Doctor Visit One and a Half Year After Open Heart Surgery

Well, I have not had much to write about recently. Things are going pretty well for me.  As long as I pay attention to my work-out schedule, keep eating well and rest when I need to, I'm feeling pretty good.

The big medical check up is coming on May 10th. That will be just about a year and a half since my bypass surgery.

If I do an inventory of pluses and minuses I think there are lots more positives than negatives.

I've started to feel some renewed enthusiasm for hobbies I'd drifted away from. For example I've gone fishing almost every day after work these last couple weeks. The weather has been grand and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I built a fly rod and tied a dozen flies last month too.

On that front, things are rapidly returning to normal. Sure, I still have trouble sleeping and a bit of pain but that is manageable if slightly unpleasant.


On balance things are going pretty good one and a half years out from the heart surgery. Still I will be glad to get the visit to the heart specialist behind me.

Heart Healthy Eating is Tough to Do

As everyone knows who is trying to change their lifestyle to be more heart healthy, eating well is a tremendous challenge.

My amazement has never abated at how irresponsible those who are in the business of selling food to the public are. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that businesses are in business to make money and will use every trick in the book to do so even if in the long run we, the consumer, are the ones who will suffer.

It is not just those of us who eat the trans-fats, excessive amounts of salt, and nutritionally poor food that suffer the consequences. Our whole society bears the burden on the health care system, poorly fed kids struggling to get through a school day and the serious , debilitating, consequences from a lack of activity and poor nutrition striking at an ever younger age.

Oh well, you have heard my rant before but here is a little bit of good news. Kraft Foods announced recently that it is reducing the amount of salt in its products by an average of 10% over the next two years.

When you think about it, that is a lot of salt that won't be eaten. Kraft has over a thousand products that will contain less salt.

On the Kraft Foods website it says this strategy will eliminate more than ten million pounds of salt from North America's groceries.

Why is this a good thing? Eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure and contribute to heart disease among other things.

Kraft is the first to admit that this is good for business but heck, more than 750 million teaspoons of salt will not be eaten in North America in 2012. Lets call it a win for health aware consumers.

Are You Dumber After Open Heart Surgery ?

  Are you dumber after heart surgery than before you went under the knife? Some patients who have undergone heart surgeries that require the heart to be stopped and life sustained by a cardio-pulmonary bypass machine report experiencing varying degrees of cognitive decline after surgery.

The condition has been nicknamed "pump head".

Now don't get me wrong, you don't go in as Albert Einstein and come out as Bo Bo the Chimp. It is more subtle and in a way, more insidious.

You see no one mentions this as a possible side effect. So when you start to notice changes in your mental capabilities it is quite disturbing. There is a simmering, low level of anxiety as it starts to dawn on you that there is something wrong with your brain. You have difficulty concentrating or following the thread of a conversation. You can't remember some one's name or an important date. It is a terrible, depressing feeling to realize that you are just not as smart as you used to be.

 So there you sit in the first weeks following your surgery, battered in body and mind, a prime candidate for the crushing depression that often haunts the survivors of open heart surgery.

There is some good news. The impact on your mental capacity while real is relatively short term with noticeable improvements three months out, six out and so on.

Here is what is thought to happen. The combination of prolonged anesthesia and the heart lung machine induce a certain amount of mental confusion and memory loss that is temporary and will diminish over time.

The physical challenge to the body during the process of restoring the body to normal temperature from the cool state it is in while on the pump may deprive the brain of oxygen for a short time. So it is a double whammy. The body and brain are put through an amazing ordeal. It is one of the casual miracles we take for granted in modern society that we come back at all.

If you are presently recovering from open heart surgery and have these symptoms:

• difficulty concentrating
• noticeable changes in mental capabilities
• increased depression

Talk to your doctor. Knowledge is power and just knowing that with a little time things will get better is very reassuring.

You are What You Eat After Heart Surgery

Like the rest of you recovering from Heart Surgery, I have been careful about what I've been eating. It requires forming new habits and overcoming a lifetime's bad habits.

Well it is not easy as I'm sure you know. In the first place it is hard to get accurate information about what is good, what seems to be good but isn't, and what really is bad.



Here is a case in point. Recently a study was published  by researchers at Harvard University that found it’s eating processed meat not regular old fashioned red meat that increases the risk for developing or worsening heart disease.

Like you, I have been told to minimize fatty red meat in my diet as well as deli meats, canned meats and more recognizably processed meats like bacon or pepperoni.

