Living with Heart Disease: Sam's Story
Living with Heart Disease: Sam's Story
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Content
0.846 -> (somber strumming)
5.882 -> - We were at a grocery store shopping,
7.898 -> and I stopped at one of the
blood pressure machines,
10.392 -> and wanted to see what
my blood pressure was,
12.518 -> and my nephew was standing
14.496 -> behind me when we read the numbers,
16.113 -> and it was like 198 over 95.
19.851 -> Thought the machine was broke.
21.52 -> We stopped and told Becky
22.98 -> that my blood pressure
was a little bit high.
25.006 -> - So we went to another store
27.408 -> and bought a home blood pressure cuff
29.23 -> to monitor his blood
pressure over the weekend,
31.517 -> because we had a family event
and lots of family over.
34.643 -> So it was that next Monday morning.
37.059 -> I stood in the doorway
of his office and I said,
39.271 -> I'm not going to work
until you call the doctor.
42.004 -> - My dad always loves to go
outside and mow the lawn,
44.923 -> it's like his favorite
thing to do (chuckles).
47.643 -> Always been very active,
49.247 -> and I never really noticed
any symptoms of heart disease.
52.773 -> - So we did the EKG,
53.916 -> and along with putting me on
some blood pressure medicine,
57.018 -> they found a little
irregularities in the EKG,
61.349 -> so she set me up with a appointment.
63.862 -> And Dr. Roger Greurer said
65.613 -> my heart seemed to be very strong,
67.385 -> but there was something
irregular there, too.
69.762 -> So he suggested I do a stress test,
72.643 -> told me I did not pass my stress test,
74.454 -> and I should go visit his other
friend at Provita Hospital.
79.729 -> - We decided, based on
his coronary disease,
82.292 -> that the best thing to do for him
84.041 -> to try to lower his risk
of subsequent heart attack,
86.134 -> and to try to help him with his symptoms,
88.433 -> was to take him for bypass surgery.
90.286 -> So he had a coronary
artery bypass grafting,
92.385 -> or cabbage, C-A-B-G,
94.169 -> which involves creating
bypasses to get blood
96.755 -> around the narrow spots in those arteries
98.739 -> to improve the blood supply to
those portions of the heart.
101.668 -> - The day that we learned the news
103.408 -> that the cath lab diagnosed
Sam with heart disease,
107.606 -> and he was gonna have
open-heart surgery, was surreal.
110.51 -> What just happened?
112.015 -> You know, how did we get
113.144 -> from a little bit of high blood pressure
115.026 -> to now my new husband's gonna
have open-heart surgery,
117.748 -> and we're living with this
thing called heart disease?
120.388 -> I really couldn't
believe it was happening,
122.88 -> but we both really just
went into action mode of,
125.899 -> okay, what do we gotta
do to get through this?
128.099 -> - I had heard of other people saying,
130.119 -> oh, you know, someone's
getting a stint put in.
132.35 -> It sounds like it's no big deal,
133.876 -> but once you actually
go into the hospital,
135.972 -> and see him all hooked up to all the IVs
138.358 -> and all the different instruments
that the hospital uses.
142.546 -> - You just start talking to family
144.161 -> and working through it.
147.731 -> Yeah, I don't know anybody in
the family that's had that,
150.14 -> so that's what was the scariest thing,
152.029 -> because you just don't know.
152.884 -> - The doctors explained to us, you know,
155.272 -> how he probably would not, not if,
158.033 -> but when he had a heart attack,
159.324 -> the probability of him
surviving it was less than 10%,
162.512 -> so it really brought to
light that we were that close
165.754 -> to the fact that he may
not, we could have lost him.
169.659 -> My message for others
about Sam's experience is,
173.487 -> you know, don't discount symptoms.
176.28 -> Don't brush them off.
177.812 -> Don't think that it's no big deal.
180.579 -> - Some of my symptoms were,
182.111 -> I just thought I'm getting
a little bit older,
183.884 -> 53 years old, not in the
shape that I used to be in.
186.637 -> - Well sometimes the
symptoms aren't obvious.
188.501 -> Mr. Preston didn't ever
have any chest pain,
190.595 -> which is the thing that
we always talk about.
192.564 -> We talk about angina; we
talk about chest pain.
194.61 -> We always talk about the classic
195.814 -> substernal crushing chest pain.
197.203 -> Feels like an elephant sitting
on my chest, people will say.
200.029 -> But not everybody gets that.
201.112 -> Only about a third of people get that,
202.646 -> that discreet symptom.
204.364 -> Another third of people get
all kinds of other things.
206.243 -> So it's important for
people to be thinking
208.025 -> about their risk profile.
209.276 -> The big seven risk factors
that we've identified are
211.659 -> family history, high blood
pressure, high cholesterol,
214.722 -> diabetes, smoking, and
actually any nicotine,
218.128 -> not necessarily just smoking,
219.866 -> being over-weight, and being sedentary.
221.903 -> Those are the big seven risk factors,
223.416 -> and so when people have
those risk factors,
225.691 -> and they have symptoms such as chest pain,
228.016 -> or arm pain, or jaw pain,
or as in Mr. Preston's case,
231.523 -> just getting more short of
breath than they would expect,
235.035 -> they should be thinking about
235.934 -> maybe there's a problem with their heart,
237.321 -> and they should go talk to their doctor,
239.529 -> and look into further testing
to see if that is the problem.
242.509 -> - One good thing that I've had
a lot of men come up to me,
244.684 -> after they realize I had that,
246.339 -> because they just couldn't
believe that I went through that.
248.763 -> So the good thing is they're asking,
250.653 -> you know, what were the symptoms?
252.226 -> So that was good that I
could get the word out
253.56 -> to some men just asking, what
do I need to look out for?
256.888 -> - I look at it as,
258.719 -> the best thing that
could have ever happened
261.027 -> is that we knew, we got a diagnosis,
262.826 -> and we got surgery, and Sam was home.
265.009 -> He had surgery on a Friday,
and he was home on a Monday,
267.132 -> so I feel really fortunate
that it happened,
270.364 -> and we went through it,
271.364 -> and we're just so much more
educated about heart disease.
275.126 -> - The American Heart
Association is very useful
277.126 -> because its an overarching organization
281.496 -> that brings together multiple specialties
284.896 -> to do things like review the literature,
287.272 -> help create guidelines
288.505 -> for what best treatment practices are,
291.006 -> also helps to fund research efforts
293.387 -> so we can learn more about
these disease processes.
295.895 -> - When the American Heart
Association approached us
298.234 -> about The Heart Walk this
year, it was just a no-brainer.
301.176 -> It was, absolutely yes.
302.574 -> And this could happen
to man, woman, anybody.
306.012 -> You don't have to have a heart
attack to have heart disease.
309.365 -> I think that's the message
that we wanna get out there.
311.901 -> (light happy strumming)
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmZzjhA5Utg