What You’ll Learn

A diagnosis of heart disease leads a man to change his diet and to exercise more–and the realization that a diagnosis can be “a blessing in disguise.” Despite a previous cancer treatment and now cardiac care, this patient says his worst experience in healthcare has been the challenge of getting an appointment. And his best experience has been his hospital’s patient portal and clear communications from physicians. This interview underscores that convenience and communication can be as important to patients as their medical treatment.

Interviewee: I’m 55 now and married with three kids. Earlier this year I started having some fainting symptoms and I went to see a doctor. We started doing a bunch of tests and I had a couple of things going on. One, I had arrhythmia. What’s called a long QT, the QT. I call it the Q-tip syndrome, which has to do with electrical signals in the heart work. I found that out. And then I also found out that I had heart disease with atherosclerosis. It’s plaque in the arteries.

I didn’t have a heart attack or something like that, thank God. But those were two things that kind of floored me. What floored me wasn’t the arteries. I’m older, I eat a lot of meat. My diet wasn’t the best, so that didn’t surprise me. What surprised me was the arrhythmia.

VIVO: What about it surprised you?

Interviewee: There’s no family history that I’m aware of as far as any kind of heart problems. There’s cancer in my family history, but not anything with the heart. That surprised me. And then to find out is something that I never knew anything about, who knows about a long QT syndrome unless it happens to you. That floored me. And it’s the complexity of those kinds of problems with the heart.

VIVO: Did you have any other, what could be considered pre-existing risk factors? Like high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes, any of those?

Interviewee: I think the biggest problem I had was ever since COVID, when I started working from home. I I work primarily from home since COVID. What happened, I got more into a sedentary lifestyle since 2020, gained weight, didn’t watch my diet. That’s on me. I guess those would be the factors that heavily influenced, not the QT, but with the plaque.

VIVO: With the plaque? And did you know that that could be a risk for heart disease? Like the weight or the eating habits?

Interviewee: I did and I guess I thought I was invincible even though I was in my 50s. I didn’t have any symptoms. I thought I can get to it later. That kind of syndrome. I could deal with my physical part later. I didn’t anticipate problems starting in my 50s. This is probably something you hear a lot of, the same kind of thing. I didn’t think it could happen to me because for the most part, I’ve been a pretty healthy dude.

VIVO: Would you say that or anything else? What would you say is the biggest misconception for men about heart disease?

Interviewee: I think the common misconception, at least for me, was even though I’m healthy and I don’t feel any symptoms, that means nothing’s wrong.

VIVO: I think that’s very relatable.

Interviewee: And I had my blood test done over the years. I had leukemia over 10 years ago. And I’m in remission, thank God. I call this my long hair remission.

VIVO: Your prize, your celebration.

Interviewee: Because I lost a lot of hair. But besides that, I was always healthy. I got my blood test done regularly. I did get my physical every year with my doctor, and my doctor would always tell me, “Hey, you got to do this and do that.” But it seems like last year it came because I was having some fainting symptoms and we started the process of the test of the heart test with a pulmonologist. The misconception for me was, there’s nothing wrong. I don’t feel anything wrong. There probably isn’t anything wrong. The silent killer they call heart disease.

VIVO: You said you started fainting. How long between fainting and then going to see the doctor, what amount of time passed there?

Interviewee: Oh, that was within a week. Because they were coming even when I was in bed.

VIVO: What happened within that week between the time?

Interviewee: Well, I was fortunate to get an appointment that soon. Nowadays, we have a hospital that’s right down the street, less than a mile away, but to get an appointment with anybody there now, it takes a while. But I was within a week. And they were happening often, the fainting spells, and they were odd enough where I was worried about – I used to have leukemia – so my wife was like, “You know what?” And even my daughter’s like, “Dad, TCOB.” We call it TCOB-ing, taking care of business.

I was lucky to get within a week. And then I had imaging done within that next week. About two weeks after having my first fainting spell, I had not a diagnosis, but my primary care doctor had a better idea of what was happening. And that’s when I got referred to a heart specialist heart doctor. And then that was about two weeks later. Within a month of the fainting spells, I saw a heart doctor and we had to do some imaging.

