. They then carted her out of the park to a waiting ambulance. However, they didn’t hit her with the paddles until she arrived at the hospital, which was a relatively short drive away.
The use of a defibrillator isn’t always necessary. I think it’s used for arrhythmias and ventricular fibrillation, to re-establish the normal heart rhythym. I’ve never been shocked, but they did give me morphine once for a minor arrhythmia during a heart attack. That was fun! (I don’t think getting ‘the paddles’ would be fun at all - wrong kind of paddlin’.)
So what were her symptoms? As a woman, I am particularly worried, since they say the symptoms of a heart attack in a woman do not follow the classic symptoms we’ve all learned about for men, and that is why so many more women die from heart attacks. I’ve had one scare, which turned out to be nothing. They say when in doubt, get to a hospital, but really, if I went every time I had an odd sensation or pain that scared me, I would get a nasty letter from the insurance company right quick. In fact, just last night I had a pain in my chest that scared me and left me wondering how long should I wait and endure before I get concerned enough to get up out of bed? It went away in a few minutes, and I’m fine, but truly…how’s a girl to know?