Heartmates: A Guide for the Spouse and Family of the Heart Patient

This book has been very beneficial to me since my fiance went into cardiac arrest and was brought back. I will share this with someone else when needed.

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the recipient of an internal cardioverter defibrillator after experiencing sudden cardiac death. This book was a wonderful help to both me and my family in dealing with the emotions of coming so close to death. I highly recommend it!

Heartmates: A Guide for the Spousef the Heart Patient takes the loved one from the acute days of the partner's health crisis through personal feelings, issues and concerns, providing support for the "heartmate" as well as the patient. Relationship as well as family concerns are major topics of this self-help book. There is a thorough index, and the book can be read in one piece or in snippets as the heartmate becomes ready to struggle with the ongoing issues of her/his psycho-social-spiritual recovery. There is frank discussion of the most difficult issues, including the return of trust and intimacy in the couple's relationship as well as feeling isolated and crazy because of the grief that seems to be inappropriate because the patient has recovered. There is, since 1995, a companion self-help tool also available, The Heartmates Meditation Journal, an interactive healing tool taking the participant through a full year of recovery concerns. Both books are readily available, although the indication is listed as "backordered."