Godt nyttår (Happy New Year) to all of my fellow Sudden Cardiac Arrest survivors and co-survivors! I have been fortunate to have six and a half bonus years of life after a cardiac arrest in 2016, two electrical storms in 2018 and 2019, and two less serious single runs of v-tach followed by single shocks in 2021 and 2022. After the first three events, I recovered well, but ironically I have been struggling a bit after the last two less serious episodes. Maybe the cumulative effect of five heart events has made it clear that my idiopathic heart issues are here to stay, and maybe it is the changes wrought by three years of the pandemic.
In 2023, I’m going to recommit to taking better care of myself by writing articles several times a week about helpful resources for survivors as well as about my own experiences with recovery. I hope some of these resources could be helpful to others, but I’m not a medical professional, and SCA survivors have unique cases that must be treated by their own doctors. Take a look at the framework for recovery I created and follow along as I fill it out during 2023.
The Hjertelig takk (Heartfelt thanks) website
Writing has been one of the ways I have used to process my experiences with SCA. I finished the main sections of this website in the early summer of 2022, including information about my story, cardiac arrest in general, CPR and AEDs, the chain of survival, and my CaringBridge posts. However, after my last event on Fourth of July 2022 (not the fireworks I had been anticipating), I decided to create a framework or a toolkit for myself for recovery from SCA. While recovery is a new addition to the SCA chain of survival, I quickly realized that it is a topic that has been carefully researched in other contexts, such as recovery from other diseases and injuries.
Recovery Resources from Other Illnesses and Injuries
Websites that I have found especially helpful were created for cancer and stroke survivors, as well as for people living with spinal cord, brain, and burn injuries.
- Taking Charge of Your Survivorship (University of Minnesota)
- Your Life, After Stroke (The Stroke Foundation)
- Living with Spinal Cord Injury (Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center)
- Living with Traumatic Brain Injury (Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center)
- Living with Burn Injury (Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center)
Lifestyle Medicine Resources
I also studied several websites that focused on the various aspects of lifestyle medicine, created by well-known doctors and organizations.
- 6 Ways to Take Control of Your Health (American College of Lifestyle Medicine)
- Life’s Essential 8: Checklist for Lifelong Good Health (American Heart Association)
- 6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine (Midland Health Lifestyle Medicine Center)
- Undo It with Ornish | The Proven Lifestyle (Ornish Lifestyle Medicine)
Well-Being Resources
Lastly, I found many models for well-being in general, created by scientists, universities, and other organizations.
- Model of Psychological Well-Being (Carol Ryff)
- The Power 9 (Blue Zones / Dan Buettner)
What is Wellness? (Global Wellness Institute) - Six Key Elements of Psychological Well-Being (University of Sheffield / Steve Race)
- Shine Well (Cleveland State University)
- Taking Charge of Your Health and Well-Being (Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing / University of Minnesota)
- The Well-Being Course (Well Central / Canadian Mental Health Association)
- 5 Steps to Mental Well-Being (National Health Service, UK)
Based on the sites above, my study of resilience and mindfulness, and my experience as an educator, I have created a personal framework or a toolkit for recovery from SCA. This framework hasn’t been tested by anyone or approved by experts in this field, and it is definitely a work in progress, but it has been helping me in my own recovery and I would like to share it with other SCA survivors. I am interested in getting feedback and including others in the process of exploring recovery from SCA. Another site with a similar goal and some amazing podcasts is the Heart Warrior Project by Jellis Vaes, and recently Mary Newman from the Sudden Cardiac Foundation announced that a diverse national taskforce is going to launch the Cardiac Arrest Survivor Alliance (CASA) in 2023. This program is being developed by leading experts in the field of cardiac arrest recovery including scientists, clinicians, advocates, and stakeholders. In addition Morris Shanahan has written a thorough SCA Survivor Guide.
In the framework below, there is no prescribed sequence through the different dimensions or expectation that people have to work on all of these dimensions, but rather it functions as a toolkit with links to helpful information and activities. While I have included some general information about cardiac arrest and cardiac organizations, I am not a medical professional and this toolkit is not intended to provide medical advice. All cardiac arrest survivors differ and thus need to get individual care from their own medical providers.