Why this blog?

A chief motivating factor for this blog has been wanting to share my experiences before and after my heart attack and importantly the fact that I did not have any of the classic warning signs and later found out that this is not uncommon for diabetics (and other groups in the community). As a T2 diabetic I was not aware of this and it is this message I am keen to share and will be doing so time and again in this blog.

A second motivating factor for starting this blog was and is to share information about cardiovascular disease and diabetes and developments regarding these as well as the ongoing impact these two diseases have on my day to day living. There is hardly a day that goes by when new information/research is not being released about heart disease and diabetes and I will be reposting/sharing links to some of these as I see relevant.

In 2008 I started a blog called After a Heart Attack - http://aftermyheartattack.blogspot.com.au/ - but never really went on with it. However, in the six years since then, things have changed and the desire to start over has come about in view of things I have gone through since my heart attack and areas of volunteering I became involved in since my last failed attempt at writing a blog.

Actually, directly as a result of my becoming involved in giving talks at our local cardiac rehab unit and having been told on a number of occasions that I should consider writing a book about my recovery I decided to try again with this blog thing.

As to a book, well, in 2010 I did in fact look at this and even met with a professional 'ghost' writer. We went over a number of scenarios and I even prepared a list of topics to be covered but, as is the case in many new ventures, money was the sticking point and I simply could not afford taking on someone to write of my experiences before and after my heart attack.

The idea of writing a book never really left me, finding the motivation and commitment to actually
doing it has been the sticking point and I say this honestly as having the time to actually do so has never been an issue.

Probably what keeps me thinking about this book idea is the feedback I get from people I speak to after I give one of my talks at our local cardiac rehab unit - the same place I went to after my heart attack in 2007. It is those present who many times have said that what I have spoken about has helped put into context what they are feeling emotionally and physically 4-6 weeks after they have had their heart event.

Although the format over the years has changed, I still give these presentations seven years after my heart attack and surgery and six years after giving my first presentation and to be honest, these sessions are as important to me as I have been told they are to those I am speaking to. Even today, as I say seven years after my heart attack, this experience is cathartic for me and I will cover reasons for this in a later post.

Here is a You Tube presentation I prepared after one of my talks a few years ago which will illustrate some of the material I cover in one of my cardiac rehab talks.

Cardiac Rehab talk on You Tube

Whilst the idea of a book is still there my thinking over recent days/weeks has been to maybe put down what I want to cover in a blog and see where it goes from there. After all, I have the topics for the book already detailed, so how hard can it be to use this as a guideline to put down my thoughts based on these topics here in a blog?

Another motivating factor for starting this blog now is to keep me 'focused' as my wife gets ready to undergo surgery in the coming weeks having recently been diagnosed with the BRCA1 gene mutation. In nine days she will undergo an oophorectomy (surgical removal of one or both ovaries) and two weeks later, a bilateral mastectomy.