My goal at this point is to dedicate 20 minutes a day to my heart by walking. I have to take my cane because sometimes I have balance issues and it is better safe than sorry. I got up this am walked my kindergarten granddaughter to school, round trip 9/10th of a mile, and 20-25 minutes. The cold air makes it painful with the sternal issues so I add a folded towel under my jacket and then wear another coat. I also wear a scarf so I don't breathe the cold air in and that minimizes issues.
I have 2 bottles of Daily Greens Juice ready to drink throughout the day, my plans are to eat a couple salads too. Then I will eat a regular dinner. ! I will log in through out the day with progress.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
In the beginning...
Wow, life has interesting events and it never seems to stop - yeah!
I am a 56 year old grandma who from birth had difficult physical occasions. I tended to be over weight, had trouble running, and did not grow up in a health conscious family.
We ate lots of pasta, processed foods, and my mom who died from severe cardio vascular disease and dementia March 2013 lover ice cream, cheese, pickles, and crackers did her best but didn't really know the score. We always thought this came from genetics, we were stuck with it. Do you realize how much control you have if you know about the genetics and eat to live instead of living - or dying - to eat???
Myself? Shamefully I know the score. I followed "health" fads and studies. I knew about smoking but smoked 3 packs a day anyway - most of the time chain smoking. We all know that smoking is bad but let me tell you it is more damaging than I ever really grasped. I quit smoking for 10 years - then I restarted - hello - dumb of the year award or what?
I knew when I had gestational diabetes with my 2nd viable pregnancy that between that and the family heredity factors I was very high risk for diabetes within 8-10 years following the pregnancy. I ate sugary and starchy foods anyway and the diabetes blossomed to the point it could (or would) not be controlled by diet. Now I am on both oral medication and insulin dependent (long acting and quick acting injections).
I do not know if I would say you are what you eat but I certainly would say that you are a product of what you eat. The laws of sowing and reaping ... you eat it, even once, you will reap the consequences of that choice in some way at some time. Unhealthy eating is a deadly way to go and if you compound it with bad genetic predispositions, little to no exercise, diabetes, smoking, heart disease, it gets worse not better. Point blank we are a product of our choices. The power of life and death surely are in the tongue and if you put it in your mouth, enjoy the taste, and it's bad for you unlike the imaginary boogie man under the bed ... it's going to get you!
Between 1982 and today I got lots of warnings, 2nd chances to my 2nd chances, and wow last year it came to a head. I have had two TIAs (mini strokes), diabetic neuropathy, 2 inferior infarctions, 1 anterior infarctions, 3 cardiac arrests, and in September 2012 I had a major stroke. That stroke at 2am woke me with a pin prick like pain. I saw a cloud like film float across the left eye's line of vision that disappeared when I turned the light on. I left the light on, went back to bed, and in the morning it seemed ok. When I went to bed the next night it reappeared when the lights went off. The next morning I told my daughter and that day after she got off work I went to the emergency room.
At the emergency room several doctors checked it out. They thought it was diabetic retinopathy and had me return 2 days later to the eye clinic. I was seen by the chair of the department and several other doctors throughout this. I was seen every other day make a long story short - it was a major stroke that cause the main optic artery and vein to blow. One of the doctors who was in a fellowship told my daughter that major strokes are like someone pulls the tree and hits you with the trunk, mine was more like they hit me with the entire tree in the eye.
They took digital pictures of both eyes. The right eye looked normal. When you look at the left eye pictures you can fully understand what she was saying - it looked like a mine went off in my eye. My vision had diminished over just 7 days to total black out blindness. From the point they realized it was a stroke I didn't waste on minute on boo-whoos. It wasn't my brain, I was good with the eye thing.
From June 2012 I knew and my PA knew something was getting ready to blow. Referrals take their time so she put me on Plavix more bp meds and I walked on eggs shells. After the eye blew the referral came, LOL. It's ok though I was being seen even before then with the stroke and I got more care than I ever expected.
