Jeremy's Heart... and Mine (Part 2)

As most of you already know, Jeremy had emergency heart surgery two weeks ago. Here's the story of that day... So that brings everyone up to date. While we were in the hospital I was leafing through St. Louis Magazine. And the August issue just happened to be the Best Doctors 2010 edition. And sure enough here was our primary care physician, Dr. Maureen Stoffa; as well as both of his cardiologists, Dr. Hess and Dr. Lite. That provided a bit of comfort.

We decided before we even left the hospital that our lives were going to change from that day that hour that minute forward. This is a whole new lifestyle and we're going to do it together. It wasn't my decision, it was Jeremy's. I've been running for the last few months and had asked Jeremy to join me repeatedly - now I finally have the workout partner I wanted! As I said in the other blog, we stopped at Border's and bought heart healthy cookbooks on the way home from the hospital - we weren't wasting a single minute.

That first day I was scared to death to give him anything to eat. I didn't know if we had anything in the house that I wanted him to have! I love to cook, but we've never watched sodium or cholesterol. We've watched fat content now and again - but not in many, many years. We got home and I began pouring through all the nutritional information they sent us home with and my new cookbooks. Jeremy's cardiologist wants him to keep his sodium intake below 2,000 milligrams a day, cholesterol below 200 milligrams a day, and fat at about fifty grams a day - but transfats and saturated fat at an aboslute minimum, and plenty of fiber. I dug around in the pantry and found foil packets of flavored tuna. So Jeremy's first meal at home was a foil packet of StarKist Tomato Pesto Tuna Creation! At least I knew it'd be okay for him to have while I found a few recipes, made a shopping list and hit the grocery store.

That first night I made low fat spaghetti with whole wheat pasta and ground antelope from his Wyoming hunt last winter. AFTER dinner we looked up the nutritional information for antelope. Uh... we probably should have done that before dinner. We just assumed (as we'd discussed with the nutritionist that morning before we left the hospital) that wild game is more or less really good for you. Turns out antelope is the exception to the rule when it comes to cholesterol content. So that serving of spaghetti with ground antelope had all 200 milligrams of his daily cholesterol intake for the day. Great job, Heather, big FAIL on day one.

The books I bought have been wonderful - especially the The New American Heart Association Cookbook, 7th Edition and The Healthy Heart Cookbook: Over 700 Recipes for Every Day and Every Occasion by Dr. Joseph Piscatella. So many people have given us information, helpful hints and great ideas. One of Dad's friends gave a whole packet of information he'd collected online to Mom and Dad to pass on to Jeremy (thanks Hubert!). And Jeremy sat down and read the entire thing from beginning to end as soon as Mom handed it to him. Jeremy and Michelle Moring came over to visit that very first weekend and made a heart healthy dinner for us - that was a really special treat.

We've had a lot of friends stop by to visit since he got home from the hospital. Everyone kept asking if we needed anything, or what they could do for us - so Jeremy said to tell them all to come see us. This was incredibly scary and it makes you want to surround yourself with the people you care about.
Jeremy had his first follow up visit with Dr. Stoffa (our PCP) last Monday. I went with him and had a nice long list of questions. We were happy with most of her answers and I think that visit made Jeremy feel a lot better about everything. She was pleased with what she saw and didn't really have any further concerns. We talked about his upcoming antelope hunting trip to Wyoming (she said no), another upcoming tropical trip (she said yes), firing high powered rifles (she said maybe), hunting in extreme cold (she said no if it's below freezing)... I'm sure you can guess who asked those questions. I asked about his limitations regarding exercise (start walking now, but wait until Dr. Hess clears you for anything strenuous), sex (none of your business), and his carotid arteries. His heart was checked during the angiogram, and since Dr. Hess felt this had a lot to do with diet - I wanted to make sure his carotids were clear. Dr. Stoffa thought that was an awfully good idea too - so we scheduled an ultrasound of his carotid arteries for later that afternoon. When we left we were both feeling about a hundred pounds lighter as we walked out of her office.

In the last two weeks Jeremy's returned to work, we've explored the heart healthy options at the grocery store, we've been out to eat a couple of times, we've had several new recipes, Jeremy's been taking his lunch to work, we've started walking and we've learned a lot. A lot about our health and a lot about the strength of our relationship. I'll start tackling all of that material in the next few posts.

So I hope you all join us, not only in reading about what we're up to -  but in making some healthier choices in your own lives. Stop smoking. Start moving. Eat better. Manage your stress levels. I know it's easier said than done. Doing something because "it's good for your health" is such an abstract concept when you're in your twenties. But now we've had MS, cancer and heart disease touch us on a very personal level - it hits home. For all of us.