Life is nice when you’re traveling down a path without any major obstacles. Wake up, go to work, eat good food, have some fun time, self care, work out, go to sleep and repeat.
But then, life decides to drop a major boulder in that path, Indianan Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark style, and you have to figure out if you’re going to run for your life screaming, or are you going to run away so you don’t get smooshed and then turn around and chase the boulder with sledgehammer and break it down into little pieces.
Dang, that’s a big boulder……
My husband was recently diagnosed with advanced stage heart failure. That’s our boulder. He was quite fatigued for a while, but started having major shortness of breath at rest a few months ago. Thankfully, he decided to see a cardiologist. This is a guy who waited an entire week to seek medical attention for a ruptured appendix, so I am extremely thankful that he wasn’t stubborn about this! 🙂 The doctor said he has a case like this pop up every 6 months and that the diagnosis was so very clear and obvious.
Receiving the frantic call at work mid-morning, I was dumbfounded. Where the heck did this come from?? Was this out of the blue? Well, maybe not so much. He’s probably had this for a while…..
My husband suffered a stroke back in 2017 during surgery for something completely unrelated to the heart. During that three week hospital stay, not a single doctor recommended that he see a cardiologist. As a dietitian, I can’t believe that I didn’t think of that myself. Stroke and heart disease go together like peas and carrots. I’ve asked myself over and over again, “why did I not think about making him see a cardiologist?” Maybe we could have caught this earlier. But, perhaps when you’re too close to a situation, you just don’t think of things that later seem obvious. We don’t know why this happened, but he has a family history of some pretty intense heart disease, so the genetic component could have played a large part in all of this.
Since the official diagnosis of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (idiopathic basically means “we don’t know where the hell this came from so we’re going to insert a fancy word instead”), my poor husband has had multiple angiograms, stents placed in blocked arteries, a 1 week long hospital stay, and has had to wear a life vest defibrillator for the past 40 days as a precaution in case he goes into cardiac arrest. That thing totally looks like a man bra and I’d love to show you a picture, but I think my husband would kill me if I posted that! It comes with a massive battery pack that is attached and looks like either a really heavy old school Walkman or the device meter maids use to give parking tickets.
As I type this, he’s having an ICD (pacemaker/defibrillator) implanted in his chest and has his first heart transplant evaluation coming up. Wow. I never thought in a million years that I’d be saying the words “heart transplant evaluation.”
So that’s my boulder. What am I doing with it? Accepting it, smashing my way through it and helping in the way I know how. That’s through food. And a little nagging of course as any good wife should do. 🙂
What does this mean for TastyBalance?
I’m using this experience as an opportunity to educate my husband and others on what a heart healthy and reduced sodium lifestyle means. It doesn’t have to mean that you can’t ever use salt in recipes and it doesn’t mean that you’re reduced to nasty, bland food. Now, let me explain, my husband does not cook. Like, at all. No one suggested that he see a Registered Dietitian, or gave him any handouts, recipes or recommendations on what the heck low sodium even means. The only advice was “don’t use the salt shaker.” The only time lifestyle interventions have been mentioned is when I’ve specifically asked the doctors to discuss it with him.
Well….all I have to say is that he’s lucky he’s married to a Dietitian and one that develops recipes!
If my husband doesn’t know what to do or what types of foods to buy and cook, then I figure there are plenty of other people out there with the same issue.
Introducing Nutrition labels for recipes
I have now added nutritional labels to my recipes so you can see how much sodium they contain. All of the other major nutrient information is on there as well. I am also in the process of revising many of my recipes to reduce the sodium, but still allow them to taste good! Plus, I have a whole post inside of my head dedicated to nutrition labels because it’s a topic I’m getting really peeved about. Many food bloggers who aren’t nutrition professionals post them for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes and often times the information is so very very incorrect!!!! It’s kind of driving me a little crazy, but more on that at a later time.
Here’s what I’m working on!
- I am working on defining what low sodium means in terms of my recipes and will be adding a low sodium category to the Culinary Corner recipe page of my website.
- Blog posts focusing on heart health and a lower sodium lifestyle
- Heart-healthy and lower sodium meal plans
- A comprehensive list of all of my new favorite lower sodium packaged foods
- Continually revising recipes to fit our new lifestyle and for others that must be mindful of sodium
Whew! I’ve got a lot of work to do, but this is now part of my life, for better or for worse, and I hope that not only can I help my husband live life with tasty food, but I can help a few others out there too who may be struggling with the same thing.
Drop me a comment or shoot me an email at lindsey@tastybalancenutrition.com if you or your loved ones are confused with what to eat for hypertension, heart failure, or any condition that may require you to be mindful of sodium levels. I’d love to know what you struggle with how and how my new path can help you!
Also, if you’ve been through the heart transplant evaluation process, I’d really love to hear about your experience! I have no idea what I’m in for with this one!!