I was seen every 2-3 days in the eye clinic. Then the retina specialist noticed something in my eye. He thought it was shingles or herpes. I told him no I hadn't had either of those things. He asked if they could do a culture, of course I consented. When the culture came back he said I have good news and bad news. I queried as to what both ends were, he said I didn't have shingles or herpes - yeah me - however, what they found was chicken pox. Yes the actual chicken pox virus had activated probably after the stroke. Did you know that if you have chicken pox as a child it lays dormant in your NERVES and can be triggered by anything and boom there it is. If you have had the immunization this isn't going to be an issue - keep up on immunizations as an adult because what I have is not worth not getting an immunization!!! I wish they had them for chicken pox when I was a kid.
Well it didn't stop there! I had intermittent trouble with my left temporal artery bulging and they noticed this. They determined they should do a temporal biopsy and one of the doctors who handled the biopsy was one of the ones on the team that came up with the chicken pox immunization. It came back with chicken pox in it. They hospitalized me, started a picc line so I could have an anti-virual in iv for 3 weeks. They watched me 3 days and then let me go home.
About midway through the 3 weeks I ended back in the hospital with acute renal failure they believe because of crystals that build up with Acylovir. This hospital stay led the internal med and infectious disease docs to determine I had more issues. Jaws pains on walking led them to the heart. They remade it with more water in each IV solution and then I had no problems with that. At one point I got a blood clot in the line and a nurse had to come fix it.
The picc line came out. I was put on Acylovir for the rest of my life so it doesn't come back in the left eye and travel to the right eye.
Next on the list was the heart. A stress test and angiogram showed 80-90% blockage in 4 of the main arteries in the heart. They told me this during the angiogram and I said "ok, I am out of here." I expected stints - but wow a quadruple bypass at 55 years old. It scared me. By the time my son came to get me and we went to the car I was good with it, saw my cardiologist, and she set me up with the surgeon.
Bypass surgery is tough. I muddled through, lost the feeling in my left leg, still is an issue, had a 16 week infection in the left leg. I had to use a cane to walk for about 5 months, now I can walk without but have to be very careful because I don't have good balance with the neuropathy and the nerve damage in the left leg where they took the vein to do the arterial graphs. Its the pits but in the end, again, it's all good, I am here and have like a 10Xs over 2nd chance and want to make the best of it!My cardiologist told me that she has a partner in the clinic that tells everyone to be vegan. She doesn't. She told me that is not what she tells people, however, given my early onset and family genetic history ... If I don't want to be dead I need to be vegan. June 2012 I started as a vegetarian, vegan is ok to do. The other thing she told me is breads and pastas are not good, they turn to sugar and stored fat. They just enable the diabetes.
Now with concerns about redoing the angio because of possibly failed graphs or other issues and a left brachial (ankle) artery pulse diminishing I am needing and wanting to push it to the max!
Bad eating, lack of consistent exercise, and smoking were my choices. They cost me a lot but definitely not all that they could have. It has taken me 13 months to get where I can even start to work towards a higher standard of physical fitness. It's been more than 3 years since I have smoked ... it's not a historical pattern that I intend to even consider repeating. The vegan diet thing hasn't been perfect but it's been good. The hardest thing isn't meat and dairy it's bread - lol. I make a killer Amish bread and add grains, but when my cardiologist commented on bread and pasta I knew that she was 100% right on. It's probably why after losing to 170 pounds post surgery I have come back up over the past few months so that is out the door.
If you have health issues, weight problems, etc.... I want you to join me in getting back on track, or on track for the first time in your life. I shared my story because I want you to be a part of my recovery and my life change. I don't expect it to be easy but I know it will be easier with you being part of my team. Together we can support each other as we all Learn It, Live It, Love It!