VIVO: What were some of the feelings you experienced in that weird waiting time in between?

Interviewee: It was a lot of fear, I’ll be honest. A lot of fear because it’s always a fear of the unknown. And I was continuing to have these fainting spells every day. I mean, I wasn’t falling on the floor or anything, but I’d be sitting here in my home office, spare bedroom. I’d be sitting here working on a computer and all of a sudden be like… But they were continuing to happen. It was a fear, “What the hell is going on?” It’s like, “What the F?”

The biggest thing was fear. But there was also, for me, I have a tendency, because I’m a cancer survivor, I always look at the positive side of things. Like, things could always be worse. I think it’s harder on my kids. Because they were watching me, especially my oldest daughter, she’s 15, she was kind of keeping an eye on me all the time. It was hard on them. And I was trying to console them too. “Everything’s going to be okay.” I was kind of focusing on the fam and how they were feeling than myself. But fear obviously-

VIVO: That makes sense. It’s a burden.

Interviewee: And then nowadays with the internet makes things worse sometimes when you’re trying to self-diagnose yourself. Looking on the internet you can find anything from, you will die in 10 days because you have this disease to simple fainting symptoms. I had to stay away from the internet to try to self-diagnose myself. It was mostly fear.

VIVO: That takes some serious restraint.

Interviewee: There is no restraint. I mean, look, I got my phone here. You have the instant internet knowledge of the world in your hands. You can’t help when you’re – I’m sure everyone’s been through something physically – you can’t help but try to search. Especially when you have to wait a while. At least have a general idea. But that’s when the fear takes over. It becomes obsessive in my searches, because this had never happened before. Fear, that obsession because of the internet to find out what’s going on, and then getting to the doctor, and then the doctor say, “Hey, everything’s going to be okay. You got some things you got to work on, dude.”

VIVO: How do you feel about your overall health right now?

Interviewee: I’m going to say this, because I try to stay positive. This was a blessing in disguise. I’m still kind of trepidatious about the QT. I mean, I’m on a beta blocker now, but that’s it. That’s the only med I’m on now. I did the angioplasty, so that’s taken care of. I call it Roto-Rooter. There used to be a plumbing company called Roto-Rooter.

To me it was a blessing in disguise because it was something that motivated me to be transparent about how I was treating my body, especially going into my 50s and I knew I needed to change and change my whole diet and exercise to be around longer for my wife and kids and the kiddos. But I was procrastinating on it over repeatedly, always saying that I can get to it. I said that when I was 50, when COVID started, and then all of a sudden, here it is five years later, but this was the spring to help lead me to understanding and realization.

It was like the come to Jesus talk moment for me when all this happened. It was like, okay, I’m a spiritual person. I believe God is going to use this to help me understand that I need to be very, very, take my life more seriously. I can’t go to Burger King anymore and have three Whoppers and not worry about the impact it’s going to have. Like I did when I was in my 20s.

VIVO: What changes did you make then?

Interviewee: First of all, it’s exercise. I have dropped 40 pounds. I was obese. My BMI was in the 30s, and now I’m continuing. I didn’t go on a crash course diet, but I’ve eliminated a lot of things. Sugar, especially sugar and sodas. That was my weakness. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. Those were two things that never was in play. I stopped all the drinking and all that stuff when I had cancer. The first thing is exercise, moving.

Luckily here in Denver – I’m from California. When I used to first think of Denver, I used to think, “Man, it’s always snowing there in the winter.” That’s not true. It’s sunny here a lot. The sun’s out all the time. I get to walk. I walk every day except when it’s snowing. Getting off the couch, that has been the number one thing. The diet has been second. I’ve eliminated a lot of proteins, carbs, and had to redo the pantry, which was tough for the family, because I’m the cook, I’m the guy who’s always cooking dinners and stuff. I got to cook for me and then for the family.

Like you probably hear from a lot of people, it’s the diet, the exercise. And that has transformed how I view each day. The food was the big thing. I view food differently now, ever since this stuff with the heart, I view it more as fuel for the body instead of – it was an addiction for me.

