My origin story: I was born in Chemainus, BC, but lived in Ladysmith until I got married in 1967. My father worked at Chemainus mill so my mother had to go to Chemainus hospital to give birth! Weird, eh?

I lived in Victoria from 1963 to 1966 where I did my nursing training in Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. After training, I worked in Ladysmiith hospital for one year then got married and worked in Nanaimo for a year. I took 15 years off to raise my kids and then went back to work. I have two boys. I have been in Nanaimo since 1967. I am proud to be Island born and bred!

My age: I am 77 and most days I mentally feel 50 – physically I feel 92.

Occupation: Retired Registered Nurse, with speciality in Emergency Room medicine. I retired in 2005.

My heart health story

My story probably started while I was still working as a registered nurse. I would occasionally have some chest heaviness - starting in 1999. I wouldn’t go downstairs to the cafeteria for meals because I would get short of breath coming up the stairs. I thought I was just badly out of shape and overweight. I was also in complete denial!

After I retired I was fine; probably because the stress was gone. Then in September 2009, the shortness of breath came back when I was walking. In November, I developed jaw pain while walking. I saw my general practitioner a week later. She sent me for a stress test in December which showed blockages. But I did not have an actual heart attack. I had an angiogram done in January 2010, saw the surgeon two weeks later, and on February 22, 2010, I had a quadruple bypass done at the Royal Jubilee Hospital.

Complications in recovery

My recovery was fairly routine except that I reacted to one of the self-dissolving sutures, which was rather unpleasant. I’d had some friends come and visit me at home in Nanaimo – about two weeks post op – and after they left, I looked down and saw that the front of my blouse was all yucky. I was draining from my incision. This freaked me out and I wondered, is this in the bone? Was it in the incision?

My husband took me to Emergency and got hold of my surgeon. One of the docs I knew quite well, said, ‘Sandy, I don’t think you’re infected, you’re not sick enough.’ So they did an incision and drainage right by the original incision.

Then they did scans and everything else and were waiting for a bed to open up for me in Victoria, as they wanted my surgeon to see the draining. So I stayed in Nanaimo Emergency for three days, as the doctors tried to figure out what was going on. At first, the drainage slowed down and I was sent home. But it kept draining and draining.

Self care in action

So, when I was at home, I phoned the surgeon’s office directly. The receptionist said, ‘You better come down to Victoria.” The receptionist arranged for me to go down the next day to Victoria. When I got there, the surgeon took me into a room that was empty and he opened the incision right up, and he did it under local anesthetic. Then I had a big gaping wound that I had to irrigate twice a day. Then I went home.

Two weeks later, I was called from the surgeon’s office telling me that I was booked for a surgery in Victoria. They were going to do a debridement. That’s where they go in and really clean it up.

It turns out when the surgeon did clean up my wound, he’d found bits of the suture. But later on, when I was cleaning my incision at home, I found a bit of the suture and I pulled out a two-inch long piece of suture! It wasn’t due to a mistake by the surgeon, I just couldn’t tolerate that type of suture. It was a type of self-dissolving suture. When I told the doctor what I’d done myself, he laughed. I started to heal up after that.

Emotional recovery

The emotional aspect of the whole thing hit me quite hard. My husband Neen is a super worrier, so I kept all of my concerns to myself. I didn’t go for counselling because. . .I don’t know. Neen was very attentive and helpful through it all, though. He got me out walking twice a day. When it was cold in February, we walked malls – but he’s a super worry wort.

Life after bypass surgery

It has now been 10 years since my surgery. I feel that I have done well. Life has changed in that I don’t have the stamina that I used to have and I find that frustrating. But my age probably is a factor, too.

My treatment has been the usual medication: beta blocker, cholesterol medication, blood pressure medication, and ASA. I am also diabetic, so I am on Metformin and insulin.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea seven years ago in 2014. I use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine with good results. My health is generally pretty good. I didn’t think there was a problem other than I snored. But I was sent to a specialist because my morning sugars were always high. He thought it was due to sleep apnea. Once I was put on the sleep apnea machine, my sugars went down.

What are the benefits of belonging to the Nanaimo Heart Sisters?

I first heard about the Heart Sisters when Candis Jamieson phoned me just after I had my bypass surgery. It was too soon for me to join the group as I just wasn’t ready for it. Just over a year later, Barb Hill phoned me and encouraged me to join the group. I did and I am so thankful for it! I have been a member for eight years.

The benefit I get from Heart Sisters is huge. It has put my emotional wellbeing into perspective. Hearing the questions and the stories of others has made me realize how fortunate I am. The friendship, support, and encouragement has meant the world to me.

It’s been an emotional lifesaver for me – I still get enjoyment from it.