I had a heart attack at 47, and for the first few minutes I honestly…

I had a heart attack at 47, and for the first few minutes I honestly didn’t believe it was happening. Then it very much was. Afterward I did what my doctors told me. I took my statin every day, and I still do, because it’s a big part of why I’m around to write this. But in the months that followed I felt off. Tired in a way coffee couldn’t touch, achy, not quite myself. I couldn’t tell what was the medication, what was getting older, and what was all in my head, and a ten-minute appointment wasn’t going to untangle it. So I started reading, and before long I had a counter full of supplement bottles I took whenever I remembered. Eventually my wife and I turned all that trial and error into a small company, onlyone™ Heart, mostly because we figured other people were stuck in the same spot. Seven years on, the biggest thing I’ve learned is that surviving is only the first part. The rest is staying close to your doctor, taking your meds, asking the annoying questions, and not quietly accepting “worn down” as your new normal.