Senior Care after a Heart Attack

After a Heart Attack: 5 Essential Senior Care Tips

If an elderly member of your family has recently had a heart attack, we understand well the stress and worry that comes with helping them recover. Modern medicine has made great strides in helping seniors recover fully from heart attacks, but adhering to the strict aftercare process is absolutely essential in making that happen. The main goal, after a first heart attack is to prevent a second one while improving quality of life overall. Be sure to follow these 5 tips for senior care after a heart attack so your loved one can fully recover:

1. Follow All of the Doctor’s Orders

As your loved one recovers from a heart attack, following his or her doctor’s orders is absolutely crucial. The doctor will likely prescribe a list of medications and probably have your senior family member participate in some cardiac recovery appointments. Please attend these appointments with your loved one, ask as many questions as you need to and be sure to take notes so that you can do exactly what the doctor orders. This will give your loved one the best chance at a full recovery from a heart attack.

2. Make Home Life Easy and Relaxing

For the first few weeks after a heart attack, just going to the bathroom, bathing and dressing will require assistance. For several weeks after that, your loved one will still need to take it easy and not become over-exerted. They will need help with all activities including housework, cooking, laundry, yard work, and any other physically strenuous activities they were used to doing before the heart attack. Be sure to arrange for trusted help to attend to these chores so that your loved one can rest and fully recover while gradually taking on more activity as the doctor allows.

3. Encourage Heart-Healthy Lifestyle Changes

Regardless of what led to the heart attack, the doctor will likely insist upon some important lifestyle changes for your loved one. Changes in nutrition, exercise, smoking cessation, weight loss, etc. can be difficult to make after lifetime habits have become ingrained, but a heart attack usually provides a significant amount of incentive. It’s very important that you support these changes and assist your loved one by:

• Helping with grocery shopping, meal prep and planning.
• Helping them follow their doctor’s exercise recommendations—participate with them and you’ll feel better too.
• If smoking is an issue, help them attend smoking cessation groups and support them as they quit.
• Be positive and upbeat, encouraging them when changes seem difficult.