Some People Do Not Listen

[MichaelJH]

The other day I was at one of the few bus stops in the area with a shelter. Also in the shelter was someone I know only in passing. He knows I have had a quadruple bypass and mentioned he was on a 24-hour monitor. When I asked what for he said he had AF and they were trying to capture episodes. I then mentioned triggers and told him about my friend whose AF is now under control without drugs since he had eliminated alcohol, caffeine, chocolate and spicy food from his diet. His response was bizarre - he said his GP had told him that but that alcohol caused AF was a lie. It was fairly obvious he had had more than a couple of pints. I saw him again today. He mumbled a "Hello" but nothing else. At the time he was smoking a cigarette! ☹️

[Hidden]

I would hazard a guess he was thinking ‘ oh god he’s gonna tell me off for having a fag now’ 😂

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Hidden]

Sadly his attitude reminds me of a former neighbour who after having stents would not listen. Before he moved he had been back in the catheter laboratory twice!

[080311]

Hi, I was in hospital waiting transfer to the specialist heart hospital and a young woman was brought in HF put on a drip to get rid of the water retention. Her sister would come in for visiting and get a wheelchair and take her outside for a cigarette! We would all say to her she really had to stop and she would say she would! Then cry for the next couple of hours frightened about what was going to happen to her.

[Sunnie2day]

There just are those who refuse to take proper care of themselves and it sounds as though your acquaintance is one of those. Deep down inside he knows better but 'doesn't want to know', if that makes sense.

Sad.

[Heythrop51 in reply to Sunnie2day]

Agree totally!

[stevejb1810]

You can lead a horse to water .....

[benjijen in reply to stevejb1810]

That's just what I was going to say!

[jeffsimon in reply to stevejb1810]

But a pencil must be lead! (Stan Laurel)

[Hidden]

Alcohol and smoking are serious addictions that require professional help to overcome. Advice and raw willpower aren't enough for most people and regarding those that suffer from them as stupid or not listening sends the wrong message to those on the forum facing similar challenges.

[stillaboveground in reply to Hidden]

Good answer CardiacManOz, I am an ex smoker and know it wasn't easy to give up, it would be easier for him to give up one thing at a time, that's no quite so daunting.

[Beith in reply to Hidden]

My father smoked for over forty years - between 30-40 cigs a day. In the eighties, on his doctor's advice, he stopped. One day he was a smoker, the next he wasn't. My mother continued to smoke for another 15 years so he had to share the house with her while she carried on. There is plenty of professional help available; there are signs on the wall in my GP's surgery and in the hospital offering advice and help. While the smokers are still 'healthy', they think (like we all do) that it'll be alright, I'm fine. What still amazes me is that when their health fails, they still persist. I would have thought that the desire to live would trump the desire to die ...

[Cat04]

He was just trying to ensure that the monitor captured some decent af readings 😀!

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

I would not have mentioned smoking as the first issue is the AF. My friend who cut out alcohol and caffeine had been into CAMRA and real ale but never a binge drinker. He recently became a grandfather and family, friends and hobbies are more important to him!

[Saffron63]

Judging someone because they don’t think and behave as you do is not helpful to them or yourself.

Live and let live, count your blessings you have insight and are able to make the necessary changes to your lifestyle. Life is hard for some, there’s no need to add to that.

[Handel]

Duh!! Hope your CPR skills are up to date!! Sounds like the idiot will need them!! xxx

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

No way a lecture! He told me about his AF and I told him my friend's experiences with the condition. It's really up to him what he does!

[Hidden in reply to MichaelJH]

Did you actually tried to help them to change their way? Or, was it merely your "observations" about their way? Just curious.

[SpiritoftheFloyd]

I'm quite amazed when people carry on smoking after a major medical event like a heart attack. I smoked for almost 40 years, tried to give up many times, but always slipped back into the habit.

When in hospital after my heart attack one of the first things they did the next day was put a patch on my arm. I did the 12 week course on the patches steadily decreasing to the one with the least nicotine, and that was it. Now passed the 400 day mark of not smoking last Friday.

