I Have Coronary Heart Disease

I Have Coronary Heart Disease
By Ray Sammons
“I have coronary heart disease”, these five words never came out of my mouth - until the last week of my cardiac therapy sessions, June 2008. In the 1970s I developed high blood pressure and started on a long string of drugs to control it and in 1995 I had a mild heart attack. During these years if anyone asked if I had heart disease I’d always reply, “I have high blood pressure.” Or “I’ve had a heart attack.” But I’d never admit to having heart disease, never!





Even now, as I write about my experience, I find it hard to admit that I was in some state of denial about my health. I didn’t want to admit I had heart disease because that sounded really serious and there was nothing seriously wrong with me. My blood pressure was under control, by cholesterol was within normal ranges, and even after my heart attack I was not restricted in what I could do and it didn’t change the way I felt. Therefore I didn’t have heart disease, or any other disease. If I had a disease I should be restricted in what I could do and be under some treatment to make me better. I had none of these symptoms and therefore, in my mind, I didn’t have heart disease.

Perhaps it’s the word disease that sounded so ominous and caused me to dismiss the possibility that I had a disease. I’ve had prostate cancer but no one suggested I had cancer disease. We don’t say women have breast cancer disease.

When my cardiologist gave me a chemical stress test in February of 2008 and informed me I needed triple bypass surgery immediately I still didn’t equate that with heart disease. It was true I had 80-90% blockage in a couple of places in my heart and it was true that I’d not been feeling really good the past few months, but heart disease, no way. I had a body malfunction but I didn’t have any kind of disease.

Six weeks after my triple bypass surgery I participated in cardiac therapy three times a week. Each week we’d have a lecture and the last lecture was conducted by the head of the cardiology therapy department at the hospital. He told us he was a gynecologist that had triple bypass surgery in 1999. He took over the cardiac therapy department to help him control his ‘coronary heart disease’. There were those dreaded words coming out of that MD’s mouth, he admitted that he had coronary heart disease! He went on to explain that each of us in the room had coronary heart disease and there was no known cure. He explained that each of us have a malfunction in our bodies that causes the inside of our heart muscles to become rough and on these rough places cholesterol builds up and clogs our arteries.

He also explained that our bypass surgery, didn’t cure our heart disease, it only bypassed the most diseased arteries but the disease was still working in our bodies. He went on to say our best course of action was to eat a diet that would optimize our weight and reduce the cholesterol building in our arteries and we needed to exercise our hearts 3-5 times a week for 30-40 minutes. Our exercise required us to increase our resting heart rate 30+ beats per minute and to keep it at that level for the 30-40 minutes. A strong heart somehow reduces the artery clogging action of our heart disease.

After the doctor finished speaking I was, for first time in my life, able to say “I have coronary heart disease.” Admitting I have coronary heart disease has set me free to exercise regularly without feeling guilty that I should/could be doing something more productive. It has also set me free to not clean up my plate which is a deeply engrained habit that was established when I was a boy during the food shortages of WWII. My new freedom allows me to take a guiltless nap whenever my body feels tired. It has also set me free to ask for help to lift the heavy things my diseased heart is not supposed lift.

During the past couple of months I’ve had time to think about heart disease and I’ve decided that coronary heart disease is not the worst possible kind of heart disease a person can have. The worst kind of heart disease is sinful heart disease. Coronary heart disease will only last for this lifetime but a sinful heart, untreated, will last for this lifetime and the next also.

There are only two diagnoses for sinful heart disease. One is to be quarantined in Hell for eternity away from the presence of God. The other outcome is to allow Jesus to heal the sinful heart disease and to spend eternity in Heaven.

I know people that are in denial about their sinful heart disease just like I was about my coronary heart disease. They examine their lives and conclude they’re not doing/being too bad. Occasionally they feel a spiritual tug on their emotions but if they ignore the sensation it usually goes away. I know how that denial thinking operates.

I was a young boy when I first heard about sinful heart disease and I knew I had it. I accepted Jesus’ healing of my heart and for over 60 years I’ve enjoyed a clean heart and peace of mind – the kind of peaceful mind that money can’t buy because it isn’t for sale, it’s free for the asking.

The operation and therapy to control my coronary heart disease is expensive and temporary. The only known cure for sinful heart disease is free, effective, and permanent.