How will heart disease impact my partner?
Heart disease like many other conditions, affects the whole family. And it's important to realize that your partner will be affected by your heart disease just as you are. In many cases, partners feel guilty for not having provided a healthy lifestyle or circumstances in which you could have avoided heart disease. Partners often are worried about you. Partners often feel that you are more fragile than in fact you are. And it's important to let your partner, as well as yourself, have a good relationship with your health care provider, so that all of those issues can be talked out, and everyone can be comfortable about what your activities are and what your lifestyle changes may need to be. It's particularly important that you take responsibility for your health care and lifestyle and not count on your partner to do that. For a partner to be put in the circumstance of nagging you to do things, it'll almost never work. Partners often feel like they need to do that if they see you slipping off to get that extra piece of pie or not exercising. Your partner may feel that they are guilty if they don't remind you to do that. But, you know, grown ups don't like to be told what to do. You won't want to be told what to do and your partner will be in an awkward position if they try to do that. Hopefully your physician will give your partner advice about leaving the decisions to you. They are, after all, your decisions. You're the one in control and in charge of your life. The partner can be a support, can be a help, but don't count on them to make decisions for you.
