A Duel with the Grim Reaper

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

This is not a post about religion.  Faith is exactly that, "faith"; if my wife and I can believe differently but coexist peacefully, then so can everyone else... let me throw that out there straight away.  Our deity choice is normally driven by our fear of death and the promises that (insert deity) will offer at the ends of our lives.  Some of us mortals though choose to follow a different path, different but none-the-less ethical, moral or fulfilling.  But lets be honest, there aren't many subjects that us western folk avoid more than a discussion of death.

This is not a post about death either.  We all witness it in our lives, it is the single thing that unites every living thing on Earth, yet we don't do EVERYTHING in our power to prevent our earliest demise.  In fact, if you look at something as simple as say, our diet, you'd think we don't give two shits about how long we live.

This IS a post about me.  I want to tell you about my personal fight with the bastard known as "Heart Disease".

In my early to mid-thirties I started to experience intermittent and what the medical professionals in my life determined were atypical chest pains.  No big red flags, but there was something.  I drank, I still do, I smoked, I no longer smoke, I worried a lot, I still do, I ate a varied diet and I exercised in fits and starts (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/fits-and-starts.html).  I reached my forties and found my symptoms getting more frequent with the additional problem of tachycardia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachycardia) some nights, joy of joys!  Eventually after diagnosis including Asthma, Gastrointestinal Disease, Acid Reflux, Muscle Strain/Sprain, Hypertension and stress (that's all that comes to mind right now), I was sent for a CT scan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scan) to check for signs of blockage and/or cancer.

I won't malign the NHS in the UK, it's a good medical system, hugely underfunded by central government to make it look bad, so they can sell it to private companies to fuck up even more... FACT!  Having said that it did take, from the time of the scan, to an appointment with a cardiologist, 4-months before I knew what the first findings were... to be honest I was shatting myself for most of that time thinking the absolute worse, I had a four-year old and a new-born daughter, how would they fair without a father?  I met with my cardiologist who quite simply stated I had heart disease.  Heart disease.  My left anterior descending artery was 60-70% blocked, they estimated, which sounded like a lot to me (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_interventricular_branch_of_left_coronary_artery), but apparently no intervention is needed until over 75% blockage, so that's ok then?!?!?!?

I was advised to lose some weight, stop smoking (even those seemingly harmless "social" smokes), consider a lower fat diet and chill-out for (insert deity) sake.  I was lined up with a follow-up visit in four months to have a myocardial profusion scan and umm, off you go.  (http://www.rbht.nhs.uk/patients/condition/nuclear-medicine/myocardial/scan/)  At the very least, I knew who my enemy was at last.  Some bastard called Heart Disease.

Knowing your enemy doesn't make it disappear though.

I went home, discussed this with my family, impressing on my brother (twin) that this may be something he should be aware of, considering this diagnosis was not typical for our age, maybe someone 5-10 years older but still a bit early really.  Then three-weeks later, in our kitchen in France, my brother complains of discomfort in his chest (alarm bells).  My wife gets on the tinterweb to check symptoms as I continue to question him.  Chew some aspirin dude, we're going to l'hôpital... now this thread could have a post of it's own, but I value my brothers right-to-privacy, so in summary:  gets to hospital, tests and observation, confirmation of cardiac event, FLOWN to bigger hospital, two stents inserted, 4 days in cardiac ICU, 7 weeks of cardiac rehab, pharmacy-store amount of drugs to be taken daily, ad-infinitum.

