Eating Post Heart Attack

Since the heart attack, I’ve had to pull way back on everything. Including food. Not really by choice, my appetite has just been absolutely non-existant. Leading up to the heart attack, I wasn’t really eating much. Maybe once a day, just due to the sheer pain of when my salivary glands would turn on. The sores that have been getting worse in my mouth over the past year have also just been a gating factor when it comes to eating. Some days, I would just stay hydrated. Days at a time, I wouldn’t eat for at least 3 days in a row. When my body would tell me that I needed to eat, I would try to find something that I could eat, something quick, minimal effort.

I never really paid attention to what I was eating, I wasn’t eating garbage food, but sometimes a quick cheeseburger did the trick. Little did I realize, this was also contributing to the atomic bomb that was about to go off in my heart. I can attribute that at least 90% of the contributing factors that led up to the clot in my Left Anterior Descending Artery, was the PICC lines I had from 2022 until the Portocath was placed in my chest. Every PICC line that I’ve had has always clotted, to the point to where you could push medications in, but no blood return. Since those clots form at the end of the catheter, when they pull the line out, that clot doesn’t come with. They find a new home. Since my body definitely has a clotting issue which is still unknown, on top of needing IVIg, that only increases the chances of a clot.

Due to the nature of what was seen during my cardiac emergency, the angioplasty that was done, yes the clots were removed, but if you look back at the report, there is plaque. Not much from what Dr. Chauhan’s opinion was, but nevertheless, I really have been eating like an asshole. Only being limited to eating soft foods, on top of the lack of energy that I possessed, theres one thing thats typically found in most of those foods. Sodium. Also known as salt, but Sodium is what the nutrition labels state as. For the typical “healthy” adult, it’s recommended that you don’t exceed 2,600mg of Sodium. For someone who is now in my situation, I can only have 1,500mg. Which most people seem to think isn’t much, but when you start looking at what goes into food, Sodium is in EVERYTHING. Especially foods that are frozen. Microwaveable. “Easy to Prepare”.

For example, one of the places I’ve always looked at, as an “ok” place to eat is Chipotle. Yes, it is freshly made. Organic ingredients. Most people just assume that its “not bad” for you. Case in point, I was really hungry the other day. Which is an odd feeling that I need to still try to understand what it means, since I’ve really never had the hungry feeling in a very long time.

So I got my “usual” at Chipotle. It’s a salad with chicken, white rice, black beans, lettuce, mild salsa, medium salsa, and cheese. Usually I’ll get a bag of chips with guacamole, and queso cheese. I’ll only eat about 6 chips, and let Anies have the rest of the chips. I also got some for lunch today too…

Today my curiosity got me to really take a hard look into the nutrition of whats really in there. Just focusing on the Sodium contents of each item, I was absolutely fucking BLOWN AWAY that indeed, I’ve been eating like an asshole. You’d assume a place like this would be “ok” to eat at, but holy shit, after looking at everything, a massive amount of Sodium is in there. As I was eating lunch, I was about 1/4th to a 1/2 done with what I ordered…. Needles to say I immediately stopped eating, and put the rest in the fridge.

Their nutrition calculator they primarily have on their website, just focuses on protein, calories, carbs, etc. You need to click the full nutrition guide, I learned first hand, that I really need to look at everything CAREFULLY before I decide to eat it.

• Lettuce (Romaine and Supergreens Mix) …. 15mg Sodium
• Chicken (Regular Portion) …. 310mg Sodium
• White Rice (Double Portion) …. 700mg Sodium
• Black Beans (Regular Portion ) …. 210mg Sodium
• Mild Salsa (Regular Portion ) …. 550mg Sodium
• Medium Tomatillo Salsa (Regular Portion) …. 260mg Sodium
• Cheeeeeeeeese (Regular Portion) … 190mg Sodium
• Chips (Full Small bag) …. 390mg Sodium
• Queso (Side) …. 490mg Sodium
• Grand Total = 2625mg Sodium

I couldn’t believe my eyes. At all. One could argue though, I only eat 6 chips, maybe a 1/4’th of the Queso, but still. Thats still > 1500mg of the amount of Sodium I should be limiting myself too. Again, just blindly going along with what I thought was “healthy”. Holy shit, I already fucked up not even 2 weeks after my heart attack. Since I wasn’t really eating, exceeding sodium was really never a problem, until I got hungry 🙁

Putting together a playbook of what I can eat where, how much of it, and just a general do’s & dont’s to just simply consuming things will take me a long time. A lot of restraint, and self-discipline will have to come into play. It will just take a lot of patience, and research into what I’ve got to do to maintain the guidelines post heart attack.

The big thing that the dietitian stressed while I was in the hospital was a Mediterranean Diet. Which tends to be low sodium naturally, healthy unsaturated fats, whole-grains, and a little bit of moderation. Since I’ve lost my teeth, it’s honestly really been a challenge as to what I can actually eat. Anything that is hard, or requires chewing, is an immediate no for me. So this will be a big work in progress on how I can stay nourished properly, staying within the limits.

Hopefully once I can rid my mouth face and neck of the infection I’ve been fighting, perhaps, I could consider implants again. I can definitely tell you who I WON’T be going to, but possibly get implants where they can be removeable. Which would probably be ideal in my situation. Perhaps for the upper teeth, I could do 2 sinus lifts, with 4 implants (2 on each side), then have 2 bridges built between them. Using a flipper is annoying as hell, and is near-impossible to eat with. Back when I had the implants in, it was super uncomfortable to eat anything.

As for the bottom, 3-4 implants where we can just snap in the lower denture. As much as I would love a full mouth of teeth again, it’s going to be a challenge just working up the courage to put myself through it again. Pomeranz really fucked up my head with PTSD just due to all the bullshit he put me through. About a year or so after the implants, the remaining 6 teeth needed some serious work. Getting me numb for the procedure literally took 45 minutes as I was freaking out every time the needle went in, and it takes a lot of Lidocaine to get me numb. I’m pretty sure Dr. Korscheil realized how much trauma I’ve been through.