And then how I eat. Instead of binge eating once a day and eating at 10 o’clock at night, I had to redo everything. And I had to see a nutritionist. My primary care doctor gave me some appointments to see a nutritionist. And nutritionist helped me understand even the little things like coffee, which I drink all the darn time. It’s don’t put so much, don’t make it a coffee shake.

Because I had the tendency to half creamer, half coffee. It’s the diet and the exercise. And it’s radically changed how I view my everyday life. And now I feel so much better and cleaner inside, I guess, than I did before. This whole thing with the heart problems and the QT syndrome, it helped launch me into a better lifestyle. That was the come to Jesus moment for me.

VIVO: Do you view yourself differently now?

Interviewee: Yes. Oh, yeah. I think the mental part of it, because before the heart problems, I knew that gaining weight, I knew it was wrong. That was very depressing at times for me. I knew I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing, I was gaining weight. Mentally that made me feel ashamed of myself. And I do see a therapist now. I’m not on meds or anything. I see a therapist now to help me with my feelings and stuff like that, other issues that I have.

But we do talk about this sometimes. My view of myself was very bad. I didn’t like looking at myself in the mirror, looking at the belly, the little A cup boobies I had, stuff like that. I was very, my identity was poor of myself. Except for what I did for work and having a family and being proud of that, I was very unhappy with myself. Now, I’m still, I’m much, much better with that mentally. But I look at myself as a work in progress, whereas instead of continuing to slide, I’m going up. And I’m not as ashamed of myself as I was before. There’s a guilt and shame thing going on there that I had before.

VIVO: Do you think that the diagnosis you received, would you say it had a positive impact on your emotional or mental well-being?

Interviewee: At first, I was devastated. I was happy that I didn’t have a heart attack or something like that. But I was devastated that I felt that I had let myself go so far to the point where who knows what would happen next. But at the same time, I was blessed that I found the fainting, I don’t have the fainting spells anymore, but I was blessed that the fainting spells were a symptom of something. It’s kind of like a knock on the door, opening the door for me to understand I need to start taking care of my whole body more.

I still view it that way. I view it even though having this QT is a trip because down the road it could cause some problems. But I caught it early enough, according to the heart doctor, where beta blockers should treat it for the rest of my life without any problems. This has been such a positive event for me. Turning that negative into a positive, it’s been life altering. I am thankful for that spiritually. I thank God every day when I wake up for this QT syndrome, because it helps me understand that there’s a standard that I need to set myself to every day now to be healthy for, I want to be around for my honey and for my kids.

This was negative at first and scary, but turned it into something positive that every day changes my life for the good.

VIVO: How would you say the impact of this diagnosis has been unique to you based on your gender, if at all?

Interviewee: On my gender? Sure. I believe females are the superior species. I’ve always felt that way. 90% of my friends are females. I think their point of view is always better than, I think they’re more empathetic than men too. But as a man, I feel that we have a certain amount of pride that we have. Having that, I think when something medical happens, it kind of hurts that pride. We don’t want to talk about it, because we know, like for instance, I know I should have been doing something better with my lifestyle, and this is on me, what happened.

But at the same time, it’s like it takes a chunk off my pride, kind of like humbles me and puts me on my knees as a man. That’s how I consider this whole event, that it humbled me as a man to understand that I need to be better about my health. I think that’s the only way as a gender to fit that is that men have a certain pride, we have a certain amount of pride. And that impacted my pride and humbled me to understand that also, it helped communication better with my wife.

VIVO: How so?

Interviewee: Because I didn’t talk about my health with my wife very often, except when I had cancer. Any little thing that happened to me, I kept it to myself. And if it came up in a conversation, it came up. Now, I’m transparent about everything to my wife, about anything, even if I have a migraine or something. It has helped me become more transparent. It’s destroyed a lot of the pride factor, and it’s made me more open to being honest with my loved ones about what’s going on in my life health-wise, instead of hiding it behind or shoving it into a closet and not talking about it. It’s helped me be more as a man, more transparent with my loved ones. I guess that’s the best way I could say it.

