First Cardiac Rehab Talk for 2015

Gave my first talk for the year at our cardiac rehab unit a couple of days ago. Twenty-two in attendance and Evelyn (my wife) joined in after she finished with an appointment in the same building re: her breast cancer surgery follow-up.

After my talk the floor was opened to questions and the first one that came up was about heart support groups. I did my spiel about local groups and also talked about Facebook (and SURVIVORS, one of the groups I am a member of) to some people who came up to me after the talk for more information). That was well received. Click on the name SURVIVORS and you will be taken to the group page.

SURVIVORS - should you know of anyone who may benefit from a support group online this is one on Facebook you may wish to consider. This is a closed group so all discussions, conversations, questions are private and not shared in a public way.

Another group I mentioned is Heart Attack and Stents which is also a private, closed group as is another group called Zipper Club.

There is no right or wrong group and there are plenty of places on the internet and on Facebook where people can turn to to share experiences following a heart event and to ask questions but people must always remember that members of these groups are not doctors and that medical advice should only be sought from their specialist or family doctor.

Another question that came up asked about dealing with depression and anxiety and I talked about my experiences and denial and talked about my coming around to seeing a social worker where I could vent instead of taking things out on Evelyn.

Another person brought up an issue that he was having re: sleep apnoea and the run around he was getting from specialists and doctors and his frustration (which was obvious from his voice) trying to get a CPAP machine but his not getting any help. Was able to talk about this a bit as I am going through this process at the moment via our public health system.

And another topic that was discussed dealt with rediscovering old hobbies like photography for me, being negative and the need to recognize what we might have been doing wrong that led up to our having a heart attack in the first place like diet, exercise, smoking and dealing with stress - i.e. lifestyle changes.

a photo I took of one our wildlife visitors where we live

All in all was great session today and of course I covered my 'favourite' topic re: diabetics not necessarily having the classic warning signs of symptoms leading up to and/or when having a heart attack.