If you have suffered a heart attack recently and back from the hospital you have undergone a life-threatening and harrowing experience. You are fortunate enough to come back to your home after your treatment in your hospital, you need to make some vital changes to your life and take home health care seriously.
As a person who has suffered a heart attack recently, it is natural for you to feel worried and overwhelmed with the challenging situation in your present life. At this point, you may have a lot of questions and you need the answers for those questions to adjust your life to the new routine of a heart patient.
Try to get answers from your health care team or those around you and make your home care assistance understand your concerns. At this time you are taking steps to recover from your recent health problem and with the help of senior care you want to stay well. There are certain things you have to do immediately after returning from your hospital and these vitally necessary for helping yourself recover within a very short time when you will be under 24-hour care at home and they include
- Be health-conscious: after your recent harrowing experience, you should not take your health for granted as you have been doing so far. Realize that you are in-home care and must take care of yourself in the best possible manner. Seek the help of those around you and take their help wherever necessary as you have home care assistance for you at your home.
- Avoid stress and strain: the daily stress and strain that you have been enduring all these years might have made your heart patient. Now you have to avoid stress and strain in your daily life as much as possible. You can talk to your doctor for specific advice and express your concerns and get their views as to get rid of the stressful situation in your life.
- Realize that you need be careful: When you were hospitalized for your heart attack your routine life will be taken care of by any Health Care workers but after your return from the hospital, you have to go back to your life. You have to follow your normal routine but everything you do must be as per the condition of your heart and start to go back to your life slowly and give your heart a chance to heal and be in-home care. This is a necessary precaution to avoid further complications in your health.
- Do exercises with the permission of your Doctor: If you have been doing physical exercises before suffering a heart attack do not return to any kind of exercise without talking to your doctor. Get their approval for doing the same as they know the condition of your heart more than you do and they will know how much physical strain your heart can take when you are under elder care.
- Take action for rehabilitation: You must sign up for a cardiac rehabilitation program and be a regular visitor to your Healthcare facility for continuous monitoring of blood pressure, heart rate, heartbeat, and other vital aspects of your physical condition as you are still under senior care and getting home care assistance.
- Go to work after rest: It is normal for you to think of going back to your work as soon as you come out of the hospital. The period of rest you require after a heart attack depends on the overall condition of your body as well as the working condition of your heart. So, the amount of time you have to be off from your work depends on your physical condition. As you cannot put yourself and the health of your heart in danger you have to avoid stressful situations in your life. So, heed the advice of your doctors and home health care professionals before deciding to go back to work.
- Avoid Driving: You may want to drive your car or your vehicle after returning from the hospital. Since you have been Independent and was not depending on anybody for your daily routine, your recent heart attack has changed everything. Now it is time to get help from others whenever you have to. This applies to your driving also. Though most people who have a heart attack can drive within a week you have to talk to your doctor and know how your heart is functioning and then decide about going out in your car by yourself. When you are still under 24-hour care at home and your heart condition does not allow, you must avoid driving vehicles till you recover fully.
- Postpone sexual activities: As after a heart attack, your heart is still healing from the recent attack refrain from sexual activities for sufficient time till your heart is back to normal. As sexual activities can cause stress to your heart for at least 2-3 weeks after coming from your hospital. When you are feeling completely alright you can start sexual activities slowly and avoiding stressful situations and positions
- Know the risk factors and avoid them: As a heart patient, you must take all steps to recover from the heart attack and come back to your normal life within a short time. But you should not rush things and strain your heart and avoid all risk factors that caused your heart disease this will help you to avoid a second attack by following the advice of your doctor for secondary prevention follow all the advice given by the doctor and return to a healthier Lifestyle reducing all the risk factors so that your heart stays calm and healthy
- Stop Smoking: Tobacco is a well-known risk factor for heart disease damaging the walls of the blood vessels and prevents blood and oxygen from reaching your heart and other internal organs. Excessive tobacco use causes blood clots in major blood vessels that increase the risk of further heart attacks. As advised by your caregiver’s nicotine in tobacco increases blood pressure and hence you must avoid smoking altogether. If you are not able to quit smoking during the period of in-home care you can seek professional help to come out of the smoking habit.
- Keep Your Blood Pressure Under Control: As a person suffering from heart disease uncontrolled high, blood pressure increases stress on your ailing heart. So you talk to your doctor and know the ways of managing your blood pressure. You can do exercises, eat a healthy diet and take in low salt and lose weight to keep your blood pressure under control also do not fail to take medicines prescribed by a doctor to help control your blood pressure while receiving home health care.
- Control your cholesterol levels: Your body has two types of cholesterol the high-density lipoprotein HDL that is good for your body and the low-density lipoproteins LDL that are bad for your heart. When you take in too much bad cholesterol in your diet it increases your risk of heart disease. So, you have to eat a healthy diet that is low in cholesterol and never forget to take prescribed medications for keeping cholesterol under control.
- Control your diabetes: higher sugar level in your blood is another risk factor for heart disease. Diabetes is a disease that is caused by insulin hormone deficiency in your blood you has to take care of your level of sugar in your body. You can talk to your doctor and get your blood screened for diabetes and know your levels. Find out the best diet you have to take for keeping your sugar levels under control with proper planning and help from your health care and home carers it is possible to create a plan and manage your diabetic condition under normal levels
- Do Exercises: the period after a heart attack makes you health conscious and you have to do regular cardio exercises to make your heart stronger. You can go walking, jogging, running, cycling, and swimming after getting advice from your doctor. Do not forget that exercises help your heart pump more blood and deliver more amount of oxygen to your body. This has the effect of lowering your cholesterol level and your blood pressure is maintained at normal levels. When you go out for doing exercises outside your home it becomes a stress reliever. Regular exercise and a healthy diet help you keep your weight under normal levels.
- Keep Your Body Weight under Control: Being overweight affects the health of your heart. At least after suffering a heart attack you have to take care of what you are eating and have constant monitoring of your body weight. Keep your body weight within normal levels. Reducing 10% of your body weight will help lower the risk of another Heart Attack by over 30%. Discuss with your doctor before changing your exercise and diet plans so that they can make any changes to help your heart Heal better
- Focus on Your Healthy Diet: After suffering a Heart Attack it is that time you have to focus on taking a well-balanced healthy diet. The food you eat influences the amount of blood flow that takes place in your body. A diet that is rich in bad fats can build-up blocks in your arteries preventing free blood flow which is bad for your heart so take care to take a good balanced and heart-healthy diet.
- Keep Your Stress Level Low: Heart attacks are always scary and upsetting but do not lose your heart and get too much mental agony. Avoid being too much emotional even after you come from your hospital. With the help of home care assistance avoid stressful situations. Know how to balance your emotions that you have to face during your daily life. Do not forget depression and stress increase the risk of heart disease.
