Some people have told me I have been lucky and though it didn't seem like it at the time, they were probably right. The first time back in June 1997, my GP told me back in January that my cholesterol was 'a bit high' (8.7) and that I should watch my diet, I did - but not enough. Early in June just after the Bank Holiday walking to work (about a mile each way) I suffered from what I thought was a very bad 'stomach' ache. My GP saw me within 2 hours handed me a letter and told me to go to A&E for a "check up", which I thought was overkill, I thought I just needed some medicine. After about 4 hours, I was examined and sent directly to Intensive Care for three days then transferred to the ward and had my first stent some days later. A nurse told me that "if I was going to have a heart attack then A&E was the best place to be."
On August 4th last year (just over 20 years later) I woke up early - about 4.30am, careful not to disturb my wife crept downstairs to the patio grabbed a bowl of cereal sat down in the warm morning sunshine and read the rest of yesterday's paper. Within two hours I was strapped into the ambulance, blue light flashing on my way to the operating theatre. By 9.30am I was on the ward to learn that I had three new stents plus another squeezed inside the old one. My cholesterol was 3.8, so high cholesterol hadn't been the primary problem this time. A number of heart patients including me were put on a Cardiac Rehabilitation Programme about 10 weeks later, which was strenuous but seemed to do us all a power of good, despite some of our initial reservations! On the units recommendation I plan to join an approved local course later this month. Do we ignore the warning signs of an impending heart attack, or are many of the symptoms just difficult to recognise?
Working out my Maximum Heart Rate after a heart attack
Non typical symptoms of a heart attack 
exercise after heart attack
stent one week later dead of heart attack 
Post heart attack medication 
