I Survived: Managing Congestive Heart Failure

deal with stress continuously. I mean at work, at home, with finances, everything and there is nobody to release it to because you don’t have a significant other that you can talk to.

You can only say so much to your girlfriends without looking like a wiener or crier. So, it was mostly just not taking care of myself, it was all about the kids, it was all about, “okay, I got to clean up”, “I want to set a good example”, “I want to do this, or that”. You know, I never took any time to just allow myself to breathe and relax.

At that time what did most of your lifestyle and diet consist of?

At the time, it was mostly on-the-go food. I was not only working full-time, I was also completing my degree so I was going to school part-time, and trying to make ends meet with my kid’s day-to-day activities.

Most of my meals were eaten either very late at night or before I went to bed. So, I’d eat, go lay right down, and go to bed. In the morning, again, it was grab-n-go. I made sure my children ate properly, I was on top of all of that but I would get whatever was left over or go grab a breakfast sandwich and keep it pushing.

So, my diet was mostly fast food or more-so quick food. It was between carbs, your breads, pasta, stuff that’s easy to whip up. I mean I can’t tell you how many times I had rice and eggs for breakfast.

What did the doctors recommend as treatment options?

At that time, there was so much damage done to my heart. The option was diet and exercise as usual. Lose weight, of course, that’s always what all the doctors say continuously which, turned into more problems because I did start jogging on the treadmill and started working out, then I got a really bad heel spur to the point where I physically couldn’t do it.

So, it was just a continuous cesspool of ‘okay you need to do this, but you can’t do that or you need to do that, but you can’t do this’. It was just very difficult, even up until today.

So, as the congestive heart failure progressed, due to me getting more up in age, inactivity and having trouble changing my diet completely, in 2012 I was told that I needed a pacemaker.