Around the same time I found and joined a number of heart support groups on Facebook and became active in some contributing comments on my recovery process and trying to lend support to others going through the same recovery process that I had gone through a year earlier.
Having a background in teaching and wishing to share information, I also would post relevant items in these groups that I believed would help others understand what they had been through and what lifestyle changes they (as indeed I) made after my heart attack. And also, having dealt with depression, anxiety and panic attacks, I would talk about these - something which was not a common thing for males to do.
My greatest desire, however, in joining these groups was to spread the word that:
DIABETICS MAY NOT NECESSARILY HAVE THE CLASSIC WARNING SIGNS WHEN HAVING A HEART ATTACK.
This desire to spread this message came about after I did an interview with one of our local TV stations in which my cardiologist confirmed this message - at an earlier date we had discussed this when I had raised the question.
Channel Nine interview - "29 Lives"
And it would be fair to say that the principle motivating factor for me becoming involved in creating a heart support group here where I live (and joining some Facebook groups) was to get this message out into the wider community and to also spread the word about cardiovascular disease awareness and the links between diabetes and heart disease.
In the second half of 2008, soon after the TV interview, I was invited by our cardiac rehab programme to give a talk about my recovery and rehab process which included what I did to deal with depression and lifestyle changes I made. I can vividly remember talking about not having any pain or discomfort at the time of the heart attack and seeing a number of people in the room nodding their heads in agreement. When I queried them about this they told me that they were also diabetics and had never heard of the link regarding diabetics not always having pain when having a heart attack.
The supposed one-off talk at our cardiac rehab programme became the first of many and to this day, I continue to give my talk every six weeks.
In early 2009, a month or so after the local heart support group I was involved in got off the ground, I withdrew from the group due to personal and health issues. I returned to the group around August of that year and resumed my position on the executive and made it clear that I believed that part of the direction of the group should be sharing our experiences and educating the community about CVD and heart attack warning signs. I was given a free hand to develop this.
By the end of 2010 it became clear that the primary aims of the group was to be social and to revolve around BBQ's, social outings, weekly walks and Tai Chi sessions and fund raising. It also became clear to me that reaching out to the community to spread awareness and education about CVD was not what the new leadership (nor much of the membership) was interested in and following a couple of disagreements, sadly, I walked away from the group.
I had put a lot of time into the group since it was was created and was very disappointed but felt I was knocking my head against a brick wall in trying to get the group as a whole to understand, realize that we, as survivors, had a lot to contribute to the community where we live. I tried to get the executive to see the relevance in members of our group 'getting close' to our Heart Foundation and suggested that we should look at seeing if we could provide some speakers to their volunteer speaker's programme. That proved to go down like a lead balloon!
In 2010 I fought hard to get a training program implemented where members of our group would be trained and qualify to volunteer at our local hospital to talk to people who have just had a heart event and/or maybe were awaiting surgery for a heart related issue. Again, sadly, I watched as the training course took place, and the program fell apart due to a lack of direction and commitment by the executive and those who had completed the course. To say the least I was totally disillusioned having put in over six months of effort to get the program off the ground in the first place.
After leaving the group I joined Heart Foundation of Australia and was trained up to become a volunteer speaker for the organization and and continue to be volunteer speaker today. Around the same time I also became a volunteer patient at Bond University and not long after became a volunteer patient for the Australian Institute of Ultrasound. I found pretty quickly, and easily, that there were plenty of places where I live where I could volunteer and share my experiences which is basically very much what I would have liked to have seen our local heart support group become involved in.
At the same time I became much more involved in support groups on Facebook and also decided to create items that I could use to promote CVD awareness. Here are some of these.
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https://www.facebook.com/CHADAwareness
I found I was able to quite readily on Facebook and in Facebook groups do what I would have liked to see our local heart support group do - spread CVD and Diabetes Awareness. I was heartened many times when comments would be made in a group by others confirming that, like me, they had not had the classic symptoms and then on reflection after some prompting they would add that they also were diabetics. Not saying that this happens to all diabetics who have a heart attack, but there is no doubt it is a common enough and as I so fervently believe, this message needs to be spread as it is clear to me that many people are not aware of this.
Following are links to a number of support groups that may be of interest to people who have had a heart event and/or diabetes:
Zipper Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zipperClubHeartSurgery/
Heart Attack and Stents: https://www.facebook.com/groups/632446853435296/
Survivors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162862610420905/
Heart Attack Families and Friends: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Heartattackfamiliesandfriends/
Open-Heart Surgery. "The Zipper Club": https://www.facebook.com/groups/2256590992/
Heart Attack Survivors Unite!: https://www.facebook.com/HeartAttackSurvivorsUnite
Living with Diabetes: https://www.facebook.com/groups/livingwithdiabetes/
There are many more support groups on Facebook, the above are just some that maybe worth a visit if you or someone you know is looking for some encouragement as they deal with a heart issue or diabetes.
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