by Doctor Science
Wednesday of the week before last, Mister Doctor Science started to have chest pains while he was at fencing. He was wondering if it was just acid reflux (again), but one of the other fencers insisted on driving him to the ER.
That friend is currently my favorite person in the whole world, because Mr Dr was in fact having a heart attack. His right coronary artery was completely blocked, so they did an angioplasty and put in a stent. (Actually, it was blocked in two places -- but in one of those places a natural bypass formed to take care of it.)
However, they also found a serious blockage in the left coronary artery, the one known as the Widow Maker. Yikes! So after going home from the hospital over the weekend, last Wednesday he went back in to a different hospital to have a minimally invasive, robotic bypass operation. This is very cool, super-advanced stuff: the sternum isn't split, they don't have to take the heart off-line, the incisions are small, and they use an artery from the chest wall to do the bypass, so there's no extra incision on the leg. He should be substantially recovered from the surgery in only 2-3 weeks.
Before this surgery, Mr Dr was still mostly in the "Denial" stage, but I'd moved on pretty quickly to "Anger". As you probably all know, the first thing they start talking to us about is a "Heart Healthy Diet" -- but we've been about 80% there for *decades*, without any particular medical orders. Mr Dr is very athletic (for a 60-year-old) and has, to a large degree, chosen his lifestyle with the goal of not having his father's medical history -- father died at 67 of inoperable heart disease (they'd already bypassed everything that could be bypassed), first heart attack in early 50's, severe Type II diabetes for several decades. So, for instance, when we first started living together (c. 1985) Mr Dr explained that he doesn't eat dessert regularly, drink soda, or keep cookies around -- because he figured he was at genetic risk for diabetes. And I, knowing I had a family history of high blood pressure in post-menopausal women (which happened to me, right on schedule) had already gone to a "lower sodium" diet. We really thought that, and exercise, would also be the key to dodging heart disease. And for many years his cholesterol levels were at "Eskimo" levels -- they've only recently edged into the "normal" range -- and he's always had very good blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides, all the mod cons. He also had an EKG and stress test and all that sort of thing about a year and a half ago, before his knee replacements.
But now this. I thought I had another 10 years or more before I'd have to start worrying about this! I want to *keep him alive*, because I sure plan on having a long run. The fact that both my parents are alive and in possession of all their marbles and other faculties at the age of 90 has possibly given me unrealistic expectations ... but I really want him to live longer. Like, a *lot* longer, decades longer.
Part of me feels as though I was sold a bill of goods about "avoiding heart disease", that the whole "Heart Healthy Diet" thing is no more than a cargo cult. Genetics holds the trump cards -- at least for Mr Dr Science's family. His sister says that she recently did a "23 and Me" genetic analysis, and what do you know, one of the "hits" was for an allele linked to heart disease.
Nonetheless, I'm looking up all this stuff about the "Heart Healthy f*cking lifestyle" -- almost all of which we've been doing! for years! -- and wondering which parts are really *important*. Or is the whole thing a scam, to make us feel guilty and/or in control?
Which things are most important to cut back, for people who already make almost all food at home: sodium, animal protein, animal fats, cheese, total calories? We do not consume significant amounts of: trans fats, refined sugars, desserts, "junk food", fast food.
In some ways the worst part is knowing I've passed into a different life stage, one where I really have to face how *frail* males are. Where I think of him as mortal.
I visited him on Wednesday after he was out of the surgery -- which went extremely well, "textbook" they said. As I was leaving the hospital I saw a woman we lived next to at our old house: my kids sometimes babysat her kids. She was there visiting *her* husband, age 64, who needs open-heart bypass surgery. We commiserated with each other, sharing our fears. I don't know how aware men partnered with women are of how much their frailty preys on our minds.
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