My husband has 2 blocked arteries, one with more than 70% blockage, mild hypertension and now prediabetic.
He smokes, has a high fat diet is obese and his job is very sedentary.
He has had 2 stress tests in the 6 years since diagnosis which have been normal and he is on statins, anti hypertensives and aspirin.
On diagnosis his cardiologist told him he just needed to make a few lifestyle changes which he has not done and says he will be motivated once he needs surgery….. I am at my wits end as I live in total fear of what the next day will bring.
Apart from 6 monthly bloods, he has not other monitoring. Is this enough?
His father died of CAD very suddenly at the age of 53 and my husband is now 57.
Written by
MrsGhorse
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You are not alone in your concerns since I have noticed we get similar posts to yours on here from time to time. Anyway in terms of heart disease risk an obese smoker who exercises little, has the wrong diet, and also has a possible genetic link to heart disease is just about as bad as it gets. But there is a lot of truth in the saying 'you can bring a horse to water but you can't make it drink'. I cannot advise you how to persuade your husband to change but somehow he needs to take a good look at himself, and accept some responsibility for his heart health, and also some responsibility towards yourself since I think he is being very selfish. And just because he hasn't succumbed to a major incident so far doesn't mean it won't happen. There are plenty of people who outwardly are least likely to succumb to a heart attack but nevertheless still have one. The argument that he will change after surgery is really without any logic since he might have a massive cardio event which kills him, of which I am sure you are only too aware. So I hope you manage to persuade him to change his ways, and if you have family, get them involved too. I wish you well.
cerebrovascular disease (damaged arteries that supply blood to your brain)
Smoking also damages your lungs, leading to conditions such as:
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which incorporates bronchitis and emphysema
pneumonia
Smoking can also worsen or prolong the symptoms of respiratory conditions such as asthma, or respiratory tract infections such as the common cold.
In men, smoking can cause impotence because it limits the blood supply to the penis.
It can also reduce the fertility of both men and women.
The suggestion that it might be difficult for someone to stop smoking for all sorts of reasons might indeed be true for some, but surely it better to overcome those difficulties rather than die from cancer, or spend your life hooked up to oxygen, or have to be carted off to hospital every winter with pneumonia, let alone any heart related problems or other smoking induced conditions. These issues are real not some sort of gobbledy gook conjured by some key board warrior.
smoking cessation is the most important thing and his surgery should be able to direct him to the nearest smoking cessation clinic. There are so many aids now to help smokers give up - patches, pills, self help groups. However none of these will work if he is not ready to try. He’s probably suffering from that mixture of fear and inertia and habit. Until the fear of what might happen becomes big enough for him to make those changes himself, keep yourself in good health, model the behaviour and explain why you’re looking after yourself.
Commentators above have summed up the problems and what to do, perfectly. Yes, it is a coping mechanism to hide his own fears and a reaction to not wanting to admit to his own mortality.
Assuming you have been kind and reasoning up to now, perhaps it is time to be more forceful. Clearly he needs to change.
Does this condition affect things he used to like doing? From travel to walking to playing a sport?
Would he accept sponsorship to lose weight to raise money for a favourite charity?
Do you have photos of him when he was much thinner that can illustrate the changes?
Have you had a heart to heart with him, asked him to make your will or take out insurance and express your fears of being left alone? Are there any friends/ family that can make him see reason. Is anyone alive that remembers his father dying and causing grief? Only you can know what might get through to him but you do recognise that something needs to be done.
One more thought. Presumably he is headed for a double bypass unless he changes his ways?
The last thing he wants is invasive surgery if it can be avoided by lifestyle changes. Perhaps he can be persuaded to watch an online operation or to read some of the comments from those of us on this forum that have had the experience
. He seems to have a ready made route out to his destination across an easy flat plain but instead seems to be deliberately heading for the dark threatening mountains in order to climb them and take a very difficult and arduous route to his destination-good health
I don't think I can add anymore to the advice offered. Just wanted to say that I'm sorry you're going through this - it's bad enough worrying about ourselves, but watching a loved one go through it is awful.
I wonder if you could show your husband this topic to show him in black and white how worried you are, and that there is support out there if he'd choose to take those first steps?
As a low risk person I had a HA 17 months ago and count myself as extremely fortunate.
I understand your fears, your husband is very lucky to have you batting on his side.
Practical suggestions are purely that, I am sure that you will have tried most.
I find weight control hard, I was a great home baker/ cook. Now in order to stop me eating ‘wrong’ foods, I have had to stop stocking baking ingredients.
