Hello all — me again.
First of all, thank you. The response to my last post (<-here) was unexpected, overwhelming, and honestly pretty amazing. Emails, messages, phone calls — even one friend who was actively going through a cardiac issue and, thanks to a quick call, got in to see a cardiologist immediately. That alone made sharing worth it. And you all had questions! So I thought I'd do a part 2.
A quick clarification before I continue: my heart attack happened in 2019, not last week. I had the date in the caption on a photo, but understandably many people missed it. I’ve updated the original post because I received a lot of “ARE YOU BACK IN THE HOSPITAL?!” messages. I am not. Not planning on it. No thank you. But you can never go back to before a heart attack. You live with the memory of it every day, knowing your body’s singular central engine (of which you only get one and without which you are gone) had malfunctioned.
And just to be clear — I’m not making a commentary on the U.S. healthcare system. Plenty of people are doing that already. My only goal was (and is) to tell the story of what happened to me, why it happened, and maybe what I could have done differently. Humor and sarcasm are just how I communicate, and frankly, the situation provided its own dark comedy. But the doctors and nurses who treated me — and my very worried, very determined wife — saved my life. Period.
Now, a lot of you asked the same questions: How are you now? How did you get there? What happened afterward? But you exercised?!
Once home, the next steps were the usual: rest, recovery, mild (not even close) panic about the rest of my life, etc. and a LOT of doctors’ appointments. They give you a post heart attack protocol of meds (OMG every day for the rest of my life?) So, I went from I can-(not)-diet-and-exercise-this-away guy to hand-full-of-pills guy (and Peloton-every-damn-day guy). My wife took this pic of my new prescriptions the day after my stent:
I told you so ...
Ok so post hospital / heart attack, I called my regular doctor to get in immediately, only to have my appointment cancelled when I arrived. I am completely freaked out, less than three days removed from a heart attack (I am now referring to it as the Indigestion Incident (TM) which makes me both feel better and confirms I am still in denial and therefore an idiot), and trying to see my doctor to figure out how to get a fresh start and find a heart doctor, only to be told thanks but no thanks please try again later. As you can imagine I am now even more shellshocked so I decide to pull out the big guns. I look at the nurse and say, “Can you please tell the doctor I had a heart attack earlier this week and it would be great if I could see him today.” Apparently, “I had a heart attack three days ago” while you stand in front of them, is the magic phrase that opens all doors. (Please do not try this unless it is true). I was immediately sent back to wait in a patient room.
So, my doctor, let’s call him Dr. B., comes in soon after. The door slowly opens and I have never before seen a better “Oh my god, I don’t want to say ‘I told you so,’ but I told you so, so, many times” look without him uttering a word, (except of course, sometimes from my wife obvs) in my life. Dr. B had been telling me for a while to go back on statins but I was sure I could lower my cholesterol with diet and working out. Which, in theory, is possible… unless: 1) You have familial high cholesterol which I do and 2) Your diet isn’t actually good as you think it is (guilty). And finally 3) Exercise? As often as I could, but not as often as I should. Usually, the diet and exercise was goal based… i.e. getting ready to go on a big alpine climbing trip.
- Me. And Dr. B.
So yes, his silent “I told you so” face as he opened his door and looked out at me in the waiting room after the nurse delivered the news was … deserved. He quickly referred me to an in-network and in-health system cardiologist, Dr. E.
The following week I head off to see Dr. E. He’s great. A relatively young guy, but clearly knows his stuff. I walk him through my history, why in god’s name I decided to stop taking my meds years ago, my diet and exercise habits, by the end of which I am clear that I truly am an idiot.
He assigns me to a workout group at the hospital near me for 6 weeks where they can monitor my health while I exercise. Which is great because I knew I needed to get back on a regular routine but the idea of doing anything strenuous seemed a wee bit counter intuitive at that point, as you can imagine.
He said, “vegan.” I said, “Unlikely.”
He also wants to talk about diet. (He said, “vegan.” I said, “Unlikely.” We compromised on fish and chicken.)
Then came a moment I’ll never forget. While reviewing my bloodwork he told me my blood viscosity was nearly perfect. I tell Dr. E about the knee surgery and taking aspirin after and, in one of the most intense 10 seconds of my like, he looks at me and says “if you weren’t taking those aspirin, you wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation right now”. To translate for those who might not get it (as I was a bit stunned to say the least) I’d be dead.
Note to self: send that knee doc a Christmas ham. By the way it was the last one he ever did in his life. I only remembered that recently. Thank God…again.
Dr. E also asked about work. For all of us in the agency/services/consulting/growth world you know the answer. Of course it’s stressful but not like that, it’s just part of the job and we deal with it. So, that’s pretty much what I tell him. “I have been in the agency and consulting world for 20+ years and while it is stressful, I’ve figured out ways to cope with it. In fact,” I proudly tell him, “many of my clients have said I never seemed stressed at all.” So, in perfect form, he comes back with “So what you’re telling me is that you have been chronically stressed for over 20 years”. Hmmm. That’s a slightly different way of saying what I said, but interesting…. “and at the same time you have not been taking meds or eating well”.
