Matters of the Heart

My brother came through open heart surgery with flying colors. He is already up and walking around. He had the surgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, due to the fact that his first surgery when he was 18 months old was done there. The doctors felt that it would be better to do it there as the type of defect he has was a congential heart defect and most of those types of surgeries are done on infants and children. Last night the hostess informed my mother that the hospital offered the parents an overnight room at the hospital to be nearer to their children. When mom asked the hostess about someplace for his wife, I thought the hostess was going to have a heart attack. But both mom and my brother's wife stayed overnight in the parental suite.

After seeing my brother go through such a harrowing experience it causes you to take a look at your own lifestyle. Even though my brother's heart problems are congenital it still makes me think. Smoking, drinking and all the things that I eat, that are surely effecting my heart. But does it make me stop? Probably not, but it does make me think. With each drag of the cigarette and each bite of the Wendy's burger I think about it. Maybe I should stop. Or at least cut back. That is easier said than done.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the US, mainly due to smoking and obesity. So far thank goodness the only heart problems I have had, have been of the emotional kind. Those are bad enough. Those are the kind that cause you to smoke, over eat and drink.