My advice, try not to nag/plead no matter how worried you are, aim to have fun, try to tackle this with a slightly different mind set.
Get sneaky !
try to cut portions ever so slightly
Add pulses to the odd meal, like kidney beans in chilli, sugar & salt free baked beans to a casserole.
If you walk, would hubby walk with you? Again begin small & it must be fun.
Bring romance to the for front, small simple things , fun things that you both enjoy, a snuggle, hold hands, a good belly laugh. Remember together how things were when you met.
Your love and support are so helpful for your hubbies health. You are important too, look after yourself too.
I agree that he’s probably concerned and trying his best to hide it. He may be of the mindset that he wants to enjoy living now and not worry about the future.
We’ve all got to go sometime, it’s better to have fun share lovely times with those you care about than live your life scared. I am still trying to balance that. I don’t have any answers but I do believe that love and support are so immeasurably valuable. Best wishes.
You must be really worried, tell him he will probably get no warnings. I had a bad fall on an escalator,took a couple of people with me. Heart failure and blocked artery. I don't smoke and eat a low carb diet so he is putting himself in the high risk bracket, tell him as it is and not fair on his family.
LowerField has really nailed this I'm somewhat sorry to say, because it must be so very hard to read. I must agree, it really is as close to a ticking time bomb as you're going to get.
BUT it is not inevitable....as said by relaxedcrocheter and Thatwasunexpected, small changes are far better than no changes, and the "head in the sand" defence will not help....anyone. As said above maybe he could read some of the posts from this forum, written by fellow hearties who have literally got the 'T shirt'
I too had a father who died early from a heart attack at only 51!, having had 3 smaller ones from aged 39. I knew it was in my genes, I was fit , monitored my cholesterol, ate well, took regular exercise, active job and I still got tagged, heart attack and 7 stents. What I'm trying to say is, if it's in the family, then why oh why invite it to happen to you?
Act now to give the best chance of a good outcome, he'll need you far more than he'll know ...it's not too late. Please look after you, strength, understanding and perseverance and a damn good friend you can confide in (please say you have one). I wish you the very best.
I don’t know how he should be monitored, I know that I have CAD with a stent and now should have a yearly ECG, I can’t remember if there is anything else.
Right now the NHS is not keeping up with screening and surgery for people with very serious life threatening cardiac conditions, so it is unlikely they are going to offer your hubby another CT angiogram, especially if he is not advocating for himself.
If he needs surgery, it will probably mean he has had a heart attack.
If the heart attack is bad enough, he may end up with heart failure, which can be managed, but it can be devastating for some people.
Prevention is better than having a bone saw to your sternum and more medications, breathlessness and fatigue for the rest of your shortened life.
So hard for anyone to stop an addition... including over eating. For some I don't think there is anything that can be said or done to change their ways... apart from a catastrohic event sadly.For me... I have been going to a gym... pretty fit... but... ate too much of the good stuff and drank too much of the good stuff (and some gene issues too!) So for me my HA and then 3 stents were my wake up call. The pain was unbelivable. The 2 angiograms I had.. constant bloods, injections and multiple canulars... mean I never want to experience that again. So.. healthy food... and no booze. Cold turkey! But am loving it.
The smoking addiction of your husband will be difficult.
In the cardic ward... half were smokers... all in a bad way. A few decided that was the day they smoked their last one. Others, who could barely walk through chest pain, still went down two flights of stairs to go and smoke outside.
One man next to me.. early 50s.. looked liked he was at deaths door. He had to use a wheel chair due to blockages in his legs from smoking.. riddled with lung cancer.. and had just suffered a heart attack. I watched him struggle to climb into his chair... roll a cigarette and wheeze as he rolled himself out.
Addiction is such a hard thing.
My take would be... be supportive... love your husband with all your might... have a chat again where you say " you don't want to lose him" and see if you can both make a miner change to both your lifestyles.. teamwork.
Let me explain why this is so incredibly dangerous to your husband, when you smoke you increase your cad score by 50% on average each year, it drastically creates an exponential runaway situation, not only does it increase by 50 % each year, the layer that it builds is LAP , this is the worst kind of soft unstable plaque that can easily break off and block an artery, he is playing a loaded dice with his life, not to mention the constant onslaught from vasoconstrictive toxins every time he smokes degrading the glycocalyx. The statins will augment the 50% figure but it's still a very serious situation. He has completely trashed his cardiovascular system , and there is hope and treatment, if he wants it
If he still fails to stop smoking, I would add in ezetimibe, and possibly a third medicine, Bempedoic acid, fibrates, Cholestyramine spring to mind
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