VIVO: Do you think that where you live has played a role in your access to healthcare at all?

Interviewee: Only in the fact that I’m surrounded by a great healthcare system location wise, because we have a major hospital right down the street. I live north of Denver in an area called Thornton. And it’s a north, it’s a big suburb up here. And I don’t see that being a factor location. I’m blessed we have this huge medical center right down the street. And then as far as referrals, specialist, I have to travel up quite a bit. But everything’s close by. I don’t see that as a factor, except I’m blessed I live close by.

VIVO: What would you say, in reflecting on any medical experience you have, what’s been your most positive experience with healthcare?

Interviewee: That’s a good question. I think the positive is this, I’ve been able to find some quality specialists and doctors, people that listen. People that give a darn, they treat me like a patient instead of a number. That is, I mean, empathy, let’s put it that way. I think that’s something that’s lost sometimes. I’ve had doctors, when I had cancer, I remember there was no empathy there.

Here with the situation, everything that was heart related, I was able to get and see specialists quickly. I was explained in layman’s terms by staff, what is going on. And I was explained thoroughly the next steps to get to a solution. That’s been the most positive part. It’s not empathy, but doctors and staff that explain things to me where I can understand. And the communication has been great. And I love my portal, my hospital systems portal. I can email my doctor anytime, and within 24 hours, they email me back. I don’t have to always go to an appointment. I say, “Hey, here’s my problem.” The communication – there you go. Communication and empathy, two big things. They’ve been excellent.

VIVO: What would you say is the worst experience then? 

Interviewee: I would say making appointments. That’s probably been the negative part. Because a lot of times you can’t go on the websites. You try to book an appointment with my hospital system, and it doesn’t work well on their portal. And having the difference between a physical appointment and a telehealth appointment, it seems like no matter what, I always have to call on the phone. Even though it’s on their websites, you book an appointment, it never fits my parameters, especially with the specialists. I have to end up calling anyway. And it seems like then you have to wait a long time on the phone. Booking the appointments, that’s been tough.

VIVO: What advice would you give to somebody that you know if they called you and they said, “I’ve been diagnosed with whatever heart disease.”¬†

Interviewee: I would say, “You know what? Take this as a positive. This can help you like it did me. It can help change your lifestyle where you can live a long time for yourself and for your family. Things could always be worse.” That’s what I would tell them. And “Make sure you hit all your appointments and do everything as quickly as possible so you can get to the solution.” And I would also tell them, “Don’t lollygag about it. Take care of business right away. That way that elephant’s out of the room, that devil so to speak, is off your shoulder and you can move on with your life.” I would tell them. “Everything’s going to be okay. Treat it as a long-term solution to living longer.”

VIVO: And would you be comfortable sharing any goals you have for your health and wellness?

Interviewee: My goal is to continue to not get lazy. It is easy to fall into old routines, especially when I don’t have the symptoms anymore. I’ve had days where I’ve gotten lazy. “I don’t feel like going for a walk. I want to sit down and binge watch the new Star Wars show today.” Something like that. It’s consistency in my plan. And then not cheating eating too. Last week I got real – my daughter, we got real, we cheated. I had a McChicken sandwich. I can’t be eating that kind of stuff. It’s consistency with my goals. Even though this is behind me now in the rear view mirror, and I have beta blockers for the QT, but because it’s way in the rear view mirror, I got to continue to be consistent and not fall into old routines.

Participant Profile:

• Male heart disease patient recently diagnosed with arrhythmia (long QT syndrome) and atherosclerosis
• Lives in Denver, Colorado (Thornton area)
• 55 years old
• Married with three children (oldest is 15)
• Cancer survivor (leukemia over 10 years ago, in remission)
• Works for United Way, primarily from home since COVID
• Recently lost 40 pounds after diagnosis
• Notable challenges: Sedentary lifestyle post-COVID, weight gain, poor diet habits
• Key priorities: Maintaining lifestyle changes, staying consistent with exercise and diet