Coronary Artery Disease and
Heart Surgery at 44 Years Old

Quintuple Coronary Artery Bypass Graft
(CABG)

Heart Disease is a leading killer of men and women in the United States and around the world, and the most powerful tool we have to stop it is each and every individual who's at risk.  It comes down to personal commitment to health for those at risk and even identifying that you are at risk.  In our community alone we've known multiple men in their mid 40s who've had life ending heart attacks....and some of them seemingly perfectly healthy.

15 years of bad habits culminated in my having open heart surgery just before my 45th birthday....I spent a week in the hospital trying to figure out what was behind a bout of pericarditis that sent me to the ER where my troponin level was identified as abnormal (indicator of heart distress or heart attack).  Eventually, I had (and failed) a stress test.  Finally, they did an angiogram, and my new (and soon to be continuous) Cardiologist says...."wow.....I need to call time out....I can't stent this.....you not only have coronary artery disease but it's so advanced you need heart surgery....like yesterday".  I had 5 blockages...2 at 80%....2 at 90%...and 1 at 100%.

I was fortunate to have more collateralization (growth of extra blood vessels around the heart) than my surgeon and Cardiologist had ever seen.  That growth compensated for my increasingly occluded arteries and kept me from having a heart attack, but it couldn't keep me from needing bypass surgery.  I was a walking time bomb.

Fortunately I had changed some of my habits in the few years preceding this event, and my doctors think that may have saved me by influencing the collateral development....but the damage was already done.  It was time to not worry about my career and start worrying about fixing my heart and my health.

If you're about to have surgery, know that you can get through it and keep reading for ideas on turning your health around.

If you're at risk for needing bypass or stents, keep reading and consider avoiding getting your chest cracked.

Avoiding heart attacks and heart surgery is possible.....Just don't to what I did

I had been an athlete and took reasonably good care of myself for the first 20+ years, but then.....

• I went from extreme athlete to no exercise and gained 50 pounds
• I developed a horrible diet.....steak 4-5 times a week....limited fruits and vegetables....way too many carbs (and only the bad carbs)....ZERO balance
• I smoked....a lot
• I had steadily increasing blood pressure (that a few doctors didn't even try to address aggressively)....and I'm talking average 180/120 which can cause organ failure
• I had steadily increasing cholesterol
• and by the way....I was already at risk for heart disease given a family history of early death from heart attack and stroke

It didn't matter that I've been in the healthcare industry my entire career or that I even have a masters degree....I didn't pay attention to my health and it could have meant death at 44.....I was lucky to have found it.....lucky to have had a great surgeon and have a great Cardiologist.....and blessed to have friends and family to encourage me to do the right thing.

Surgery was painless....Recovery was not (but is was faster than I'd imagined)

I had surgery the beginning of November 2014.  The hospital time was an experience....ICU for two days....splitting my chest open with coughing and then getting three different antibiotics for fear of infection.....nurses driving you to walk immediately even with the IVs and poles......blown blood vessels from IVs in every place they could put one......patients who wouldn't sleep in the middle of the night talking to nurses in the hallway and waking other patients, but the food was good.

Immediate recovery was not easy but doable.....difficulty sleeping after surgery and needing to sleep sitting up.....pain management....the physical push to recover.....the mental and emotional recovery....too much time to watch TV and find there are dozens of shows on multiple channels about Alaska.....but I was able to enjoy Thanksgiving a couple weeks later. 

By the end of January, I'd finished cardiac rehab (btw average age was 80 so I got a lot of stares....almost as many stares as I get on the beach when people see my nine inch scar covered with white with zinc oxide.....or the little kid who asks "did you cut yourself with a chainsaw?"). 

By February, I was traveling for work.

What ever you do, find one of the best Cardiologists in your area (even if you need to switch after surgery)......you will need to develop a good and lasting relationship.  And, find the best surgeon in your area (or travel if it's an option)....technical competence is number one but bedside manner and humility are important traits.

Stronger and Healthier than ever

YOU must manage YOUR health......your family and friends can't do it for you.....YOU must manager YOUR OWN HEALTH.....other folks can provide support and encouragement but your health is yours to manage (or not).

While I'd stopped smoking and started exercising a couple years before my surgery, I didn't have enough structure around nutrition or exercise, and now I needed something that wouldn't overwork my healing sternum and heart.

Catherine had started using some programs from Beachbody® just before my surgery. So after I finished cardiac rehab, I used their programs to give me the structure I needed (I experimented with it vs jumping in completely and it took almost a year for me to completely commit...in hindsight I should have just committed right out of the gate, because the results I've now achieved could have come earlier). 

I started with one program (21 Day Fix) that brilliantly combines nutrition AND exercise.  Since then, I've also used the 21 Day Fix Extreme and 22 Minute Hard Corps programs, and now I'm supplementing with weight training in the gym.  Combined, Catherine and I have used eight of the Beachbody® programs.

When I left the hospital I was on five heart medications.  With the changes in my nutrition and exercise, I'm down to two medications that are now at the lowest dosage, and my Cardiologist and I are working to eliminate my need for blood pressure medication. 

I have a few MAJOR CAVEATS relative to living with coronary artery disease........

1. get checked out to determine if you have any of the numerous heart conditions that can be life threatening and if you have something or are at risk then go to a Cardiologist
    
2. you need to work closely with your Cardiologist.....listen.....follow instructions....but most importantly engage....track your own status and share that information with your doctor....look at your doctor as a partner in fine tuning your treatment and health....and know that without good data and information from you they are flying partially blind....would you get on a plane knowing the pilot was blind?  ....don't make your doctor fly blind
    
3. if you have high blood pressure, you need to monitor it closely (get a BP cuff and monitoring application for your smart phone/device) and be very diligent about tracking when you take your medication, what you eat, how much you sleep, when and how much you exercise, what stressors happen on a daily basis, and track the combined impact on your blood pressure....that effort will give you the data and information that your doctor can use to fine tune your treatment