I'm counting on you as I work toward going from 186 pounds (5' 1 1/2") to 170 pounds by March 1st, 2014. My long term goal is 130-140 pounds, diabetes controlled without medications, leg press 100 pounds, walk a 5K, swim 500 yards, get my NON-Attorney Bankruptcy Petition Preparer Business back on track - I have not been able to work for about a year and a half - I want my life back without these ills hanging over my head threatening to take it all away!
There's nothing you can't do if you believe in you - like I do! Let's do it!
I am a 56 year old grandma who from birth had difficult physical occasions. I tended to be over weight, had trouble running, and did not grow up in a health conscious family.
We ate lots of pasta, processed foods, and my mom who died from severe cardio vascular disease and dementia March 2013 lover ice cream, cheese, pickles, and crackers did her best but didn't really know the score. We always thought this came from genetics, we were stuck with it. Do you realize how much control you have if you know about the genetics and eat to live instead of living - or dying - to eat???
Myself? Shamefully I know the score. I followed "health" fads and studies. I knew about smoking but smoked 3 packs a day anyway - most of the time chain smoking. We all know that smoking is bad but let me tell you it is more damaging than I ever really grasped. I quit smoking for 10 years - then I restarted - hello - dumb of the year award or what?
I knew when I had gestational diabetes with my 2nd viable pregnancy that between that and the family heredity factors I was very high risk for diabetes within 8-10 years following the pregnancy. I ate sugary and starchy foods anyway and the diabetes blossomed to the point it could (or would) not be controlled by diet. Now I am on both oral medication and insulin dependent (long acting and quick acting injections).
I do not know if I would say you are what you eat but I certainly would say that you are a product of what you eat. The laws of sowing and reaping ... you eat it, even once, you will reap the consequences of that choice in some way at some time. Unhealthy eating is a deadly way to go and if you compound it with bad genetic predispositions, little to no exercise, diabetes, smoking, heart disease, it gets worse not better. Point blank we are a product of our choices. The power of life and death surely are in the tongue and if you put it in your mouth, enjoy the taste, and it's bad for you unlike the imaginary boogie man under the bed ... it's going to get you!
Between 1982 and today I got lots of warnings, 2nd chances to my 2nd chances, and wow last year it came to a head. I have had two TIAs (mini strokes), diabetic neuropathy, 2 inferior infarctions, 1 anterior infarctions, 3 cardiac arrests, and in September 2012 I had a major stroke. That stroke at 2am woke me with a pin prick like pain. I saw a cloud like film float across the left eye's line of vision that disappeared when I turned the light on. I left the light on, went back to bed, and in the morning it seemed ok. When I went to bed the next night it reappeared when the lights went off. The next morning I told my daughter and that day after she got off work I went to the emergency room.
At the emergency room several doctors checked it out. They thought it was diabetic retinopathy and had me return 2 days later to the eye clinic. I was seen by the chair of the department and several other doctors throughout this. I was seen every other day make a long story short - it was a major stroke that cause the main optic artery and vein to blow. One of the doctors who was in a fellowship told my daughter that major strokes are like someone pulls the tree and hits you with the trunk, mine was more like they hit me with the entire tree in the eye.
They took digital pictures of both eyes. The right eye looked normal. When you look at the left eye pictures you can fully understand what she was saying - it looked like a mine went off in my eye. My vision had diminished over just 7 days to total black out blindness. From the point they realized it was a stroke I didn't waste on minute on boo-whoos. It wasn't my brain, I was good with the eye thing.
From June 2012 I knew and my PA knew something was getting ready to blow. Referrals take their time so she put me on Plavix more bp meds and I walked on eggs shells. After the eye blew the referral came, LOL. It's ok though I was being seen even before then with the stroke and I got more care than I ever expected.
