Prioritise Your Health

Steve Watton, Integrated Projects Lead in the @one Alliance had always prioritized his health, enjoying running and football as well as keeping up his busy work schedule. Steve shares his thoughts following his heart attack early last year.

‘‘It’s a warning’, ‘Now you’ll have to slow down’, ‘Are you going to do things differently from now on’??????  Well, I don’t know to be honest!

My head is full of questions, not only from others, all concerned about me, but from myself.  ‘Am I all washed up?’  ‘What do I do now’?  ‘Is it going to happen again’?

Recovering from a potentially life changing occurrence is something we don’t normally get to practice!  We don’t repeat the situation, not on purpose anyway, so when it happens we will probably all respond in an individual way.  This is something which always happens to someone else, but this time…… It happened to me.

The biggest piece of advice I can give, is not to overreact, don’t think too much about it and do not let it rule your life.  Sure take the advice of the experts, take the medication and listen to the loved ones who care about you most.  But the best thing is to try and still be yourself, do the things you like doing, even playing football, tennis and driving racing cars, just maybe to a little less intensity sometimes.

So if next time it happens to you, so, so what.  You survived, keep it in perspective.  You don’t have to prove anything to others, just settle back into life again and be yourself, what ever that may be.’

Most people return to work after a heart attack but how quickly will often depend on the kind of work you do and your health. Steve made sure to look after his health first and foremost and returned to work after 3 weeks, working from home initially. Steve was well supported by his Occupational health team and his colleagues upon his return.

Steve Watton, Integrated Projects Lead, @one Alliance