I am back on iVillage!

Hi, Heidi - I was not able to log on either for a while.  Sorry I have been absent for so long.  Has anything changed in the system?  I have had a rough time since the summer; I had a mild heart attack on Aug. 31st and quadruple bypass surgery on Sept. 3rd.  Since then I have recovering well and am now participating in cardiac rehab.  My depression levels have been interesting since the surgery: I was not depressed at all for the first 6 weeks or so because I was so happy just to be alive, but sometime in the 7th or 8th week the depression came back as I have had to deal with all this.  I was also diagnosed with diabetes in the hospital, so I am now checking my blood suger 2 or 3 times a day.  What's next?

The heart attack felt like bad reflux that wouldn't go away when I took my usual antacids.  We went to an emergency facility just to be on the safe side and I had a normal EKG.  Thank God they transferred me to another large hospital where I had cardiac cathetherization and they found the blockages.  I had hardly any damage to my heart at all, but still needed the bypasses.  The doctor said that stents or balloons would not have been enough.  I was in the hospital for 8 days.

Something like this really makes you see how precious and fragile life is.  I am now back to church and other normal activities.  I have been posting on the WomenHeart website and learning a whole lot about complications that I did not have, thank God.  I am only 59 but my family history is bad: father, uncle and brother all had bypass surgeries and my brother also had a valve replacement.  So, I think that genetics played the biggest role in all this.  My dad was even younger than me at the time of his surgery.

I am still on antiidepressants and a mood stabilizer for depression and that probably helped avoid an initial depression.  I now take additional medication for heart stuff.

Well, that's my story of why I haven't been here lately.

Deb