Whelp it just keeps getting better. I look over at my wife who is now looking at me with that “please god just listen to the smart man in the white coat who knows so much more about this than you do” look. Ummm I guess one COULD put it that way sure. Ok yes.
So, we wrap up my first official cardiologist, post heart attack visit with a summary. New diet, new exercise regimen, new meds and a clarity from all in the room that I needed a massive lifestyle change.
And work?
No job is THAT important, right? I mean as in worth (almost) dying for?
But my job is important – in fact it’s very important to me and to my clients and co-workers. But it’s not THE most important thing in the world. It shouldn’t be at least. And yes, there is and always will be stress – in work and in life. We all just need to find a way to deal with it. For some it’s a mind shift. For others it's exercise. Meditation, Yoga, whatever. Hopefully a bit of everything. We just need to keep looking for what works.
And just so I am not coming across in a “stress is the end all be all downer of things” and we all need to quit our jobs and become Starbucks baristas, stress is a part of our world. And frankly, a guy walking into a coffee shop and asking me for a “grande, half-caf, extra-hot, 3-pump sugar-free vanilla, oat-milk latte, steam the oat milk, with one scoop of vanilla bean powder, light foam,” would bring on another ‘Indigestion Incident (TM)’ just as fast.
But for many of us, health, and heart health in particular, is not just a stress thing, we have to watch out for our bodies. And for some of us, that means going to the doctor and recognizing that we may have to be on meds. Sometimes it’s just a short-term fix to get things under control. Sometimes it’s a long-term thing for genetics or other reasons. But trust me – it’s worth it.
How did I miss this? Were there any signs?
But I couldn’t let go of how did I miss this? So, I looked back.
A few years before the heart attack, I was exhausted to the point it didn’t feel normal. Bloodwork back then showed my testosterone was lower than ideal. Not low enough for medical intervention — and frankly, testosterone shots seemed like a fast track to turning into an aggressive meathead — so I soldiered on, thinking, I’ll get to it eventually if I have to.
Turns out low testosterone is also a heart risk factor. Who knew?
There were actually a lot of things that were a bit low but not out of ‘medical range’.
And post event, I was still tired. My muscles ached. My immune system felt like it had taken a sabbatical. My blood pressure meds were helping but came with side effects. And mentally? An event like mine does a real number on you. Every ache makes your mind race. Should I exercise harder or will exercising harder kill me? Can I even trust my own body anymore? There’s a reason the post stent care makes you go to a gym work out in a hospital for several weeks, so you can work out under supervision. But I think that’s for our own confidence too. It certainly was for mine when I showed up for a 6 am workout at a hospital gym for six weeks as the youngest person there.
And something else I learned after the heart attack and back on the meds: statins share a pathway with your body’s production of CoQ10, which your heart and muscles use for energy. As we age, CoQ10 levels drop anyway. Statins lower them further. When I finally understood this, I started supplementing with CoQ10 — and I did feel a noticeable difference.
because we don't go looking until something breaks
That was the start of a much longer journey: trying to understand what my heart (and the rest of me) actually needed, so I wouldn’t end up back where I was in 2019. Low testosterone? Zinc. Muscle recovery? Magnesium. Immune system? Ha! SO MUCH we can do. I’m still learning, but I’m sharing this because a lot of men don’t go looking until something breaks. I wish I had looked sooner. And also, I used to think taking your daily vitamins was a gimmicky scam. It often is. The average multi vitamin does nothing. The amounts and quality are negligible.
Thanks again to everyone who reached out sharing their concern, and their own experiences — your messages meant more than you know. If my experience encourages even one person to get their levels checked, listen to their doctor, or pay closer attention, then sharing it is worth it. As mentioned, already one colleague called me after my post, and has now pressed his doctor for more answers yesterday and immediately got a call back to go in today based on their conversation. We have to be our own advocates.
For my sake, I’ve also been working on aligning my life and my work. My wife always says your level of stress directly correlates with how much you are responsible for vs what you can actually control. The more senior our position, the more that line seems to stretch longer and longer and longer, thinner, and thinner, and thinner. Until …
Look, I’m still who I was. I’ll always take on the responsibility. I’ll always struggle with the phrase “It’s just a job.” So, for now, the best I can do is optimize my body for it. But ultimately, I’m figuring out how to work in the direction of keeping that stress line short. And keeping it strong. I’ll share what I’m working on in that direction next week, I think.
P.S. Remember that picture of all the prescriptions from the day after my stent? Here’s what I take now, now that I understand what my body actually needs - it's a LOT:
If anyone has any questions, comments, or want to talk, please feel free to reach out through our Contact page — and thanks to you that did!!! You can also explore onlyone™ Heart, learn more about our ingredients, review the product’s benefits, or read more stories on our blog.
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