Guard Your Heart

By Esther S. Ajjarapu

It is said that without a vision, people perish. How can you have a vision if you cannot even get out of bed or have the energy to do your life's tasks? In Guard Your Heart, Dr. Esther S. Ajjarapu, MD, MBA, shares the most practical and essential information that is needed to guard one's heart physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She believ

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Aug 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781640889309

Book preview

Foreword

I am delighted to write this foreword, not only because Dr. Esther Ajjarapu has been a friend for over ten years but also because we traveled together on many missionary trips as we work and continue to fulfill the Great Commission. Dr. Esther Ajjarapu is a woman I value, appreciate, and respect for the person she has become. Dr. Esther Ajjarapu is giving, touches others’ lives, and volunteers her service to others who are in need, whether locally or on a foreign land. She has donated resources to poverty-stricken areas and helped with other humanitarian efforts and causes.

Guard Your Heart is a book with a mission. It puts emphasis on diverse matters that affect our heart daily and how we can handle those situations spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

This book will be invaluable to anyone who wishes to learn about the three aspects of a healthy heart. It is a rich source of knowledge, and it will impact your life if you choose to apply the information.

Tanya Blowe

Author, CEO of Tanya Blowe Publications

Richmond, VA

Preface

There has been an increase in mental health diseases and related suicides among teens and young adults. This book talks about how imbalance in emotions can adversely affect the body negatively and how to recognize symptoms and get help in time of need. I have personally experienced many ups and downs walking alongside my mother’s heart disease and have learned many lessons from patient’s perspective, which was quite difficult, and I have found for the first time what it is like to be a patient or a patient’s loved one. I have also recently experienced sudden loss of my husband, who never had any heart disease or symptoms and suddenly died of aortic dissection, which is a type of heart disease. I want to take this opportunity to share what I have learned so that the readers can also gain insight and help someone in need.

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to thank my entire family for being very supportive, and special thanks to my brother Dr. Samuel Ajjarapu for his contributions in helping me write this book.

Thirdly, I would like to thank TBN and Trilogy Christian Publishing Inc. and Stacy Baker for making it possible to reach readers who can benefit from this information.

Prologue

I am sharing my mom’s story as an example of heart attacks and how it can suddenly happen to anyone. Heart disease doesn’t discriminate.

My Mom’s Story

My mother had a sudden, unexpected heart attack at 3:00 a.m. in a small village in India, where they were doing Christian mission work. My mom had some of the risk factors, but she was on appropriate medications. After all, I have many patients that have had heart attacks, and I counseled them and treated them. I mentally scanned my mom’s risk factors for heart disease again. So why was I surprised when I heard the news? I never thought she would be one to have a heart attack, despite having the risk factors, because she was on medications, and she was being monitored. Once her symptoms were recognized, she still was not able to get to the hospital where she could get appropriate treatment because they were in a village, and she needed to get to a bigger hospital with facilities that can treat heart-attack patients.

In the meantime, my mom’s condition was progressively getting worse, and we knew, as well as the doctor, that she could die on the way to the other hospital. But we had no choice, so my dad arranged for the ambulance and transported her to the bigger hospital. Once she got to the hospital, she was unconscious, and the cardiologist put in a temporary cardiac pacemaker. He said that she was not out of danger. If she responded to the pacemaker, she would then have to go to an even bigger hospital because she needed bypass surgery. My mom couldn’t get to the right hospital in time, and her condition worsened. She needed a cardiac catheterization both to assesses the level of damage and to fix the damage.

In the United States, the time of arrival at the hospital to the catheterization lab is ninety minutes. The sooner you get to the hospital, the better the outcome. This is an essential key point for anyone having symptoms of heart disease (chest pain, shortness of breath, etc.).

Cardiac catheterization is a type of test that requires dye