The Heart Disease Support Center

The Journey:
Just Found Out
Dealing With It
Recover & Thrive
Worst Case

Facing the Initial Impact of Heart Disease

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Every person is unique, but when you face a challenge like heart disease you are never alone. Countless men and women have faced exactly the same diagnosis and have survived and thrived. The following guide is designed to help you navigate your journey with the best information and resources that have helped other survivors when they faced the same challenge.

TSC has scoured the Web to assemble links to the very best heart disease resources: articles, blogs, forums, and tools to help you make better decisions and take action to overcome the range of physical, emotional, and other challenges you're facing now.

As you’ll see, we always welcome your ideas and suggestions to make this heart disease guide even more helpful to survivors like you.


JUST FOUND OUT


Survivors Say: Best Resources for Heart Disease


Survivors say these are the best resources for those who have just found out. Check them out to find out more about your options.



The Big Picture


Heart disease, when left untreated, is the number one killer of adults in the western world. Properly treated, however, it can be a manageable condition. The actual term “heart disease” is an all-inclusive term for a variety of heart conditions, including coronary heart disease, cardiomyopathy, cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, inflammatory heart disease, and valvular heart disease, among others.

Here's a complete guide to the different types of heart disease: Heart Disease - Symptoms & Types


Your Heart Disease

Before starting treatment your doctor will help you understand what type of heart disease you have, as well as your risk factors and any unique signs and symptoms.

Symptoms Heart Disease - WebMD.com

Here are 10 Important Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Heart Disease

Your World

Anger and depression are common responses to the news of being diagnosed with heart disease. Maintaining control of your emotions during this difficult time is essential to helping you become a survivor.

Coping with Feelings - American Heart Association

Getting a handle on stress is especially important, since chronic, high-level stress has been show to affect heart health. A guide (PDF) for dealing with stress as a heart disease patient can be found through the American Medical Association:

Chronic Stress and the Heart

Explaining your diagnosis to friends, family, or employers can be difficult. Survivors share their stories of heart attack at the American Heart Association site:

Heart Attack Personal Stories

Heart Disease Myths

“If I exercise I will never get heart disease.”
“Only older people get heart disease.”
“Pain in the arms and chest are the only signs of a heart attack.”
ABCNews.com looks at six common myths about heart disease: ABC News - Heart Disease Myths Busted

 

Dealing With Heart Disease

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DEALING WITH HEART DISEASE


Information and Recommended Links for Survivors:


Survivors say these are the best guides; check them out to find out more about your options:

 

Types of Treatment

Medication

Heart disease is most often treated with medication. It is important to see a doctor regularly and to take your medication as prescribed.

Heart Medications - Heart Disease - WebMD.com

Surgery

If the arteries in your heart are blocked, you may require heart bypass surgery.

Heart Disease and Heart Bypass Surgery - WebMD.com


Creating a Support Circle

  • Set up your TSC Survivor Profile
  • Join support groups of other survivors or set up your own
  • Interact and provide updates


Healthcare Providers Who Can Help

Cardiologists are the medical professionals who most commonly treat heart disease.
The American College of Cardiology explains what a cardiologist does...

CardioSmart - What is a Cardiologist?

Resources to Find Doctors



Books Survivors Recommend


Dealing with Heart Disease: Information for Co-Survivors

How you can help

  • Contribute the names of books and resources that helped you during this period.
  • Be willing to talk and share experiences with others.
  • Create a TSC Co-Survivor profile and participate in our community.

What to say

  • Be supportive.
  • Help Survivors understand they are not alone.
  • Reassure Survivors that there is life beyond this crisis.

What not to say

  • Don't be negative.
  • Don't trivialize the patient or survivor's concerns, no matter how seemingly small or irrational.
  • Don't focus on this health crisis as the defining moment of the survivor's life.

Things you can do for a survivor every day

  • Be a friend.
  • Collect and share information on heart disease.
  • Empathize and share your own experiences in dealing with a crisis, and how you coped.

How to build a support network

  • Set up your TSC Co-Survivor Profile.
  • Create a support group for your friend or family member.
  • Interact and provide updates.

How to help a survivor deal with day-to-day challenges

  • Work/School – Be supportive as your friend or family member deals with the stress of work and/or school during this time; this may be the most stress they've ever experienced and they may not have found ways to cope, especially early on. Try to relieve their concern and tension in other areas of their life by running basic errands or helping in other ways they'll find useful. Trying to address the small things will be a world of help during this time.
  • Family – The entire family be under stress now -- not just the person with heart disease. Especially right after the diagnosis, ask if you can help with grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, or other basic needs of the household.

 

Recover & Thrive

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RECOVERY AND THRIVING


Good advice how to thrive physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually as a survivor.

Recovery and Recurrence


If your condition worsens, try not to be discouraged. Remember that heart disease requires vigilance and changes to many aspects of your life, probably for the rest of your life. Talk to your doctor to be sure you know you're doing all you can to strengthen your heart and maintain the support you need now around you. All of these will help you in your survival. Especially important are exercise, eating a healthy diet, and quitting smoking, if you smoke.


At some point, you may wish to pursue complementary treatment for your heart disease. The National Institute of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has updates on treatments such as omega-3 fatty acids, garlic, and various herbs and their possible role in heart health:

Heart Disease - (NCCAM) Health Information

Worst Case

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Clearly heart disease can lead to heart attack and stroke, which can result in brain damage or death. Recovery from a heart attack can be a challenging process.

As common and fatal as heart disease can be, it can be surprisingly difficult to prepare for.

Wall Street Journal - Visceral Fear of Unexpected Heart Attacks

Dealing with the death of a loved one, especially if it is sudden, can be devastating. However, others have walked this road before you.

JourneyofHearts.com - Dealing with Grief

There are resources out there for families coping with serious heart disease. Here is just one of the many.

MedicalCenter.osu.edu - Coping with Heart Disease 


 

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