Living with Heart Failure

I’m writing about heart failure because I survived two heart attacks in two years, including one that almost killed me. I’ll share more about that later.

Now I’m learning to live with heart failure, and I hope that what I share about my experiences will be helpful to you or someone you know who is also dealing with a heart failure diagnosis.

In this newsletter, which is free, I’ll talk about hospitals, heart attacks, heart arrhythmias like Afib and Vfib, cardiac tests, procedures, medications, heart failure diets, and the challenge of navigating modern health care as a heart failure patient.

If you’re like me, heart failure was a term I had heard, but did not really know much about. Until it happened to me. Even then, I found it difficult to get the information I wanted, when I needed it, and to learn enough to make informed decsions about my care.

I am not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV. I am a 76-year-old retired pastor, who until Thanksgiving weekend of 2021 thought he was pretty healthy. Then, on a Saturday night, I had my first heart attack. The chest pain was intense, but I never lost consciousness, the ambulance arrived quickly, and the paramedics knew what they were doing. One heart catherization and three stents later, I thought I had dodged a bullet — which I had.

I had survived the “widow-maker” of heart attacks — 100% blockage of the LAD (left anterior descending) artery, the main coronary artery. The next two years I dealt with cardiac rehab, and a series of hospitalizations, medical tests, procedures, and medications to try and manage heart failure, angina, Afib, and other conditions that accompany a serious cardiac event.

Two years later, I thought I was doing pretty well. But on September 9, 2023, after conducting a funeral, I made my way from the sanctuary to my office. My chest began to hurt slightly. And then it got worse. Worse than my first heart attack. I knew I was in trouble. As I lay on the couch in my office, my wife called 911. Paramedics arrived quickly. However, I lost consciousness before I left my office, and for the next four days I was in a coma first at SOVAH in Danville, Virginia, and then at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC.

I was a patient in Duke UMC’s cardiac care unit for 7 days. By the end of that week the CCU doctors were calling me “miracle man” because I had survived three Vfib events, cardiogenic shock, 3 rounds of chest compressions and resuscitations, a complicated reopening of the same LAD artery, and other attendant problems. But I was alive.

Impressed with my progress, the medical staff at SOVAH in Danville, VA asked if I’d share my story via video. I agreed to do so, and here’s the video they produced:

So, that’s part of my story. The rest of the story is what I’ll be sharing with you here, Living with Heart Failure. I hope you’ll tell others who may be dealing with heart failure, or know someone who is. Together we can become a community of folks who support, encourage, and inform each other of our successes and failures as we learn how to adapt to Living with Heart Failure. See you soon!