A few weeks later, I felt proper shite, stress levels high, Christmas feasting excesses not helping.  On my return to work in the UK from a couple of weeks off in France, I self-presented (walked in off the street) to A&E (Emergency room)in Brighton.  My blood pressure was off the scale 199/119, I immediately had a cannula inserted (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannula) and was administered with cardiac medicines (aspirin, GTN etc).  After some observation and questioning from a cardiologist, it was determined I'd be taken to the "Cath Lab" for a more detailed look at the LAD blockage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath_lab).  The experience was, umm, interesting... they insert a very fine tube into your arteries via your groin which then is pushed along those arteries all the way to your heart.  They insert a contrast medium (ink) and use a camera to image the arteries, thus allowing them to see the condition of your heart and related plumbing.  It's magnitudes more accurate than a CT scan with the added advantage that if they find anything, they can also fix it whilst they are viewing it.  So what of it?  Well nothing!  The nice registrar (doctor) advised the blockage was around 50% and therefore no further action would be taken, here's a number of drugs for you to take, go speak to your cardiologist.

The follow-up Profusion scan, mentioned earlier discovered much the same as the CT and angiogram had.  A limit of oxygen getting to the heart in certain places, but nothing too bad!  Take your meds, they'll keep everything, we hope, in check.  Something for your blood pressure, something for your hearts work-rate, something for your cholesterol and something for anti-coagulation.  All bases covered with our scatter-gun.  See you in 12-months.

A lot happens in 12-months.  I gave up commuting from France to England every week.  I spent more time with my daughters, the one thing that brings me so much joy.  I watched the shell of my brother grow angrier and sadder, fighting his own scrap with the bastard Heart Disease.  I also watched my wife as she tried to hide her fear of losing one or both of her boys to heart disease.  I kept experiencing chest pains.  We all fought more, I think stress was going to kill all of us, I really do!  Then the family (not including my brother) took a visit to American family, in Wisconsin.

I think we can all agree that Christmas excess is not for me... again, 12-months after my last time of feeling PROPER SHITE, I was not well.  In 12-months of owning a GTN spray (http://patient.info/medicine/glyceryl-trinitrate-for-angina-gtn) I had used it once, maybe twice... this visit I was using it 2 or 3 times a day.  Was my wait at last over and was I going to have MY very own cardiac event?  Let's face it, that's what we had all been expecting ever since my brother had his!  I just wanted to get home to France... insurance or not, America is not the place you want to be sick!  It's very expensive.

We made it home.  Drug assisted, granted, but we were back in France.  The question really was, is 2016 going to be exactly the same as every other year.  Where we live is beautiful.  The WAY we live is beautiful.  The people in my life are beautiful.  My daughters are so, so, unbelievably beautiful. Why do I feel so bad? That bastard Heart Disease!

Like all good stories, there seems to be a turning point... I came across this in my Twitter feed: http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/ Now any of you that know me or my brother will know we are the biggest cynics, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is!  But some of the information was compelling: 

• a western diet of oils, fats and processed foods damages the endothelia in our arteries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endothelium),
• nutrition is not a new age medicine way of treating heart disease, but could be a primary way to treat and reverse it (http://www.dresselstyn.com/huffpost.htm),  (https://hms.harvard.edu/news/endothelium-heal-thyself-5-15-13), (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-30/health/sc-health-0130-heart-diet-20130130_1_nitric-oxide-heart-disease-heart-health), (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20620742)
• EVEN WINE FUCKING HELPS! (http://www.wellnessresources.com/health/articles/red_wine_resveratrol_for_cardiovascular_repair/)

Look, like I said above, I'm a huge cynic, but if this means that by choosing a plant based and whole foods approach to eating I could, REVERSE my heart disease and not have to take drugs then lets investigate this further.  Furthermore, a plant based and whole food diet is something that our modest 15-acres can provide me and my family with little change to what we are currently doing! 

Hey, it's early.  It's not going to be easy, I already miss cheese!  I live in France for (insert deity) sake, but honestly, for the first time in many years I actually feel optimistic about my health.  I feel that I can retake a modicum of control back from the spectre of death that has hung gloomily over me for years.  Please don't label me either with vegetarian, vegan, beyond vegan or whatever.  I'm fixing my Endothelia, one delicious vegetable at a time. It can help my brother, it can help my wives auto-immune disorder, it can help my daughters so they never have to face this bastard, Heart Disease.You never know, maybe, just maybe you might get a smile out of me yet in 2016.

Bonne Chance!