This research concludes that eating unprocessed meat does not "significantly" increase the chance of developing Heart Disease. It was eating processed meat, meat that has been cured or preserved by smoking, salting or whatever, that was increasing the risk of developing not only Heart Disease but Diabetes too.

So here is the quote from the report that caught my attention:

“To lower risk of heart attacks and diabetes, people should avoid eating too much processed meats — for example, hot dogs, bacon, sausage or processed deli meats,” said lead researcher Renata Micha, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Based on our findings, eating up to one serving per week would be associated with relatively small risk.”

Presumably more than one serving a week would increase the risk significantly. I thought I was doing well by having a sandwich from the local deli at lunch instead of the restaurant's special of the day. I'm not so sure now.

Heart Disease No Longer Just for the Old

There has been a lot of heart health related news over the last little while, former Presidents having blocked arteries cleared, former Vice-Presidents having heart attacks and the sudden passing of an Olympian's Mother due to a Heart Attack.

Sad and sobering news. There have been a couple of major reports on the state of health of North Americans recently as well. We are facing a crisis.

Recent statistics tell us that one out of every five of us has high blood pressure severe enough to require medication. Another study reveals that people in their twenties and thirties are living with high cholesterol, too much weight and on and on.

The most provocative thought from all of this news is that we could find ourselves sitting beside our children in emergency rooms both being treated for the same heart related illnesses.

Heart disease is no longer reserved for the old.

I can't help but think that we have to address some of the issues with our food supply. It doesn't matter how many Olympic athletes are sponsored by a fast food restaurant chain, if the food has too much salt and any trans fats at all, it is really just a slow poison.

Sleep Problems After Heart Surgery

It is apparently very common after open heart surgery to have problems sleeping. What a curse it is too. Even now a little over a year down the road from my quadruple by pass I rarely sleep through a full night.


In the first weeks after coming home from the hospital sleeping was an ordeal. Just getting into bed involved some careful planning. As painful as it was to get into bed, getting back up was worse.

As time went by, it was easier getting up and down but sleep was still more of a doze interrupted by crazy, vivid dreams. As the house quieted in the night I would hear my own heart beat or feel it. Again, a very normal after affect but still a bit creepy.

When the breast bone healed it was easier to get into comfortable positions and sleep improved. I would still sometimes be uncomfortably aware of my own heart beat but not as often. I would still awaken every couple of hours. When I say awaken I mean wide awake. Glance at the clock to see if it is time to get up wide awake.

So it has gone, first awakening every hour or two, then after three hours and so on. For a month or more I would drift off and sleep well only to bolt into wakefulness at precisely 4:30 AM. Then I would I lay there thinking in circles, listening to my heart beating and reliving all of those moments of my life that seemingly only have the power to haunt in the dark watches of the night.

You know, it wouldn't be so bad if I remembered happy things, triumphs or great fishing trips while I lay there waiting to sleep again but it doesn't seem to work that way.

As I say, it is a common after effect of open heart surgery and should fade away with time. It is something that a doctor could likely help with but I have an aversion to the thought of taking more drugs. I reckon that now that I'm more fit and getting lots of exercise it should soon be getting a lot better.

There Is No Cure for Heart Disease

Well the news about President Clinton serves as a reminder that even though the immediate problem of blocked arteries can be repaired by a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, the fact of the matter is that heart disease is only repaired not cured.

A bypass lasts for a decade or so and by then new blockages will have usually formed in the veins used to create the graft.

President Clinton's latest problem was fixed in an interesting way. They didn't perform another bypass to replace the graft that had plugged. The surgeon decided to use angioplasty to clear the artery that had originally blocked requiring him to have the bypass graft in the first place. Once it was cleared the surgeon inserted two stents to keep it open.

Mr. Clinton had his quadruple bypass in 2004. That seems like a short time for one of the grafts to have plugged up again but if ten years is the average time I suspect it is a matter of luck and how strictly he followed his diet and workout routine.

The good news for those of us living with heart disease is that as long as the heart isn't damaged by a heart attack, chances are we will live long and productive lives. We may have to go through more grafts or stents but I guess that beats the alternative.

So, my fellow members of the Zipper Club remember:

• eat well
• take your medications to keep your Cholesterol under control
• exercise
• watch your blood pressure
• reduce stress as much as possible
• keep your doctor's appointments
• call 911 at the first sign of chest pain

With luck, our grafts will be the ones that never get clogged again.