Getting to the Heart of the Matter

By Pamela Harris

Getting to the Heart of the Matter is my journey through needing a triple heart bypass operation. I have tried to share my experience, how I learned and educated myself to understand the medications, healthy eating options, emotional and physical health and advice, and help anyone going through a similar situation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jun 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645366621

Pamela Harris

Pamela Harris was born the youngest of four children and is originally from the south of England where she grew up and lived for 53 years until immigrating to the city of Christchurch on the South Island, New Zealand, in November 2014. Pam is a qualified lecturer, holds a Bachelor (Honors) of Social Sciences degree, and currently works in the healthcare industry in New Zealand, working as an education manager for a large community care provider. Pamela was inspired to write this book after unexpectedly needing a triple heart bypass and wanted to share her experience to help others and their partners and families in understanding better the entire process from diagnosis to how to live a far healthier life. Pamela is a very outgoing, sociable, and positive person who believes that if fate takes a hand, there is a reason and that all of life is a learning process. 'Hauora pai me te ora roa.' 'Good health and a long life.'

Book preview

Out

About the Author

Pamela Harris was born the youngest of four children and is originally from the south of England where she grew up and lived for 53 years until immigrating to the city of Christchurch on the South Island, New Zealand, in November 2014.

Pam is a qualified lecturer, holds a Bachelor (Honors) of Social Sciences degree, and currently works in the healthcare industry in New Zealand, working as an education manager for a large community care provider.

Pamela was inspired to write this book after unexpectedly needing a triple heart bypass and wanted to share her experience to help others and their partners and families in understanding better the entire process from diagnosis to how to live a far healthier life.

Pamela is a very outgoing, sociable, and positive person who believes that if fate takes a hand, there is a reason and that all of life is a learning process.

‘Hauora pai me te ora roa.’

‘Good health and a long life.’

Dedication

I dedicate this book to all fellow heart operation patients and their recovery.

Copyright Information

Copyright © Pamela Harris (2019)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Harris, Pamela

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

ISBN 9781641829953 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781641829960 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645366621 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019904263

The main category of the book — Biography & Autobiography / Medical

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2019)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my husband, Peter, who encouraged me to write this book and supported me through my operation.

Chapter One: Pammy Reborn, 2018

Hi, I would like to introduce myself to you all. My name’s Pam Harris and in early 2018, I had thought that I was just your average fit, active 57-year-old, quite-slim working lady, who played golf, walked regularly, and was in pretty good shape.

2018 proved to be not quite the year I had planned for myself and proved to be quite extraordinary. On 6 February 2018, just over a month into the new year, I certainly hadn’t ever expected to find myself lying in a hospital cardio ward, awaiting a triple heart bypass, but don’t they say that life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans, and that just about sums up how things turned out!

This is my story, my journey so far, and how I have taught myself about what caused my heart condition, medication, diet, and how I could ensure that going forward, I could live a far healthier lifestyle.

I have researched information and medications I was prescribed and compiled lists of recipes I found due to wanting to know more about what had caused my health problems, how I could change my lifestyle in the future, and ensure I was eating much more healthily.

I hope that you find my story, guidance, and recipes inspirational, interesting, informative, and helpful as you go through your own journey back to full health and a brighter positive future.

Please also bear in mind that each case is individual and for every one of us, we need to seek guidance and follow a medical professional’s advice, as they always seek to ensure that our health is paramount, and any medications prescribed are deemed more beneficial than detrimental.

Chapter Two: Intuition

Intuition is the strangest thing, isn’t it? Don’t ever ignore it!

I think I had been banging on about not feeling great for quite a while, not just for weeks or months, but thinking back for a number of years, gut feeling, call it what you will, there was just always this feeling within me.

I now live with my husband, Pete, in Christchurch on the South Island, New Zealand, where I underwent my heart bypass surgery.

Until November 2014, I had been living in the UK for 53 years and when I think back now, from as far back as my teens, something has never felt quite right, but I’ve never been able to explain it away. I was tested for reflux problems in my late teens but with the threat of a gastroscopy looming over me, that was enough to send me running to the pharmacy and never going back to follow-ups that may have revealed later what turned to be a very serious health issue.

I have always led quite a healthy life, given birth to four beautiful children with no real difficulties, worked most of my adult life, and trained as a fitness instructor, qualifying at the age of 36, teaching regular fitness classes, and always swam and been involved in some sort of healthy activity.

My oldest son, Michael, still recalls and reminds me how it made him laugh watching me take off on yet another mumma power walk.

I have had relatively few health