Turning 60 on December 2nd is important to me because I was told by my cardiac surgeon that I wouldn't make it to age 50 unless I reached a "normal weight." (Likewise making it to 50 was important.) I can't over emphasize the impact of having a cardiac surgeon say such a thing in the first conversation you have with him following open heart surgery ( Read more... )

I've modified my diet as much as possible to reduce inflammation, can't tolerate the level of Vit E suggested below but can tolerate 200 IU with food. I still have pain in the vicinity of my liver nearly every day, sometimes severe, and the area of my spleen sometimes has pain and is always tender. (When I went in to Urgent Care last summer with ( Read more... )

Note that any nuclear scan will see the damaged area of my heart where I had a heart attack following my 2001 bypass surgery ( Read more... )

I have to get right on finding a new doc because I was going to mention some serious abdominal pain I'm having now and then, for hours at a time, but the argument over weight loss surgery drove it from my mind (and we went overtime). Plus I wanted an eye check up referral because I'm at risk for glaucoma ( Read more... )

Tuesday I sat through another hard sell for weight loss surgery. I'm so done ( Read more... )

Andrew Enrico Caviglia's obituary"Services will be held on Tuesday July 1, 2014 at 1:00 pm at Benito & Azzaro Pacific Gardens Chapel, 1050 Cayuga St., Santa Cruz, CA. Visitation will be held at the chapel on Monday from 4:00pm to 6:00 pm. Interment will be in Holy Cross Cemetery, 2271 7th Ave., Santa Cruz, CA. Please visit www.pacificgardenschapel. ( Read more... )

Tuesday I had a nuclear scan of my heart both at rest and after exertion. The second portion of the test showed some blockage of my coronary arteries. I'm going to see the cardiologist Friday and ask if we can do an angiogram and maybe place another stent. The one in 2002 did really well so I'm hopeful.

I remember this stage. http://theferrett.livejournal.com/1860381.html Excerpt:

I go to the supermarket, and see all the foods I can no longer eat, and feel the tremendous swell of guilt at all the foods I should be eating but am not, and I remember that I am a patient ( Read more... )

Yesterday was the 12th anniversary (or surgiversary as we call it in Mended Hearts) of my quadruple bypass. Little did I know that eventually, heart disease would become the least of my worries. These days if it isn't causing me daily pain it's off my radar. I was having a lot of pain these last two weeks and we were too broke to celebrate but Dave ( Read more... )

New study--a robust long term study with twins even--has found an undeniable link between PTSD and increased rates of heart disease:

http://htl.li/2xShxU

Excerpt:

An unusual study released today underscores these fears. During 13 years of research, scientists followed twins who were Vietnam-era ( Read more... )