This is all about Me and my family's quest for healthy living! I am a 30 something old gal, happily married living in South Carolina. We have a cat and pup, our old lab mix Drexel passed away Oct. 2010. I was born and raised in New Jersey, and I came to SC for college in 1996 and never left!
Let me give some background here about my beloved husband of how this all came about. Richard has been a police officer in the town we live in for the past 10 years. He has worked strictly third shift; until January 11 when he was (finally) switched to first shift Lieutenant. This change for us was going to be EPIC, a change in our daily lives, lead the life of “normal” couples who sleep in the same bed every night, enjoy each other’s company in the evening and have weekends off together. Little did we know how epic this change was going to be. He still would have to work some nights, as he was the Lt. for two shifts and so he worked third shift January 20th, 2010. That evening he had some minor chest pains and heart palpations and didn’t think much about them, he went to bed about 8am. We passed in the morning as I was on my way out the door, I had no idea what he was feeling that and no idea what was the next few hours would bring. He woke up Thursday about 10am with pain, panic, and he says it felt like his heart was racing. He called me at work, I knew something was terribly wrong, at first I thought it was our dog (he was about 10), but all he could say was it was his heart and he was having pains. I left my office so fast, barely able to tell my coworkers what happened. I ran to my car (working on a college campus did not offer convenient parking) on my way up the 100 steps to my car, I called the police station to have someone get there now, he didn't want an ambulance, there was an officer there in 2 minutes, I ran a red light and was there in 6. After several other cops showing up, we determined he needed care now, so we went to Urgent Care in town, his BP was up to 168/110, the EKG was good, but it was very clear he had PVCs (premature Ventricle Contractions). They sent us to a local hospital that had a Cardiac Unit, after a long day of waiting and not knowing what was to come, he was admitted for overnight blood tests, a Stress Test and an ECHO in AM. The Stress Test showed Abnormality, his blood work was .3, .4, .6 (@ 1.50 of Triponin = heart attack so with levels going up it was not good) AND the ECHO showed swelling of heart which means his high BP for a while.
So after waiting all day Friday after all the tests, we were ready and waiting to go home, but alas, that didn't happen. Another doctor came to us and said he was going in for a Heart Catheter to diagnosis what's going on inside this ticker of his. Unfortunately, They found 95% blockage and 85% blockage in 2 spots, it was treated with a Stent that is medicated. They didn't tell me exactly where other than the bottom/back of his heart.
We were sent home with a laundry list of things to avoid, Rx meds and he was ordered to quit smoking, reduce caffeine, exercise more and eat healthy. I immediately went into action; not that we ate poorly but we had some changes to make and were we were definitely taking our health for granted. I swiftly stocked the house with an assortment of fruits and vegetables. Now I cook dinner around the vegetables and the salad not the meat. We have reduced red meat – now we eat only lean beef, included fish into our diet and again more vegi’s for dinner. I have been tenacious about what we are consuming and what is healthy for him and me. I am not looking at this as a diet; this is a change in our lifestyle, a change for the better for both of us. A change for the better; change for healthy hearts.
What does all this have to do with this blog you ask? Well I have decided to use this a place to post some new recipes I have tried, hopefully get some photos in there of them too. I would also like to share in our trials and tribulations of this journey for both of us. I am not going to get intimidate with details on weight and cholesterol but hopefully in a few months we’ll both have good news to share on all of our accomplishments. So please, share our journey with us! Cheers to a healthy heart for all!
PS...
I also want to add a GREAT big thank you to everyone who helped us through this challenging time in our lives. Your outstanding love and support meant so much to us and it truly touched us. We are both so grateful for the wonderful friends and family we have and can't thank you all enough how much it means to us.