I honestly didn't consider smoking ever again - the whole experience of having a heart attack frightened the life out of me, so I'm at a total loss to explain how people can carry on with their dangerous lifestyles after a heart attack, knowing that the result could be another trip in an ambulance! Or perhaps I'm just a bit of a wuss 😎

[Gearboxxx in reply to SpiritoftheFloyd]

This is quite right, at the time of my HA 2 years ago I smoked 40 cigarettes a day, drank in the region of 150 units of alcohol a week and was obese, I asked my cardiologist which was most likely to have caused my issues, he replied ‘ all of them!, however by far smoking is the one to address first’. I haven’t smoked to this day , I now drink less than 20 units a week and am trying hard to loose weight, I think when people are trying so hard to save your life, and are so caring and compassionate and so obviously not just there for the money, for me it made giving up smoking far easier than I ever believed it could be.

[SpiritoftheFloyd in reply to Gearboxxx]

While I was in hospital I spoke to a number of the medics, and was given a lot of good advice:- stop smoking, limit alcohol, eat a good diet, get weight to a good BMI, exercise, reduce stress. But each time they said that without any debate the most important thing to prevent me making a repeat appearance in an ambulance was to stop smoking!

It's nearly 600 days without a cigarette, and yes, I'm surprised how easy it has been to give up. It was clearly the shock that I needed to stop, and having put me back together I really didn't want to end up back in hospital having not taken their advice on board

Well done on your success in stopping smoking and cutting down on the alcohol

[Brussels]

This is what the evidence shows

“ A simple summary of a whole body of evidence: people are not poor because they make poor choices. Poverty leads to poor 'choices' or, more precisely, no choices. That health follows the social gradient is more to do with circumstances than the 'choices' people make “

Sir Michael Marmot

It’s always more complex than “ not listening “ and poor choices.

[Alison_L]

Can I add my twopenn'orth from the "idiot's" point of view? In 2018 I was 56 and smoking 10-15 cigarettes a day.

I had a silent heart attack probably at the end of May 2018. I eventually went to my GP 3 weeks later with a "stomach bug". Something I said caused her to send me for a blood test that included troponin, which I had 2 days later. That evening I got a phone call from the out-of-hours GP shouting at me that I was having a heart attack and needed to be in hospital NOW and he was going to send an ambulance round to my house. Since I was happily sitting in a pub at the time with a pint (of water!) and a bowl of chips in front of me, and a cigarette in the hand that wasn't holding the phone, I politely told him that no, I wasn't having a heart attack, so "thank you for the phone call, but I'm going to ignore you". The call was longer than that as he told me that my troponin was 153, although I had no idea what that meant.

Anyway, after chatting to my friends about this strange call, we decided it might be an idea for me to go to a&e to get it checked, so I wandered off to the bus stop and walked into the local a&e 45 minutes after the call.

Thus began a stay in 2 hospitals totalling 25 days in the next 30. (The first hospital discharged me with a stent after 5 days, but 5 days after that I collapsed with VT and was blue lighted to another hospital for 18 days, resulting in all possible tests and being discharged again with a shiny new ICD.)

At no time was I in any pain (the VT caused me to keep fainting), and this was the first time since I was 3 that I had spent a night in hospital.

The stress of the enforced stay, and the fact that I was completely mobile and getting dressed each day (at least until the first 8 days of the 2nd stay, spent in CCU and permanently attached to a wall-mounted monitor), meant I needed to get out occasionally for a smoke.

By the time I left hospital at the end of July, I was well and truly institutionalised, and once home, quickly developed agoraphobia, meaning I struggled to leave the house. Smoking relieved what was a very stressful situation.

I eventually managed to start going out again and on 8th Sept 2018 smoked the last cigarette in the pack and haven't smoked since. However I have been left with mental problems resulting from all this, which 2 weeks ago my cardiologist (not a psychologist) told me is a form of PTSD.

Sorry for the long tale, but please do not assume everyone in heart failure who still smokes and drinks is an idiot.

[Lezzers]

I think what Michael is saying is a GP told this person that alcohol causes AF but this person didn't believe it which seems a bit bizarre! Hence the title "some people don't listen"......I don't think Michael was saying this person didn't listen to him!!

Perhaps Michael can confirm that?

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Lezzers]

Indeed! Whilst I told him of my friend's experience with alcohol and AF he had also been told this by his GP. What staggered me was he claimed that alcohol causes AF was a lie.

[Hearthrob]

perhaps some think that longevity is not the goal...