Episode 52 - Back to Work After a Heart Attack: Will I Ever Trust My Body Again?

Free 7-Day Mind Reset Plan for the first week after a heart attack ➡️ strongerafterthestorm.com/reset

Will I ever be able to do my job again?

If you're in the early days after a heart attack, it's a question you might not have said out loud yet. Not just the work, but being the man who goes out the door in the morning with his bait bag and flask. The one who earns, fixes and just gets on with it.

In this episode, I'm standing in a storm-blown wood where I work, among the tall larch trees that came down last weekend. It took me back to the three months it took me to build up the strength and confidence to return to forestry after my heart attack, and how my mind wouldn't switch off from what was happening on the inside.

Twelve years on, I'm still working in the woods five days a week.

Confidence doesn't come back all at once. It comes back in wee pieces.

Watch the video version on YouTube: search "Stronger After the Storm"
Weekly Reflection Letters: strongerafterthestorm.com/reflection-letters/

This podcast shares personal experience only and is not medical advice. Always follow the guidance of your GP and cardiac team. For clinical information, visit the NHS, British Heart Foundation or American Heart Association.

One steady step at a time.
Dougie

💻 Visit StrongerAfterTheStorm.com — the home of the podcast and weekly Reflection Letters.
📩 Each week I write an honest letter for men rebuilding life after a heart attack. You can sign up on the site.
🎧 Make sure to follow the podcast so you don’t miss the next episode.
⭐ If something in this episode helped you, please leave a review on Apple or Spotify — it really helps more men find us.
🤝 And if you know someone going through the same storm, share this with him. It might be just what he needs today.

Episode 51 – The Same Date, Twice

If you’ve had a heart attack, there’s a date that’s yours now. You feel it coming weeks before, every year.

Mine is the 19th of October. Twelve years ago that night, I woke at four in the morning in my cottage in the Borders to pitch darkness, a silence that was deafening, and a pressure on my chest. I was alone, and I didn’t know if I’d ever see my family again.

Eleven years later, on the same date, I did the second most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. I sat with my finger over the button and told everyone I knew about Stronger After the Storm.

In this episode I talk about both of those days, and what I’d want a man to know if he’s a few weeks home from hospital and lying awake tonight. Your date will stay with you like a tattoo on your arm. But with intention, you’ll get to it one year on, and many more after that.

Read the full Insight here:
https://strongerafterthestorm.com/the-same-date-twice/

If your head’s busier than it should be, my free 7-Day Mind Reset Plan is a good place to start:
https://strongerafterthestorm.com/the-7-day-mind-reset-plan/

💻 Visit StrongerAfterTheStorm.com — the home of the podcast and weekly Reflection Letters.
📩 Each week I write an honest letter for men rebuilding life after a heart attack. You can sign up on the site.
🎧 Make sure to follow the podcast so you don’t miss the next episode.
⭐ If something in this episode helped you, please leave a review on Apple or Spotify — it really helps more men find us.
🤝 And if you know someone going through the same storm, share this with him. It might be just what he needs today.

Finally Listening to My Body | Why I Stopped Ignoring the Warning Signs

The waiting is what turns something small into something serious

“You can’t drive yourself. I’m calling an ambulance now.”

That’s what the doctor said after I’d spent four days brushing off a cough while planting trees on a steep Borders hillside. I was new to the job and didn’t want to be the one who couldn’t keep up. It turned out to be bilateral pneumonia. A week in hospital, and three months before I was fit for work again.

This summer, out at work again, my legs went light, then my head. This time I told the lads I needed to sit down, and I phoned the doctor at breakfast break. It was a heart arrhythmia, caught early and dealt with.

Same body. Same instinct to push through. A very different response.

In this episode I talk about why so many of us wait, and how the waiting is often what turns something small into something serious.

If you’ve ever felt something wasn’t right and talked yourself out of doing anything about it, my free 7-Day Mind Reset Plan is a good place to start:
https://strongerafterthestorm.com/the-7-day-mind-reset-plan/

💻 Visit StrongerAfterTheStorm.com — the home of the podcast and weekly Reflection Letters.
📩 Each week I write an honest letter for men rebuilding life after a heart attack. You can sign up on the site.
🎧 Make sure to follow the podcast so you don’t miss the next episode.
⭐ If something in this episode helped you, please leave a review on Apple or Spotify — it really helps more men find us.
🤝 And if you know someone going through the same storm, share this with him. It might be just what he needs today.