I was seen every 2-3 days in the eye clinic. Then the retina specialist noticed something in my eye. He thought it was shingles or herpes. I told him no I hadn't had either of those things. He asked if they could do a culture, of course I consented. When the culture came back he said I have good news and bad news. I queried as to what both ends were, he said I didn't have shingles or herpes - yeah me - however, what they found was chicken pox. Yes the actual chicken pox virus had activated probably after the stroke. Did you know that if you have chicken pox as a child it lays dormant in your NERVES and can be triggered by anything and boom there it is. If you have had the immunization this isn't going to be an issue - keep up on immunizations as an adult because what I have is not worth not getting an immunization!!! I wish they had them for chicken pox when I was a kid.
Well it didn't stop there! I had intermittent trouble with my left temporal artery bulging and they noticed this. They determined they should do a temporal biopsy and one of the doctors who handled the biopsy was one of the ones on the team that came up with the chicken pox immunization. It came back with chicken pox in it. They hospitalized me, started a picc line so I could have an anti-virual in iv for 3 weeks. They watched me 3 days and then let me go home.
About midway through the 3 weeks I ended back in the hospital with acute renal failure they believe because of crystals that build up with Acylovir. This hospital stay led the internal med and infectious disease docs to determine I had more issues. Jaws pains on walking led them to the heart. They remade it with more water in each IV solution and then I had no problems with that. At one point I got a blood clot in the line and a nurse had to come fix it.
The picc line came out. I was put on Acylovir for the rest of my life so it doesn't come back in the left eye and travel to the right eye.
Next on the list was the heart. A stress test and angiogram showed 80-90% blockage in 4 of the main arteries in the heart. They told me this during the angiogram and I said "ok, I am out of here." I expected stints - but wow a quadruple bypass at 55 years old. It scared me. By the time my son came to get me and we went to the car I was good with it, saw my cardiologist, and she set me up with the surgeon.
Bypass surgery is tough. I muddled through, lost the feeling in my left leg, still is an issue, had a 16 week infection in the left leg. I had to use a cane to walk for about 5 months, now I can walk without but have to be very careful because I don't have good balance with the neuropathy and the nerve damage in the left leg where they took the vein to do the arterial graphs. Its the pits but in the end, again, it's all good, I am here and have like a 10Xs over 2nd chance and want to make the best of it!My cardiologist told me that she has a partner in the clinic that tells everyone to be vegan. She doesn't. She told me that is not what she tells people, however, given my early onset and family genetic history ... If I don't want to be dead I need to be vegan. June 2012 I started as a vegetarian, vegan is ok to do. The other thing she told me is breads and pastas are not good, they turn to sugar and stored fat. They just enable the diabetes.
Now with concerns about redoing the angio because of possibly failed graphs or other issues and a left brachial (ankle) artery pulse diminishing I am needing and wanting to push it to the max!
Bad eating, lack of consistent exercise, and smoking were my choices. They cost me a lot but definitely not all that they could have. It has taken me 13 months to get where I can even start to work towards a higher standard of physical fitness. It's been more than 3 years since I have smoked ... it's not a historical pattern that I intend to even consider repeating. The vegan diet thing hasn't been perfect but it's been good. The hardest thing isn't meat and dairy it's bread - lol. I make a killer Amish bread and add grains, but when my cardiologist commented on bread and pasta I knew that she was 100% right on. It's probably why after losing to 170 pounds post surgery I have come back up over the past few months so that is out the door.
If you have health issues, weight problems, etc.... I want you to join me in getting back on track, or on track for the first time in your life. I shared my story because I want you to be a part of my recovery and my life change. I don't expect it to be easy but I know it will be easier with you being part of my team. Together we can support each other as we all Learn It, Live It, Love It!
I'm counting on you as I work toward going from 186 pounds (5' 1 1/2") to 170 pounds by March 1st, 2014. My long term goal is 130-140 pounds, diabetes controlled without medications, leg press 100 pounds, walk a 5K, swim 500 yards, get my NON-Attorney Bankruptcy Petition Preparer Business back on track - I have not been able to work for about a year and a half - I want my life back without these ills hanging over my head threatening to take it all away!
There's nothing you can't do if you believe in you - like I do! Let's do it!
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